Precious: "If only I could move to Switzerland!"

Just when I thought that Sweden was the best place on the planet to live if you're a dog (read all about it here), along comes Switzerland with the most amazing new dog-friendly law. This is really a dream come true. According to the Tribune de Genève, a Swiss paper with an English-language section, in an article called "Bern Leashes Animal Owners" anyone wishing to have a dog after September 2008 will have to take a course on dog care and pass a test! The law also includes provisions for other animals. Guinea pigs and parakeets will have to be housed in pairs or larger groups in order to provide them with the companionship that they need, and farmers who have a specified number of animals such as chickens, sheep, pigs, and horses will have to take a course in caring for them too.

Am I dreaming? I hope not. I have long said that adopting an animal should be a privilege on a par with driving a car, for which you have to take a test and obey all related laws, at the very least. This dog-care test would probably screen out people with anger-management issues and plain incompetence, but it would also bring up to speed people who mean well but simply don't know how ignorant they are about dogs and their care.

Take my neighbor, for example. I know he loves his dogs (well, in his own way), but he's a big drinker and, when he's hung over in his kitchen and his dogs are outside barking, his method for making them be quiet is to throw a lit firecracker out the window. Or my other neighbors who thought that they just had to take their dog to the vet one time, right after adopting him, and then no more, ever again. (I'm not making this up.) Another neighbor tied up his dog with a rope that was long enough for the dog to jump the fence, which, of course, put him in danger of strangling himself. One of my neighbors in my former neighborhood insisted on bathing her dog every single time he came into the house because she had white furniture, which of course caused the dog to develop an extreme aversion to indoor living. I've seen dogs provided with no shelter whatsoever, dogs forced to wear extremely heavy collars, and dogs with the tips of their ears bitten off by flies. I've seen dogs whose collars were embedded into their necks because the owners didn't realize that puppies grow, while collars do not. There is no end to the ignorance out there surrounding our dear, vulnerable canine friends. Sometimes that ignorance causes even more pain and suffering than blatant cruelty does.

So this law is desperately needed and sets a wonderful precedent for countries all over the world. The United States should be next in line to pass a law like this. No one should ever be allowed to adopt a dog on a whim. It should only be permitted if undertaken in all seriousness after due consideration and study―otherwise, it shouldn't be allowed at all. This would go a long, long way toward preventing cruelty, neglect, and stupid, tragic mistakes that hurt dogs.