Dog and pony show

Those nannies in the California Legislature are at it again, desperately searching for constituencies to nurse, burp and dress in fresh diapers.

The Democrat-dominated body that sought to make spanking a crime, wanted calorie totals listed on restaurant menus and tried to allow workers to sue their bosses if they were abused by customers has another meddlesome measure up its sleeve: fining pet owners who don’t sterilize their cats and dogs by the time they turn 6 months old.

California lawmakers have tried to placate animal rights zealots before. They attempted to ban tethering dogs to trees. This latest proposal is a similar move to expand the state’s ability to intrude on citizens’ private lives.

Exemptions for breeders, hunters and farmers effectively neutered this legislation, which was supposed to limit the number of unwanted animals born every year. That might be a good cause. But in reality, measures such as this will make little dent in the animal population and instead will serve as mechanisms to expand California’s licensing bureaucracy and stick a select few citizens with a $500 fine if they’re unlucky enough to have their unsterilized house pets nabbed by animal control.

Like every other Nanny-State measure, this bill ccmes down to trust: Certain lawmakers don’t trust the public to make decisions they deem proper. Fortunately, this bill appears to be road kill — until next year, when it will be reborn amid a litter of other impertinent ideas.

That such a proposal wasn’t euthanized at once isn’t surprising considering California lawmakers have tried to ban smoking on beaches and force people to replace their light bulbs with more expensive “green” ones.

Heck, some lawmakers actually debated whether it was acceptable to say “hell” on the Senate floor. (They wouldn’t want to offend anyone.)

Lawmakers will learn soon enough what every dog owner knows: The tighter you make the collar and the harder you yank on the leash, the greater the chance that you’ll be bitten.

Here’s an idea for Californians, who enjoy the ability to establish state policy through initiative petition: Put forward a ballot question that asks voters whether they’ll support spaying and neutering their lawmakers. Clearly, this is a breed that shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce.