Yes, There's Such A Thing As "Big Kennel," And It Wants To Kill Dog-Walking As A Way Ordinary People Can Make Money
A Manhattan friend of mine who earned a lot of money in advertising as an art director struggled with a drug problem. For a while, she was only able to pay her rent by working as a dog walker. This kept her from being homeless and allowed her to get straight.
But as with many of the ways ordinary people have earned money over the years -- dog-walking, walking other people's children, braiding black hair -- the state often steps in on behalf of special interest groups to make their work "illegal" without a license.
Colorado is the latest.
Jared Meyer writes at Reason of a woman who got in trouble after using the online site Rover to connect with people who wanted their dogs walked.
But according to the Colorado government, people who watch pets for money are breaking the law unless if they can get licensed as a commercial kennel--a requirement that is costly and unrealistic for people working out of their homes, often as a side job.This is not simply a case of an outdated law failing to accommodate modern technology. There are more nefarious motives--those of special interests who want to protect their profits by keeping out new competition. As Americans For Tax Reform's John Kartch argues, it is time to add "Big Kennel" to the list of special interests that support ridiculous occupational licensing schemes.
Lisa Jacobson experienced the wrath of the kennel industry and its defenders in government firsthand. She started working with Rover a little over a year ago when she was in between careers. Even though Jacobson is a single mother of two, she could earn money to pay her mortgage through the work she found with Rover. Because of her five-star rating and unique skills, Jacobson was soon at the top of search results and her client list grew.
Unfortunately, her success attracted the attention of a large commercial kennel in Colorado Springs, which filed a complaint against her. Then an inspector from the Colorado Department of Agriculture came to her home and told Jacobson that she was advertising pet sitting without a kennel license. The inspector said that Jacobson had to get a state license or take down her Rover profile.
That license is $400. To walk dogs.
The government has no business preventing consenting adults from doing business with each other.
I'll concede that there are some cases this is not true. We don't want your neighbor deciding he's a doctor and operating on you with his band saw in his garage.
And consider that Rover works like NextDoor, a neighborhood social networking site that I really like. You can connect with people and get recommendations of dog walkers in your area.
And get this: Gregg takes care of Aida if I have to go to a science conference. When we go away together, our friends Debbie and Glenn watch Aida, my wee Chinese Crested. I would never, ever leave her in a kennel. I'd stay home first. Well, there's a bill going through the Colorado legislature, and in a hearing for it, get this:
A representative from the state Department of Agriculture was asked if the commercial kennel license requirements applied to someone's daughter who was watching a friend's gerbil for a few days and a few dollars. Unbelievably, the state representative said that the law did cover this common, harmless practice. Colorado regulators are bowing to the absurd demands of special interests in the kennel industry and stretching the meaning of laws to take away consumer options and keep people out of work.
Just as it's becoming harder and harder to earn a living, we have states bringing down the hammer on entrepreneurs -- in the vested interest of Big Everybody. Having the money to hire lobbyists shouldn't mean you get to create protectionist laws that really only protect your ability to keep others out of your profession so you can keep prices high and competition low.
Big Kennel. Who knew. The Left used to complain about "regulatory capture", when the largest players in an industry gains influence over the government agency that regulates that industry, and then uses that influence to raise the price of entry into the industry for would-be competitors. Now that the Left has control over a lot of America's largest companies, we don't hear complaints about regulatory capture anymore. Hmm.
Anyway, yes, we've seen several of the perils of occupational licensing this week:
1. Using high entry fees (and sometimes license quotas) to limit competition.
2. An industry that ages, and doesn't respond to changing conditions because it considers itself a monopoly, until a disruptive technology comes along and gives customers another path to get what they want. Then licenses become worthless (e.g., taxi medallions) and people lose their jobs.
3. Compelling licensees to do things that the government wants done, but are unrelated to their occupation, in order to keep their licenses.
Cousin Dave at May 4, 2017 6:50 AM
Why are doctors an exception to your stated principle of favoring voluntary transactions? If you're dumb enough to allow a quack to bandsaw you open in his garage that's none of my business. One of the reasons medical care is so expensive is the incredibly long and expensive licensing process for doctors, as well as the regulations preventing nurses and the like performing routine procedures. If you think doctors should be vetted so (and I'm inclined to agree) fine but that doesn't grant you the use of force to disallow others' voluntary arrangements.
Texinole at May 4, 2017 9:29 AM
Completely ridiculous, of course. Here is my proposal for a national dog walking certification. First there is no charge for certification. The only requirement to get certification is proof of 500 hours walking a dog (you need that hands on experience, right). In order to verify the requisite hours, I, as an inspector, will need to see lots of pictures of cute, happy, exhausted puppers. After that you are good to go a certified dog walker.
Shtetl G at May 4, 2017 10:23 AM
Find sate senators who have children or grandchildren of school going age. Get their class a pet of some sort and have the kids take them home.
File a complaint. When the complaint is ignored everyone else caught by this law can sue the state for civil rights violations and each individual on the committees for personally
lujlp at May 4, 2017 1:06 PM
Amy Alkon is fighting the good fight.
Crid at May 4, 2017 2:20 PM
> If you're dumb enough to allow
> a quack to bandsaw you open in
> his garage that's none of my
> business.
You seem like the kind of quick & plainspoken citizen who'll bark right up if the patient of a quack brings infectious disease into your life with a trail from suppurating wounds leading to the garage next door.
It's very, very much your business. You'll have read in the headlines about the increase in antibiotic and antimicrobial resistance... We really, really don't want less-competent doctors.
We want the best people we can afford in those jobs, and we want them happy with their wages.
> One of the reasons medical care
> is so expensive is the incredibly
> long and expensive licensing
> process for doctors
This is much the lesser reason: The sex dance (and sex-swapping) of insurers and their regulators is the larger part of the problem.
Crid at May 4, 2017 2:31 PM
It seems more and more that things I did as a kid to earn money are now illegal without permits, licenses, etc.
Soon, it will be illegal to go to my neighbors house while they are on vacation and water their plants and feed their fish without the "proper" license.
charles at May 4, 2017 4:59 PM
Well, this makes me embarrassed for my state. Guess I'd better tell my neighbor who will be watching my cat while I'm gone to keep it to herself.
Daghain at May 4, 2017 5:24 PM
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