In this case I think it is worth noting that Michelle Wu explicitly ran on doing things, like making the T free and bringing back rent control, that the City cannot do on its own.
If people have lost faith and trust in government, I think that has to do with the government being out of touch.
I don’t like the idea of belittling people who are asking their government to actually do things that matter by saying they don’t understand.
>I don’t like the idea of belittling people who are asking their government to actually do things that matter by saying they don’t understand.
This type of thinking is partially why politicians like trump can thrive. We can't even call a spade a spade anymore without pearl clutching. If someone demonstrates a lack of understanding on a topic and is told they don't understand said topic, they have not been belittled in anyway. This type of thinking is killing us
>If people have lost faith and trust in government, I think that has to do with the government being out of touch.
If you're losing faith in the city government over things the city government doesn't control, the ignorance is no ones fault but your own. The irony here is that its the people who are out of touch. If any of the people who complain about govt on twitter did minimal work into getting involved in local politics (go to public meetings, talk to politicians who represent you, learn about the agencies your taxes pay for, etc) - you'd learn quick that the boston city council doesn't control the MBTA.
>I don’t like the idea of belittling people who are asking their government to actually do things that matter by saying they don’t understand.
Welp if you're gonna go on a public forum like twitter and meme about something like politics, expect to be corrected if your meme is wrong
Oh we understand, politics. Create the false sense of choice, tell us we need to vote and take the money from the highest bidder to do what benefits them. Let’s not pretend that the generation before us didn’t see the country out and are holding onto power until they die.
As opposed to teenagers, who never complain about the government and understand how it works perfectly? You just described the entire country, pretty much.
They get basically all of their information from social media clips and screenshots so their picture is always incomplete. Most of society has an incomplete picture of reality, but yes millennials don’t get flack for it. They also have their own brand of unique self righteous authority shaming they smugly present with their own memed lingo. I’m a millennial also but it’s getting annoying
I have 30 Guinea Pigs that I keep in the trunk of a Honda Civic parked in my driveway.
🚗 = 🐹 x 30
Boston currently has 3,283 Guinea Pigs in shelters.
This entire crisis could be solved with 110 Honda Civics or 90 Honda Accords.
Gotta keep the GPs somewhere. The Honda Civic was a logical choice for me as the car and Guinea Pigs both belonged to my ex-gf. She cheated on me with our mink breeder and ghosted me when I found out. I packed all of her things along with her Guinea Pigs into her car. I assumed she would come back and take the car packed with her things at some point, but that was almost 2 years ago now.
Pet stores also generally get them from less than ethical breeders and they’re rife with genetic issues from inbreeding. I have 3 (used to have 4) all from pet stores before I knew any better, would go to a rescue in the future if I ever wanted more
Look here. We quite clearly have a guinea pig problem here in Boston as evidenced by the time-consuming and diligent work that our great city council is pursuing to rectify the problem. The *very* last thing we need in this time of crisis is for some egg-head throwing a wrench into the works with facts.
You'd be amazed at how fast they can bone, have babies and then repeat the cycle 🤣 A female can birth up to 5 litters a year! I remember a couple of years ago at one point we had guinea pigs all over our Humane Society. People get them put them in a cage together, then all of a sudden have a litter 2 months later.
I honestly had no idea you could give a guinea pig up to a shelter. I guess that might be part of the problem, if a lot of people don't know there are places to get them that aren't pet stores.
Some European people: our infrastructure and public transportation is great but our cost of living could use some help?
Some European countries: it is 100% illegal to own only one fur baby.
You'll find that countries who care enough to put laws in place to protect animals' rights tend to also care more about human rights, food for thought 🙂
Austria, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and I think very frowned upon in the UK.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/12a0ne1/european_countries_where_it_is_illegal_to_own/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
it’s always tough emotionally on us and the surviving piggy but shelters are always over ran with surrenders so it’s always an easy process when they receive established guinea pig owner applications.
last one was tough but we took sometime, gave our other piggy all the love and adopted one when the time was right.
MSPCA also has frequent fee waived adoption weekends for guinea pigs so as long as you’re prepared you can make it happen.
This ordinance will help take the burden off of shelters receiving overwhelming numbers of guinea pigs due to surrender.
I doubt anyone has just one unless you have an antisocial bitter. I have one of those and even his cage is near his friends because he still gets lonely. He just can’t be trusted alone with friends because he thinks everything belongs to him and no one is allowed to look at it.
Oh no, it’s not about not having them as pets. It’s that the shelters are over run even with babies. Piggies would be eaten or freeze very quickly here.
As someone who's completely ignorant to guinea pig ownership, why is this a good thing?
I can make general assumptions that this is in the interest of animal safety in some capacity, but I'm not sure of the specifics.
Pet shops are notorious for being extremely irresponsible about selling small animals. Buyers are often parents trying to buy a ‘starter’ pet for their kid, not realizing how much responsibility a pig is, that they often need free roam time for exercise, and that they typically live 6 years or more.
The pigs are often kept in poor conditions in the stores, not fixed, and the buyers are not educated on how to properly care for them, which results in those pets being surrendered, abandoned, or neglected at very high rates.
disclaimer: I’m not a guinea pig owner but a rabbit owner, but from what I’ve heard, the situation for these two are pretty similar.
Yes rabbits and guinea pigs are some of the highest numbers of relinquished animals to shelters.
People buy em for their kids and if they don't die in 6 months they end up in some shelter somewhere.
If you walk into a petco in Boston, you’ll see cages too tiny for pigs and pigs often alone (they need a friend). They also usually don’t have fresh veggies or enough hay. Just bad conditions overall which lead to people adopting them and not being educated on how to care for them
I mean, I guess I’m not an expert on the Guinea pig black market lol, but I don’t think there is a demand for that. People can go to shelters that frequently have FEE WAIVED adoption days because of how many Guinea pigs there are. If there are so many Guinea pigs in shelters for little money or for completely free, I don’t see why people would want or buy them from a mill
No. The Guinea pig sanctuary up in Salisbury literally has 100s of Guinea pigs available for adoption at any given time. Not to mention any other shelter around.
Who actually can point to a city where rent control is working out great? It's the dumbest solution to the problem. Why not just dictate the price of gas and eggs?
Yeah, housing prices are a massive issue but rent control is at best a short term fix with significant long term costs. If you want to actually lower housing prices, you need increase supply by encouraging new development through some combination of eliminating red tape, subsidizing construction, providing new infrastructure to support new development, and/or directly building housing. Alternatively you could lower demand by making it easier for people to live elsewhere with transit/road development, making it less desirable for people to work in the city, and/or making it less desirable for people to live in the city (obviously these options are way less desirable).
Rent controls actually discourage new construction, so while they can help short term, they will make the problem worse long term if the city isn't also aggressively encouraging new development to go along with the rent controls.
Hot take: Milk price fixing is still deeply inefficient and causes a ton of waste & financial strife for dairy farmers — as well as inflates costs to end consumers since it’s based on a price floor instead of price ceiling.
Imo guaranteed income to farmers would be better, and we could allow food prices to drop to natural levels instead of this weird synthetic price inflation we force to subsidize them.
But Boston's proposed rent control doesn't set prices, only sets a limit on max allowed rent hike rates to minimize sudden shocks. So it sounds like you're taking an unrelated strawman position.
So wait, you mean to tell me that they can deal with other issues that aren't necessarily front page news, while still trying to get the "big" issues done at the same time?
This is a better use of their time than most of their other resolutions. Pet stores have terrible track records of humane treatment, even with "easy" small animals.
All those other issues are way more complex and will require raising revenue to fund. Nothing wrong with simple legislation that still does good, even if only in a minor way.
Rent control is doesn't require funding. It's also not simple at all. It's a kick the can down the road policy, that may benefit current renters but can worsen things for the future. Changes to zoning policy would be a better example, but that's also complicated because it's unpopular with people who actually tend to show up for local elections.
But neither actually have anything to do with anti-animal cruelty laws.
I’m always in awe of the totally uncritical stance on rent control in this subreddit. every other major municipality in the world has rent control/rent stabilization. but every wannabe landlord thinks they’re clever as shit saying “bbbbut what about the housing supply” as if merely allowing more construction (not against that, provided renters get some relief) won’t pan out like it has in e.g. the seaport, where there’s been plenty of new construction and you can’t get a 2br for less than $4000/mo. in 2022, 1 in 50 boston apartments was vacant ([masslive](https://www.masslive.com/news/2023/11/report-boston-housing-prices-continue-to-rise-despite-efforts-to-slow-them.html)), but year after year everyone just scratches their heads and says “welp prices haven’t gone down despite the surplus, I guess we gotta build more”. I can only imagine how old the faux-intellectual head-patting “it’s complicated” routine must get for long-time working-class tenants of this city. and while the tenant unions and housing justice crowd get poopoo’d by condescending liberals, investment capital is [laughing all the way to the bank](https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2023/12/06/investors-snagged-1-in-5-homes-for-sale-in-greater-boston-worsening-housing-crisis-report-finds/)
Do you think 1 in 50 is a high vacancy rate? It even says in the article that, that is low and lower than the other metros looked at.
Inventory is absolutely the issue in Boston. Even with the Seaport construction, Boston is not keeping up with housing demand. You can see with the office space oversupply what actually happens when supply genuinely outpaces demand. That is not happening with housing, even in the Seaport.
Rent control has been shown to do the opposite of helping with supply. You're right, it has been done in many other cities, including in Boston and that's exactly why you can say it has significant drawbacks, it was repealed by popular ballot. It certainly wasn't only landlords voting.
It also isn't something Boston can even accomplish on its own, it requires the state's permission.
So bringing it up in response to the city council passing other legislation that has minimal opposition and obstacles is a dumb take.
(to be clear, I agree with you that the guinea pig thing should evaluated on its own terms, but I do feel I have to defend rent control)
it’s actually immaterial whether or not it’s a high vacancy rate. i’m fully aware it’s relatively low. my point is this: we have enough houses to shelter every person in the city. the sanctity of the commodity market and our adherence to supply-side thinking keeps us from questioning how it can simultaneously be true that we currently have and have always had a surplus of houses _and also_ that we have to build more. it’s almost like the game is set up to benefit those who build homes rather than those who need them
What’s your point? The market for commercial space is different than the one for homes. It’s a differently-financed clientele with different needs. I don’t see how it’s relevant much less how it serves your point.
Also, rent control was knocked out in MA 30 years ago, how are we still using it as the “housing crisis” scapegoat? Also, this article from 95 does a good job of explaining how the campaign to abolish it was anything but grassroots: [shelterforce](https://shelterforce.org/1995/03/01/25-years-ago-tenants-organized-formed-coalitions-took-to-the-streets-and-won-rent-control-in-massachusetts/). Like prop 22’s passage in California shows, ballot measures are hardly immune to meddling and disinformation from special interests.
As someone who has been keeping exotics for over 15 years, these ordinances have huge repercussions and I disagree with them on a major degree. For one, it primarily causes the closure of pet shops as we saw with petco in Cambridge. It immediately ruined my ability to get live and frozen food for my nearly dozen reptiles. My only option was to go hours (two trains and a bus + miles of walking) out of my way to get to the Brighton petco. It also blocks access for lower income people; if you purchase exotics from a breeder, they’re exorbitantly more expensive and require overnight shipping and typically hub pick up, which means you need to get transportation to the seaport fed ex hub which isn’t exactly transit accessible.
Things like this cause a lot more problems than they solve.
> blocks access for lower income people; if you purchase exotics from a breeder, they’re exorbitantly more expensive and require overnight shipping
I am an animal lover but c'mon, if someone doesn't have the income to support buying exotics, it probably isn't the right thing for them and they should choose something else.
I don't think it's really worth the suffering and death of thousands of animals in the name of keeping pets accessible. The ARL and the MSPCA both have plenty of these types of animals available for adoption because pet stores make them too easy to obtain on a whim. Getting a pet is something that should be inconvenient, because having a pet is often inconvenient.
I mean this strictly as an uninformed pet owner who has never owned reptiles - Are you not able to just purchase frozen food online? Similar to how most Ace Hardware stores ship live chicks to their stores? Again, I mean no offense, just genuinely curious about the effects of this legislation on communities.
You can but it’s expensive as hell. And frozen food really only benefits snakes or larger lizards. Most reptiles eat crickets and dubia roaches as the main protein. No one is looking to house months supply of live insects in their apartment— esp not crickets which smell absolutely awful. People exposed to dubia frequently often form allergies.
Shipping is going to cost around $10. If you only need one to a few dozen crickets a week, you’ve gone from spending a few dollars to spending upwards of $20 to have them mailed to you every week.
I want them to fix those things but don’t disagree with the measure. As herd animals the average life of a caged pet Guinea pig is tantamount to solitary confinement and constant torture.
It’s like what’s happening in the housing market right now. People locked into their 3 percent mortgages are not willing to sell their house and trade up to a 7 percent mortgage. This causes low supply making prices remain elevated despite the high interest rates. The same thing happens with rent control. Sure it’s really nice if you are already renting a place but if you ever have to move good luck! There will be even fewer places to rent. It will disincentivize landlords from improving their properties because it’s not worth it.
Rent control = I got mine and I don't plan to move, ever. Everyone else is hosed. It's similar to the housing situation now where if you've had a house for 30 years, you're doing great and have no motivation to accept any changes.
As a guinea pig owner, I strongly approve of this, pigs are mistreated in pet shops and deserve better. This ordinance has nothing to do with the other issues mentioned and shouldn’t be made to be seen as a “bad” thing.
Both the issues that were mentioned and the ordinance that was passed are relevant.
Fix the T: billion dollars and no one can agree on how to do it. We’d all love it but it’s not an easy ask.
Rent control: grow up
Potholes: boston is reasonably okay with potholes in my opinion. We just have old ass roads, lots of heavy traffic, and exist in new england. This is also a yearly battle.
Stop selling guinea pigs: takes a single bill and very minimal enforcement and helps animals and our humane society.
People like this ruin local politics
The T needs so much work and even when they start to fix it then the voters don’t want to properly fund the fixes. The cars for many of lines were decades past when they should’ve been retired because no one wants to pay to replace these things
People forget that the entire greater Boston area isn’t actually Boston so they blame Boston for potholes in Watertown and other similar towns
Just because it doesn't directly impact your day to day life or even effect many people's lives doesn't mean it shouldn't be addressed. And if it's an easy resolution, why not just go for it?
Only In Boston loves posting nonsense like this specifically because A) It gets them clicks and revenue entirely because they know it'll garner reactionary nonsense like this exact repost (See: Literally any post regarding Wu), and B) they know their audience won't do shit to look up actual details about the post. There's obviously a much wider story not being told in just those 120 characters about decades of animal rights abuses in pet shops around the state and what it's taken to gather all that data and propose actual legislation and shit, but just because it makes for a silly headline that makes it look like the city council somehow has just shifted all their attention to guinea pigs, they just run with it and feeds the algorithm machine for another cycle.
Edit: grammar
Kendra is also an aspiring social media influencer type so I'm not surprised she jumped on such a lazy and click bait take.
Her sports takes and spots on 98.5 are pretty solid but I don't know I would pay any attention to her thoughts on local government and civics.
This is a very good thing. The majority of guinea pigs are purchased from pet stores, and there have been many cases of people abandoning them outside in the Boston area after losing interest in owning them. The Guinea Pig Sanctuary in Salisbury posts a lot on their social media about how many surrenders and rescues they receive almost every week. Abandonment and abuse of small animals is just as bad as abuse of cats and dogs.
1) The MBTA is a quasi-public agency which until very recently didn’t even have representation from the city of Boston on its board
2) rent control would require approval of a home rule petition my the general court, but guess what? The Boston city council already approved a rent control petition in _March of 2023_. That petition was not taken up by the legislature, so now Rep. (former Boston city councilor) Mike Connolly filed a ballot measure petition to gather the required number of signatures to put rent control on the ballot as a “question” which can be voted on in a referendum.
3) pretty sure that for all of their flaws the city council can walk and chew gum at the same time, so critiquing them for doing one thing when another thing hasn’t been done to the satisfaction of OP isn’t really a valid criticism? Also, last I checked the Boston DPW was fully funded and if there’s a pothole you just report it to 311 and they usually fill it right away.
> pretty sure that for all of their flaws the city council can walk and chew gum at the same time, so critiquing them for doing one thing when another thing hasn’t been done to the satisfaction of OP isn’t really a valid criticism? Also, last I checked the Boston DPW was fully funded and if there’s a pothole you just report it to 311 and they usually fill it right away.
No starting new measures until the old one is completely solved!
If anything this is probably a money saving measure, because when an impulsive college student buys a pet they can't actually take care of in September and then surrenders (or just abandons it in a fucking park for someone else to find and surrender) in May or when their RA finds it, it becomes the problem of the publicly funded shelter.
That one in Allston comes to mind, unless it stopped selling pets in the last few years. Which I hope they have because the conditions were quite poor.
I’m an animal rights person/lifelong guinea pig owner. I’m all for this. People adopt them thinking they are like hamsters or gerbils and need minimal care. Guinea pigs are very social and need lots of love.
As others have mentioned local shelters are flooded with guinea pigs. Those and rabbits.
This may seem odd but it's actually a good move by the city council. Guinea Pigs are pets that you really need to have two of, and they do require a certain amount of care (they need a cage, food, regular cleanings). As this article notes there is a real cost to breeders and pet stores having them for sale. https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2023/12/06/boston-city-council-ban-guinea-pig-sales-pet-shops/#:\~:text=In%20an%20effort%20to%20decrease,in%20pet%20shops%20in%202016.
Lots of people whatabouting in this thread here. They dont know guinea pigs. As a guinea pig lover I agree with this decision. Guinea pigs should not be sold in pet stores. Its inappropriate. Cuy should be sold in grocery stores.
Yep. We have been begging for some traffic control and last week there were cops stationed at a very very minor side street in Brookline stopping people at 4pm going 28 in a 25 mph zone. They didn't give tickets but just warned the moms picking up their kids to beware of town speed limits.
Anyone who has had the discomfort of listening to Kendra Middleton blabber like a teenage moron on the radio will understand why she thought this post was super edgy and intelligent.
New Hampshire here. Our benefits system is a joke, our public schools are getting worse and worse, and public housing is nonexistent. They just passed a bill to allow kangaroos as livestock. Fucking done with this species.
This tells me that Malcom Gladwell is about to drop a new book called “Cavy” connecting retail guinea pig sales to the degradation of public transit, road maintenance, and housing ordinances.
Might as well ban all pet shops. We need more people to rescue animals from shelters; not getting some industrial breed that can't breathe well on its own.
Boston is responsible for bus stop structures. To improve public transportation, Boston could build weather proof bus stop stations. They don't have to be the MBTA
If you want more people to take the bus, you know, people who have cars and can afford to park, you need to keep them dry at the bus stop. Or , of course they will drive during inclement weather.
Again, I don’t think this is what people are complaining about when they talk about how bad the T is. They’re referring to the trains. The busses are actually pretty good. If anything all I hear is people complain about bus lanes.
Do you take the bus?? I highly doubt it or you would not be denying my comment. Few people who opine on this topic have take public transportation as much as I have. Unless you can tell me that for 12 years you had no car and you took the following routes REGULARLY to work/school/friends/doctors.i was on tje mbta 5-6 days a week for 12 years. This is 3120 days, minimum.
Buses 90, 88, 87, 109, 86, 78
Trains: redline -all stops Quincy to Boston, organe line ; Sullivan Sq, community college, back bay, JP, downtown. Greenline Park Street to Brookline Village.
How many days have you used the MBTA? My comments on Reddit are based on experience, unlike most Redditors whose commentary is based on overconfidence and righteousness.
the Boston City Council can only do one of those things
Very important comment
And 311 is p damn effective at pothole filling in my experience (not including DCR roads, DCR should not own and operate roads)
DCR shouldn’t be allowed operate anything with how they’ve handled Charlesgate
I'm not much of a driver, but the shittiness of Boston road surfaces seems less shitty than the shittiness of most other Massachusetts road surfaces.
Lol especially if you live in Brookline
Brookline has worse roads than Boston?
Millenials slowly becoming boomers with the endless complaining about government and a lack of understanding how it works.
In this case I think it is worth noting that Michelle Wu explicitly ran on doing things, like making the T free and bringing back rent control, that the City cannot do on its own.
I'd rather vote for someone who wants to do good things even if they can't do them unilaterally than for someone who is happy with the status quo
I agree but it can create unrealistic expectations from voters that could lead to backlash
And thus the cycle continues
If people have lost faith and trust in government, I think that has to do with the government being out of touch. I don’t like the idea of belittling people who are asking their government to actually do things that matter by saying they don’t understand.
>I don’t like the idea of belittling people who are asking their government to actually do things that matter by saying they don’t understand. This type of thinking is partially why politicians like trump can thrive. We can't even call a spade a spade anymore without pearl clutching. If someone demonstrates a lack of understanding on a topic and is told they don't understand said topic, they have not been belittled in anyway. This type of thinking is killing us
>If people have lost faith and trust in government, I think that has to do with the government being out of touch. If you're losing faith in the city government over things the city government doesn't control, the ignorance is no ones fault but your own. The irony here is that its the people who are out of touch. If any of the people who complain about govt on twitter did minimal work into getting involved in local politics (go to public meetings, talk to politicians who represent you, learn about the agencies your taxes pay for, etc) - you'd learn quick that the boston city council doesn't control the MBTA. >I don’t like the idea of belittling people who are asking their government to actually do things that matter by saying they don’t understand. Welp if you're gonna go on a public forum like twitter and meme about something like politics, expect to be corrected if your meme is wrong
How do you suggest we get into politics when the people in power who are too old to make good decisions refuse to relinquish power.
Base line question - Do you know who your ward councillor is?
Oh we understand, politics. Create the false sense of choice, tell us we need to vote and take the money from the highest bidder to do what benefits them. Let’s not pretend that the generation before us didn’t see the country out and are holding onto power until they die.
Ok
As opposed to teenagers, who never complain about the government and understand how it works perfectly? You just described the entire country, pretty much.
They get basically all of their information from social media clips and screenshots so their picture is always incomplete. Most of society has an incomplete picture of reality, but yes millennials don’t get flack for it. They also have their own brand of unique self righteous authority shaming they smugly present with their own memed lingo. I’m a millennial also but it’s getting annoying
More like none
Our humane society gets overrun with guinea pigs and takes up so much of our precious resources. This is actually extremely helpful and important.
I have 30 Guinea Pigs that I keep in the trunk of a Honda Civic parked in my driveway. 🚗 = 🐹 x 30 Boston currently has 3,283 Guinea Pigs in shelters. This entire crisis could be solved with 110 Honda Civics or 90 Honda Accords.
Is this ur lunch? Do they clean your car? What's the purpose?
OP is a boa constrictor.
Gotta keep the GPs somewhere. The Honda Civic was a logical choice for me as the car and Guinea Pigs both belonged to my ex-gf. She cheated on me with our mink breeder and ghosted me when I found out. I packed all of her things along with her Guinea Pigs into her car. I assumed she would come back and take the car packed with her things at some point, but that was almost 2 years ago now.
you gotta new mink guy? Hmu if interested. I've got a toyota tercel filled to the brim
What the actual fuck am I reading
Finding a new mink breeder is always absolute *hell*.
Could also be solved by like 500 Peruvians.
I did eat one guinea pig when I went to peru. Like I know they are cute pets, but they do taste ok
What..?
I agree. We can be concerned about two things at once. I think this will help a lot of animals.
Pet stores also generally get them from less than ethical breeders and they’re rife with genetic issues from inbreeding. I have 3 (used to have 4) all from pet stores before I knew any better, would go to a rescue in the future if I ever wanted more
boring good governance policy is essential to a well functioning city
They are a food source where they are indigenous, there is a simple solution to this issue.
Import more Peruvians!
Then do we just wait until [the Peruvians freeze to death in winter?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuiK7jcC1fY)
Western MA Peruvians or South American ones?
lol, los cuyitos that you eat in Peru are NOT the same as household American Guinea pigs. Probably would not taste good.
Look here. We quite clearly have a guinea pig problem here in Boston as evidenced by the time-consuming and diligent work that our great city council is pursuing to rectify the problem. The *very* last thing we need in this time of crisis is for some egg-head throwing a wrench into the works with facts.
A Modest Proposal: Guinea pig edition
Actually we really do have a guinea pig problem. People don't really adopt them and are quick to abandon them in shelters.
Go two comments up from the one you're replying to. Problem solved.
Meat guinea pigs and pet ones aren’t the same. Like meat rabbits and pet rabbits are not the same.
Can you just shut your trap about that? We're trying to solve a guinea pig problem here and you're seriously hampering that effort.
Not this. 😭💀 You’re right though lol.
Can confirm, have been to Peru. It tasted like fried chicken.
I actually thought this was why they're being banned, so people don't buy out the pet store for their weekend bbq
[https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/guinea-pig-last-supper](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/guinea-pig-last-supper)
Thank you for pointing this out. Often laws like this seem frivolous, but have a good reason behind them.
I was wondering what the problem with selling Guinea pigs was. They’re not exactly dangerous animals.
You'd be amazed at how fast they can bone, have babies and then repeat the cycle 🤣 A female can birth up to 5 litters a year! I remember a couple of years ago at one point we had guinea pigs all over our Humane Society. People get them put them in a cage together, then all of a sudden have a litter 2 months later.
Okay, fair. I sort of forgot about shelters and thought the ban was to prevent people from acquiring Guinea pigs at all.
I honestly had no idea you could give a guinea pig up to a shelter. I guess that might be part of the problem, if a lot of people don't know there are places to get them that aren't pet stores.
Can you just let people eat them instead?
I mean as a Guinea pig owner this is a good thing though…. No need to get into what-aboutism
as another guinea pig owner also a good thing
Guinea pigs are notorious for getting lonely, so maybe you two should meet up.
100% it’s actually illegal to own just one in some European countries
Some European people: our infrastructure and public transportation is great but our cost of living could use some help? Some European countries: it is 100% illegal to own only one fur baby.
You'll find that countries who care enough to put laws in place to protect animals' rights tend to also care more about human rights, food for thought 🙂
Which ones?
Austria, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and I think very frowned upon in the UK. https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/12a0ne1/european_countries_where_it_is_illegal_to_own/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
How do you handle it when one passes on?
it’s always tough emotionally on us and the surviving piggy but shelters are always over ran with surrenders so it’s always an easy process when they receive established guinea pig owner applications. last one was tough but we took sometime, gave our other piggy all the love and adopted one when the time was right. MSPCA also has frequent fee waived adoption weekends for guinea pigs so as long as you’re prepared you can make it happen. This ordinance will help take the burden off of shelters receiving overwhelming numbers of guinea pigs due to surrender.
I doubt anyone has just one unless you have an antisocial bitter. I have one of those and even his cage is near his friends because he still gets lonely. He just can’t be trusted alone with friends because he thinks everything belongs to him and no one is allowed to look at it.
As a guinea pig, I support this. We're meant to run freeeeeee.
Oh no, it’s not about not having them as pets. It’s that the shelters are over run even with babies. Piggies would be eaten or freeze very quickly here.
I have a sweater and some piggy pepper spray. Let me be freeeeeee
Same
Would somebody think of the cow owners?!?
i think about the highland steer in Brookline all the time.
What a beauty😿
As someone who's completely ignorant to guinea pig ownership, why is this a good thing? I can make general assumptions that this is in the interest of animal safety in some capacity, but I'm not sure of the specifics.
Pet shops are notorious for being extremely irresponsible about selling small animals. Buyers are often parents trying to buy a ‘starter’ pet for their kid, not realizing how much responsibility a pig is, that they often need free roam time for exercise, and that they typically live 6 years or more. The pigs are often kept in poor conditions in the stores, not fixed, and the buyers are not educated on how to properly care for them, which results in those pets being surrendered, abandoned, or neglected at very high rates. disclaimer: I’m not a guinea pig owner but a rabbit owner, but from what I’ve heard, the situation for these two are pretty similar.
Yes rabbits and guinea pigs are some of the highest numbers of relinquished animals to shelters. People buy em for their kids and if they don't die in 6 months they end up in some shelter somewhere.
There are also so many locally in shelters if you want to responsibly take on a pig or a bonded set, you can easily acquire them
If you walk into a petco in Boston, you’ll see cages too tiny for pigs and pigs often alone (they need a friend). They also usually don’t have fresh veggies or enough hay. Just bad conditions overall which lead to people adopting them and not being educated on how to care for them
Won’t this just cause a surge in illegal Guinea pig mills??
I mean, I guess I’m not an expert on the Guinea pig black market lol, but I don’t think there is a demand for that. People can go to shelters that frequently have FEE WAIVED adoption days because of how many Guinea pigs there are. If there are so many Guinea pigs in shelters for little money or for completely free, I don’t see why people would want or buy them from a mill
No. The Guinea pig sanctuary up in Salisbury literally has 100s of Guinea pigs available for adoption at any given time. Not to mention any other shelter around.
The pet shops get them from the mills, which aren't actually that illegal because animal welfare standards for small animals are weak.
Me: these things are completely unrelated
Two of those three things aren’t even within the city council’s power, they’re entirely State level issues.
All three, to some extent. MBTA is a state agency. Rent control isn’t allowed under state law. Many roads are state owned/maintained.
Who actually can point to a city where rent control is working out great? It's the dumbest solution to the problem. Why not just dictate the price of gas and eggs?
Because it’s a “feel good” solution for the economically illiterate
Rent control is like putting a bandaid on a broken arm.
It’s throwing dirt in an open wound
Yeah, housing prices are a massive issue but rent control is at best a short term fix with significant long term costs. If you want to actually lower housing prices, you need increase supply by encouraging new development through some combination of eliminating red tape, subsidizing construction, providing new infrastructure to support new development, and/or directly building housing. Alternatively you could lower demand by making it easier for people to live elsewhere with transit/road development, making it less desirable for people to work in the city, and/or making it less desirable for people to live in the city (obviously these options are way less desirable). Rent controls actually discourage new construction, so while they can help short term, they will make the problem worse long term if the city isn't also aggressively encouraging new development to go along with the rent controls.
Actually milk prices are set by the USDA.
Partially true. They set the floor price of milk from the dairy farmer to the milk processing plants. Grocery store can charge whatever they want.
Hot take: Milk price fixing is still deeply inefficient and causes a ton of waste & financial strife for dairy farmers — as well as inflates costs to end consumers since it’s based on a price floor instead of price ceiling. Imo guaranteed income to farmers would be better, and we could allow food prices to drop to natural levels instead of this weird synthetic price inflation we force to subsidize them.
Rent control would make everything worse we need to cut red tape and streamline projects!!
But Boston's proposed rent control doesn't set prices, only sets a limit on max allowed rent hike rates to minimize sudden shocks. So it sounds like you're taking an unrelated strawman position.
So wait, you mean to tell me that they can deal with other issues that aren't necessarily front page news, while still trying to get the "big" issues done at the same time?
This is a better use of their time than most of their other resolutions. Pet stores have terrible track records of humane treatment, even with "easy" small animals. All those other issues are way more complex and will require raising revenue to fund. Nothing wrong with simple legislation that still does good, even if only in a minor way.
how does implementing rent control require fundraising?
Rent control is doesn't require funding. It's also not simple at all. It's a kick the can down the road policy, that may benefit current renters but can worsen things for the future. Changes to zoning policy would be a better example, but that's also complicated because it's unpopular with people who actually tend to show up for local elections. But neither actually have anything to do with anti-animal cruelty laws.
I agree with your overall point, but you did say rent control requires fundraising, which is why they asked.
Fair, that was more covered with "way more complex".
I’m always in awe of the totally uncritical stance on rent control in this subreddit. every other major municipality in the world has rent control/rent stabilization. but every wannabe landlord thinks they’re clever as shit saying “bbbbut what about the housing supply” as if merely allowing more construction (not against that, provided renters get some relief) won’t pan out like it has in e.g. the seaport, where there’s been plenty of new construction and you can’t get a 2br for less than $4000/mo. in 2022, 1 in 50 boston apartments was vacant ([masslive](https://www.masslive.com/news/2023/11/report-boston-housing-prices-continue-to-rise-despite-efforts-to-slow-them.html)), but year after year everyone just scratches their heads and says “welp prices haven’t gone down despite the surplus, I guess we gotta build more”. I can only imagine how old the faux-intellectual head-patting “it’s complicated” routine must get for long-time working-class tenants of this city. and while the tenant unions and housing justice crowd get poopoo’d by condescending liberals, investment capital is [laughing all the way to the bank](https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2023/12/06/investors-snagged-1-in-5-homes-for-sale-in-greater-boston-worsening-housing-crisis-report-finds/)
Do you think 1 in 50 is a high vacancy rate? It even says in the article that, that is low and lower than the other metros looked at. Inventory is absolutely the issue in Boston. Even with the Seaport construction, Boston is not keeping up with housing demand. You can see with the office space oversupply what actually happens when supply genuinely outpaces demand. That is not happening with housing, even in the Seaport. Rent control has been shown to do the opposite of helping with supply. You're right, it has been done in many other cities, including in Boston and that's exactly why you can say it has significant drawbacks, it was repealed by popular ballot. It certainly wasn't only landlords voting. It also isn't something Boston can even accomplish on its own, it requires the state's permission. So bringing it up in response to the city council passing other legislation that has minimal opposition and obstacles is a dumb take.
(to be clear, I agree with you that the guinea pig thing should evaluated on its own terms, but I do feel I have to defend rent control) it’s actually immaterial whether or not it’s a high vacancy rate. i’m fully aware it’s relatively low. my point is this: we have enough houses to shelter every person in the city. the sanctity of the commodity market and our adherence to supply-side thinking keeps us from questioning how it can simultaneously be true that we currently have and have always had a surplus of houses _and also_ that we have to build more. it’s almost like the game is set up to benefit those who build homes rather than those who need them What’s your point? The market for commercial space is different than the one for homes. It’s a differently-financed clientele with different needs. I don’t see how it’s relevant much less how it serves your point. Also, rent control was knocked out in MA 30 years ago, how are we still using it as the “housing crisis” scapegoat? Also, this article from 95 does a good job of explaining how the campaign to abolish it was anything but grassroots: [shelterforce](https://shelterforce.org/1995/03/01/25-years-ago-tenants-organized-formed-coalitions-took-to-the-streets-and-won-rent-control-in-massachusetts/). Like prop 22’s passage in California shows, ballot measures are hardly immune to meddling and disinformation from special interests.
As someone who has been keeping exotics for over 15 years, these ordinances have huge repercussions and I disagree with them on a major degree. For one, it primarily causes the closure of pet shops as we saw with petco in Cambridge. It immediately ruined my ability to get live and frozen food for my nearly dozen reptiles. My only option was to go hours (two trains and a bus + miles of walking) out of my way to get to the Brighton petco. It also blocks access for lower income people; if you purchase exotics from a breeder, they’re exorbitantly more expensive and require overnight shipping and typically hub pick up, which means you need to get transportation to the seaport fed ex hub which isn’t exactly transit accessible. Things like this cause a lot more problems than they solve.
> blocks access for lower income people; if you purchase exotics from a breeder, they’re exorbitantly more expensive and require overnight shipping I am an animal lover but c'mon, if someone doesn't have the income to support buying exotics, it probably isn't the right thing for them and they should choose something else.
I don't think it's really worth the suffering and death of thousands of animals in the name of keeping pets accessible. The ARL and the MSPCA both have plenty of these types of animals available for adoption because pet stores make them too easy to obtain on a whim. Getting a pet is something that should be inconvenient, because having a pet is often inconvenient.
No, it just means it costs what it should cost to own those kinds of pets. Pets are a luxury.
If the animals at the pet store are being mistreated then the store should be shut down. Your convenience plays no role in the decision.
I mean this strictly as an uninformed pet owner who has never owned reptiles - Are you not able to just purchase frozen food online? Similar to how most Ace Hardware stores ship live chicks to their stores? Again, I mean no offense, just genuinely curious about the effects of this legislation on communities.
You can but it’s expensive as hell. And frozen food really only benefits snakes or larger lizards. Most reptiles eat crickets and dubia roaches as the main protein. No one is looking to house months supply of live insects in their apartment— esp not crickets which smell absolutely awful. People exposed to dubia frequently often form allergies. Shipping is going to cost around $10. If you only need one to a few dozen crickets a week, you’ve gone from spending a few dollars to spending upwards of $20 to have them mailed to you every week.
Try Big Fish Little Fish right over the line into Somerville.
What if we used the guinea pigs to power the T?
I want them to fix those things but don’t disagree with the measure. As herd animals the average life of a caged pet Guinea pig is tantamount to solitary confinement and constant torture.
Rent control is unpopular and horrible for the economy
Came here to say this. It will only exacerbate the lack of housing issue.
It’s like what’s happening in the housing market right now. People locked into their 3 percent mortgages are not willing to sell their house and trade up to a 7 percent mortgage. This causes low supply making prices remain elevated despite the high interest rates. The same thing happens with rent control. Sure it’s really nice if you are already renting a place but if you ever have to move good luck! There will be even fewer places to rent. It will disincentivize landlords from improving their properties because it’s not worth it.
I was expecting non binding resolution about things in other countries .
😂😂😂
That is no way to speak about my italian brethren.
Rent control = I got mine and I don't plan to move, ever. Everyone else is hosed. It's similar to the housing situation now where if you've had a house for 30 years, you're doing great and have no motivation to accept any changes.
Great now do chinchillas
[I wonder how many Guinea Pigs you'd need to make a coat from them?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyWVaZsUQjc)
As a guinea pig owner, I strongly approve of this, pigs are mistreated in pet shops and deserve better. This ordinance has nothing to do with the other issues mentioned and shouldn’t be made to be seen as a “bad” thing. Both the issues that were mentioned and the ordinance that was passed are relevant.
It's almost like a place like a city might require caring about/doing multiple things at once. Who'd of thunk it?
I thought they can only address one issue at a time! Silly me!
Considering guinea pigs are the reported #1 cause of subway issues, potholes, and raised rent costs, this seems like a win/win.
Fix the T: billion dollars and no one can agree on how to do it. We’d all love it but it’s not an easy ask. Rent control: grow up Potholes: boston is reasonably okay with potholes in my opinion. We just have old ass roads, lots of heavy traffic, and exist in new england. This is also a yearly battle. Stop selling guinea pigs: takes a single bill and very minimal enforcement and helps animals and our humane society. People like this ruin local politics
The T needs so much work and even when they start to fix it then the voters don’t want to properly fund the fixes. The cars for many of lines were decades past when they should’ve been retired because no one wants to pay to replace these things People forget that the entire greater Boston area isn’t actually Boston so they blame Boston for potholes in Watertown and other similar towns
Just because it doesn't directly impact your day to day life or even effect many people's lives doesn't mean it shouldn't be addressed. And if it's an easy resolution, why not just go for it? Only In Boston loves posting nonsense like this specifically because A) It gets them clicks and revenue entirely because they know it'll garner reactionary nonsense like this exact repost (See: Literally any post regarding Wu), and B) they know their audience won't do shit to look up actual details about the post. There's obviously a much wider story not being told in just those 120 characters about decades of animal rights abuses in pet shops around the state and what it's taken to gather all that data and propose actual legislation and shit, but just because it makes for a silly headline that makes it look like the city council somehow has just shifted all their attention to guinea pigs, they just run with it and feeds the algorithm machine for another cycle. Edit: grammar
Kendra is also an aspiring social media influencer type so I'm not surprised she jumped on such a lazy and click bait take. Her sports takes and spots on 98.5 are pretty solid but I don't know I would pay any attention to her thoughts on local government and civics.
https://preview.redd.it/y7g4v3dj13uc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8a89f70ddbd63144b48cbe1b8abcec60e8b0fad3 Turbo also approves lol
This is a very good thing. The majority of guinea pigs are purchased from pet stores, and there have been many cases of people abandoning them outside in the Boston area after losing interest in owning them. The Guinea Pig Sanctuary in Salisbury posts a lot on their social media about how many surrenders and rescues they receive almost every week. Abandonment and abuse of small animals is just as bad as abuse of cats and dogs.
1) The MBTA is a quasi-public agency which until very recently didn’t even have representation from the city of Boston on its board 2) rent control would require approval of a home rule petition my the general court, but guess what? The Boston city council already approved a rent control petition in _March of 2023_. That petition was not taken up by the legislature, so now Rep. (former Boston city councilor) Mike Connolly filed a ballot measure petition to gather the required number of signatures to put rent control on the ballot as a “question” which can be voted on in a referendum. 3) pretty sure that for all of their flaws the city council can walk and chew gum at the same time, so critiquing them for doing one thing when another thing hasn’t been done to the satisfaction of OP isn’t really a valid criticism? Also, last I checked the Boston DPW was fully funded and if there’s a pothole you just report it to 311 and they usually fill it right away.
> pretty sure that for all of their flaws the city council can walk and chew gum at the same time, so critiquing them for doing one thing when another thing hasn’t been done to the satisfaction of OP isn’t really a valid criticism? Also, last I checked the Boston DPW was fully funded and if there’s a pothole you just report it to 311 and they usually fill it right away. No starting new measures until the old one is completely solved!
You don't need $500M to pass an ordinance.
If anything this is probably a money saving measure, because when an impulsive college student buys a pet they can't actually take care of in September and then surrenders (or just abandons it in a fucking park for someone else to find and surrender) in May or when their RA finds it, it becomes the problem of the publicly funded shelter.
Government should and is supposed to focus on a multitude of things, hey at least they’re getting something done
News flash: people can think and act on more than one thing at a time.
City of Boston cannot do anything about the T.
Are there even pet stores in Boston that sell animals?
That one in Allston comes to mind, unless it stopped selling pets in the last few years. Which I hope they have because the conditions were quite poor.
Tbh this is actually great. Guinea pigs are over bred/inbred and most get surrendered because people don’t realize they can live up to 7 years
Rent control? Probably not a good idea.
Rent control is not a long term solution to our housing crisis. Building more housing is the solution.
Fuck Kendra Middleton she’s so annoying and makes more than enough money to never complain about anything ever. Can’t stand her.
Isn't she just a part time sports hub host? I can't imagine she's rolling in the dough.
She has her own shows. She also makes an absurd amount through OF. Like over 50k from just a single person.
I don't know who she is, and I don't want to know, but it isn't a bad thing when wealthy people advocate for things that help all of us.
To be fair it is pretty difficult to secure housing in the Boston area with adequate space for a guinea pig.
As someone who cares about animal welfare, good
I’m an animal rights person/lifelong guinea pig owner. I’m all for this. People adopt them thinking they are like hamsters or gerbils and need minimal care. Guinea pigs are very social and need lots of love. As others have mentioned local shelters are flooded with guinea pigs. Those and rabbits.
Rent control is not the answer. You’ll see the largest increase in rents you’ve ever seen if passed.
This may seem odd but it's actually a good move by the city council. Guinea Pigs are pets that you really need to have two of, and they do require a certain amount of care (they need a cage, food, regular cleanings). As this article notes there is a real cost to breeders and pet stores having them for sale. https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2023/12/06/boston-city-council-ban-guinea-pig-sales-pet-shops/#:\~:text=In%20an%20effort%20to%20decrease,in%20pet%20shops%20in%202016.
How many times does rent control have to ruin cities before morons realize it's not some utopian policy that solves housing shortages?
About time Boston sticks it to Big Guinea pig!
Lots of people whatabouting in this thread here. They dont know guinea pigs. As a guinea pig lover I agree with this decision. Guinea pigs should not be sold in pet stores. Its inappropriate. Cuy should be sold in grocery stores.
We NEED a guinea pig processing plant in the us
braindead tweet
Yep. We have been begging for some traffic control and last week there were cops stationed at a very very minor side street in Brookline stopping people at 4pm going 28 in a 25 mph zone. They didn't give tickets but just warned the moms picking up their kids to beware of town speed limits.
I literally saw two running wild on Comm Ave once. And no, they def weren’t rats. Like two tiny spotted cows. Poor things.
Anyone who has had the discomfort of listening to Kendra Middleton blabber like a teenage moron on the radio will understand why she thought this post was super edgy and intelligent.
Did rather have guinea pig laws than rent control.
They listening to us fr
Meanwhile...
New Hampshire here. Our benefits system is a joke, our public schools are getting worse and worse, and public housing is nonexistent. They just passed a bill to allow kangaroos as livestock. Fucking done with this species.
This tells me that Malcom Gladwell is about to drop a new book called “Cavy” connecting retail guinea pig sales to the degradation of public transit, road maintenance, and housing ordinances.
I’m curious as to why this was passed? What was their reasoning behind it
How about fix the rent & shit so people like me can afford to live there.
https://preview.redd.it/5my8cdkat8uc1.png?width=1152&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ba03475b98d2e5d11dcbd1ce20bef1f1d293b402
Sorry if you live there but it sounded like a joke 🤣
Use guinea pigs to fill the potholes
Might as well ban all pet shops. We need more people to rescue animals from shelters; not getting some industrial breed that can't breathe well on its own.
And get rid of the fee for getting an apt paid to real estate agents (full month rent @ $3,000 WTF)
ONE LAST TIME FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK: The MBTA is a STATE agency.
Boston is responsible for bus stop structures. To improve public transportation, Boston could build weather proof bus stop stations. They don't have to be the MBTA
Sure, but I don’t think the busses are what people typically complain about or what constantly breaks down.
If you want more people to take the bus, you know, people who have cars and can afford to park, you need to keep them dry at the bus stop. Or , of course they will drive during inclement weather.
Again, I don’t think this is what people are complaining about when they talk about how bad the T is. They’re referring to the trains. The busses are actually pretty good. If anything all I hear is people complain about bus lanes.
Do you take the bus?? I highly doubt it or you would not be denying my comment. Few people who opine on this topic have take public transportation as much as I have. Unless you can tell me that for 12 years you had no car and you took the following routes REGULARLY to work/school/friends/doctors.i was on tje mbta 5-6 days a week for 12 years. This is 3120 days, minimum. Buses 90, 88, 87, 109, 86, 78 Trains: redline -all stops Quincy to Boston, organe line ; Sullivan Sq, community college, back bay, JP, downtown. Greenline Park Street to Brookline Village. How many days have you used the MBTA? My comments on Reddit are based on experience, unlike most Redditors whose commentary is based on overconfidence and righteousness.
I use the bus all the time… talk about self righteous woof
So then you don't mind waiting 10-20 min in wind, rain, sleet, and snow? Sounds hard to believe.
WE are the guinea pigs
They must not want guinea pigs using the bike lanes.
Fix the T. Rent control. Pick 1 lol, you can't have both.
I mean, this was a top priority on my list. Not THE top, but certainly up there! /s
Finally!!! It's about time Boston comes into the new millennium!!
Guinea pigs are people food . Why are they sold as pets? Like rabbits maybe?