Because of budget difficulties, the Muncie Animal Shelter has announced it will no longer accept unwanted pets. But that might not be effective in the long run, because many of those unwanted and turned away pets might become the very stray animals that the shelter is required to pick up:
Pet owners must figure out what to do with their animals, shelter Supt. Linda Bir-Conn said.
"I think every animal was somebody's pet at one point in time," Bir-Conn said. "I think irresponsible pet owners is the reason we have strays and have to have animal shelters in the first place."
We like to think government exists mostly to do the things collectively that we can't do individually and provide a safety net for those in dire circumstances. But how much of government is devoted to cleaning up after people who can't be trusted to do what they're supposed to do? There's a lot more "protect" than "serve" in the mission of police.
