The Nanny State will not be moved by reason nor public uproar nor puppy-dog eyes in its mission to keep Slim Jims sanitary:
Cody, a chocolate Labrador, has for months greeted customers at the Clearwater BP gas station and convenience store at U.S. 19 and Nursery Road. A St. Petersburg Times story in November introduced thousands more to the jovial dog. And thanks to the wonders of the Internet, the canine’s drive-through window presence spawned hundreds of positive responses from across the country… But on Thursday morning, a state health inspector put an end to Cody’s stint as a convenience store clerk. Karim Mansour, the store and dog owner, received a warning: Remove the dog or the Florida Department of Agriculture would declare all of Mansour’s food products – mostly bottled sodas, Slim Jims and candy bars – unfit for consumption. Mansour, who adopted 6-year-old Cody three years ago, had no choice but to sign the warning. His primary violation: “Prohibited animals present in a food establishment. Dog seen in retail area.”
The health department suggests Mansour lock the social dog in a back room. Is it any wonder we’re all anti-statists now?
Support for a free market economy remains strong despite the extended recession and last fall’s Wall Street meltdown. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 76% of voters now say a free market economy is better than one managed by the government. Only 10% prefer an economy managed by the government. Those figures are virtually identical to the numbers from April and a slight increase in support from a year ago.
It’s one thing for government to operate so incompetently as to have lost more faith during this historically bad economic downturn than the markets they’ve been blaming for it all year, but to go after our anthropomorphic puppy cashiers? This is the last straw.
