Cat Hating Grandinetti Shot Down Again On Anti-Cat Legislation Here
by Mike Hudson
It would be comical if it wasn’t so pathetic.
Councilwoman Kristin Grandinetti, rubber stamp for anything her neighbor, Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster, proposes, Facebook gadabout and untiring champion for issues having to do with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community is still proposing legislation regarding what she apparently feels is the Number One problem facing residents of Niagara Falls.
Kitty cats.
Yes, little pussies, who have been known, on occasion, to roam freely within the boundaries of our fair city, sometimes defecating in flower beds and sometimes going so far as to rummage through garbage in search of the odd pizza crust or half eaten chicken wing.
In what may well be the highest taxed municipality in the nation and the most dangerous city in the state of New York, where unemployment is several points above the state average and the number of people living below the poverty line is an ongoing tragedy and scandal, kitty cats are the object of the spinster Grandinetti’s ire.
Back in April, Grandinetti’s anti-cat legislation was tabled without discussion when cooler heads prevailed and public outrage over her prejudicial views reached a fever pitch among the good, cat loving population of Niagara Falls.
If she’d have had a lick of sense, which she doesn’t, Grandinetti would have let the matter drop there. Have you ever been licked by a cat? It feels as though their tongue is made of sandpaper.
Instead, Grandinetti pursued the matter relentlessly, bothering people in the city’s Law Department – which emphatically has tons or more important things to do – and also at the Niagara County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which likewise has its hands already full.
She tried to re-introduce a slightly tweaked version of her virulent anti-cat legislation at this week’s city Council meeting, and was similarly rebuffed when her Council colleagues tabled the measure without discussion.
“I don’t understand the hesitation,” Grandinetti said in a fit of pique. “We went over all the language… We reached out to the community… We have spent three weeks, (Corporation Counsel Craig) Johnson and I, on getting this together, and I just don’t understand the hesitation.”
The hesitation, of course, is rooted in the reality that Grandinetti’s draconian legislation against felines and the people who love them would make national news and once again project the city of Niagara Falls as the backward, cultural backwater it actually is. Name another city in the United States that would threaten cat caretakers with fines and jail time should a particular feline be found urinating in the neighbor’s yard.
Grandinetti claimed to have involved SPCA Director Amy Lewis in the discussions, and Lewis admitted this week that she had indeed spoken with Grandinetti about the wacky legislation.
But her concerns, she said, were pragmatic in nature. Should Grandinetti’s proposal become law, “We wouldn’t have room for them all,” Lewis said.
Still, Grandinetti is sticking to her cat hating guns.
“More and more, this is becoming a bigger issue than it needs to be,” Grandinetti said.
Which is kind of comical, since the only one who is making it an issue is Grandinetti.
