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# Animal activists bark up wrong tree in City Hall
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/animal-activists-bark-up-wrong-tree-in-city-hall/
- Published: 2004-03-15T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:01:47.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*You can still ‘own’ a pet in Santa Monica*

*By Daily Press staff*

Is that your dog?

Not if some local animal rights activists have their way. Local politicians this week considered legally changing all “pet owners” in Santa Monica into “pet guardians.”

“We live in a strange society where commercial corporations are granted the constitutional rights of individual personhood, but living companion animals are considered mere property, like a pair of shoes,” City Councilman Kevin McKeown said.

The effort to rewrite the wording of City Hall’s law was unleashed by activists from the group, “In Defense of Animals.” It ultimately died 2-3 at the hands of the City Council, with the majority saying the change could actually end up hurting animals.

Mayor Richard Bloom, who voted against changing the wording, said he worried the effort could be affiliated with the recent vandalizing of Jerry Greenwalt’s car and Sunset Park home by Animal Defense League activists. Greenwalt recently retired from his post as general manager of Animal Services for Los Angeles County.

397,“The bottom line is that the movement toward using the term ‘guardian’ is part of a larger movement amongst some people in the animal rights community and it concerns me where this all fits in, in the context of the movement,” he said. “I believe there are a number of directions that animal rights activists are taking and I’m concerned that the overall movement not take a negative turn that is ultimately destructive on the issue of animal rights.”

Some had suggested adding the word “guardian” alongside the word “owner,” so that the codes would read “owner/guardian.” But officials said doing that — as some other cities have — could make City Hall vulnerable to the same legal disputes and gray areas.

So the city’s top politicians made no action on the matter. McKeown and City Councilman Mike Feinstein voted in favor of the change. Bloom, along with City Councilmen Ken Genser and Herb Katz, voted against it.

2BC,“I believe there are good people and there are bad people. I learned this in practicing law,” Bloom said, adding resources should instead be focused on expanding the programs for spaying and neutering pets. “Good people are generally going to try to do the right thing, regardless of how something is identified.

“Bad people could care less whether they’re ‘guardians’ or ‘owners,’” Bloom added. “If a person is going to be cruel to an animal, for example, I don’t think that person gives a damn what their identification is.”

— John Wood

Richard Bloom

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*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 15, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/031504.pdf?ref=smdp.com)