Going forward, I’m going to try to get in more of these quick-hit posts as news comes in through Pack News Wire.

Tonight, we’ve got stories about Jackson, Miss. banning roadside pet sales, an update on the decoupling of greyhound racing in Florida and Ohioans lobbying for tougher animal cruelty laws.

First up, the Jackson, Miss. City Council has voted to ban the sale of animals by roadside vendors. Good move. Good breeders don’t sell puppies and kittens to the public in the back of a pickup truck parked on Main Street. Too often, the roadside sales are by puppy mills or backyard breeders.

NBC4i.com reports – “There are currently five bills in the Ohio House to protect animals and a ballot initiative for 2012 to ban dog auctions.”

As an example, Nitro’s Law, which is in committee, would make animal abuse by a kennel owner a fifth-degree felony. The ballot initiative is the Ohio Dog Auctions Act. If passed, it would ban puppy mill auctions. An effort is underway to try to get enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot.

And I found a couple of important statements made in a My Fox Tamba Bay article about the effort to possibly end the state protection for the greyhound racing industry in Florida. Somehow, the racing industry has this ultimate protection from going under – through state law. A lot of businesses and industries would love to have that level of protection.

Quote from the story – “From a business perspective, this makes no sense,” said Young, in reference to the bill’s current requirements. “It’s not the role of government to decide which industry succeeds or fails.”

And then we have this so-what’s-your-point moment from Florida Greyhound Association, which opposing the decoupling bill –

“These bills are the results of the animal rights groups trying to kill dog racing. Many of the Florida tracks have jumped on the bandwagon with them because they see an opportunity to run poker rooms and slots without having to deal with dog racing,” said Yvonne Gurbada, the FGA’s treasurer for 22 years.

Of course. That’s the point. Greyhound racing has become a huge profit drain on the casinos.

And I’ve saved the best quote for last –

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The government mandates, according to Young, have created an artificial market for racing which will disappear if this bill passes. In an effort to further explain, she proposed a hypothetical situation in which the government mandated Nikon to continue manufacturing 35mm film cameras in order to insure Kodak has a market for its film, something that just doesn’t work in the world of business.

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Great example.