If you live in the United States (and especially in areas such as California or New York), you're probably already aware that it would be quite unwise for you or your children to operate a lemonade stand, or sell homemade food from your kitchen, without the appropriate licenses (and probably without insurance as well, just to be safe).

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld learned that the hard way. He and his wife and their kids had their lemonade stand at their East Hampton home in Long Island shut down by police officers in 2015. Unlike Seinfeld’s long-running show, it wasn’t about nothing: The town does not allow any form of peddling on its property.

Two years earlier, Queens police shut down a lemonade stand run by grade-schoolers because they didn’t have a permit from the Department of Health.

Link, NY Daily News: Your kid’s lemonade stand may be illegal, here are the rules

Or as Mariza Ruelas learned the hard way, when she had leftovers one day, the 37-year-old single unemployed mother of six posted a photo of it on Facebook and offered group members a 32 ounce plate for 12 bucks. However, one of those people she sold her illegal drugs !!homemade ceviche!! turned out to be an undercover investigator (your tax dollars hard at work!), and soon Ruelas got a letter in July from the San Joaquin County district attorney’s office.

The ceviche purchase was part of a sting [a sting operation... for real?! lol ] and the letter informed Ruelas that she was one of several people who were charged with misdemeanors for operating a food facility and a business without a license.

Most of the offers gave the defendants a year of probation, 40 hours of community service and $250 in fines. But Ruelas said hers was different – she was offered three years’ probation and 80 hours of community service. She said it was her punishment for refusing to take down her posts about the ceviche incident from social media.
Ruelas thought that was unjust, so she refused to sign the plea agreement.

Instead of changing their deal, court records show, prosecutors instead attempted to add two more misdemeanor charges to Ruelas’ case, pending a ruling from a judge later this week. If that happens, she could conceivably face two years of jail time — though it’s unclear how realistic such a sentence would be.

Possible jail time for selling an authorized ceviche?! Talk about regulation gone nuts, this stuff is just bat shit looney tunes crazy! But of course, we need the government to protect us from rogue ceviches sold out of someone's kitchen, you know, cuz it could be contaminated and kill you. And as you well know, that could never happen in a restaurant or other food establishment, well, except for those who routinely pay off "lobby" restaurant inspectors to look the other way.

However, upstanding "misunderstood" politicians such as Hilary Clinton still roam the streets free, wreaking havoc wherever and however she can. Lesson learned, next time Ruelas will know better than to sell ceviches without first donating either 🤑 money 🤑 or her 👶 new-born baby 👶 to the Clintons for one of their demon-worshiping spirit cooking events.

Speaking of which, perhaps this is also a great time to bring this back up again...

(Clinton Impersonator: If Donald Trump becomes President, He Will Kill Us All!)

One Year Later, and we're ALL still here,
certainly without any help from either the Obamas or the Clintons...

😂 S&L's future predictions suck almost as much as their jokes! 😂

So what's this all gotta do with Dog-Sitting?!

Well, as if all this burdensome, over-reaching, and economy-killing regulatory overreach isn't enough, now New York City apparently also feels it necessary to license... wait for it...

😂 DOG-SITTING and DOG-WALKING!!! 😂

People have literally been fined and prosecuted for "dog-sitting without a license"! Now, to realize just how outrageous this is, baby-sitting is still legal without a license, for the time being at least! So your teens can still earn some extra cash (nearly $20/hour now in NYC?!) babysitting, for now (just keep a close tab for regulatory "adjustments" in this area as well).

However, if your neighbors offer to pay you a few bucks to engage in the "dangerous practice" of watching over their shnowzer or tabby, you better be sure to first take some training classes, and acquire the "appropriate" licenses and permits, or else risk fines starting at $1,000!

No full-scale crackdown followed, but at least two apartment residents were slapped with violations in November and December for caring for pets without a permit. Fines start at $1,000.

“If you’ve got a 14-year-old getting paid to feed your cats, that’s against the law right now,” said Rover’s general counsel John Lapham. “Most places right now continue to make it easier to watch children than animals, and that doesn’t make any sense.”

Link, NY Daily News: NYC law that makes dog-sitting illegal without kennel license triggers rage from pet lovers

The law says boarding kennels include any “facility other than an animal shelter where animals not owned by the proprietor are sheltered, harbored, maintained, groomed, exercised, fed, or watered in return for a fee.”

Beyond the absurdity of requiring a license for something as basic as taking care of a pet, this law mostly hurts everyday New Yorkers.

As usual, it's got nothing to do with "protecting" anyone or anything, and more about collecting as many fines, licensing fees, training fees, and bribes paid lobbying by special interests:

Of course, there’s another knock against Rover from the existing kennel industry: It is significantly cheaper than traditional boarding. As The Wall Street Journal put it in 2014: “While it’s hard to find a cage in a Manhattan kennel for less than $60, rates on these sites [such as Rover] start at around $20 a night.” This is a significant difference for lower and middle-income New Yorkers, who could potentially be priced out of the market if forced to use traditional kennel services.

Link, NY Post: The city’s silly crackdown on dog-sitters

“I noticed New York City now requires dog sitters to be licensed,” Acosta said in an interview. .. “And they’ve actually started prosecuting individuals for illegal dog-sitting. I will point out that you don’t need a license to baby-sit, but you do need a license to dog-sit. So you wonder are all these licenses necessary.”

The city Health Department prohibits private pet sitters outside a licensed kennel and has cracked down on the popular dog-sitting app Rover, which works much like Uber by connecting pet owners with pet sitters.

A dog-sitting permit costs $70 for a “small animal-boarding establishment permit” and an additional $39 for an animal-care and handling course.

Acosta said the unnecessary regulation is part of a troubling national trend.

“There was a time not too long ago when only about 1 in 20 jobs required a license,” he said. “Now more than 1 in 4 jobs in America require a license.”

Link, NY Post: US labor secretary calls out wacky NYC dog-sitting rule

Bottom Line...

So, now that you are aware, be sure not to run afoul of one more of the thousands of ridiculous, conflicting, and nonsensical laws that make it nearly impossible for anyone to be an "upstanding citizen", and more like the delinquent violators of ill-repute we know you all to be.

I'd say at least "duck sitting" might still be legal, but I believe even that would run afoul of this law, as it seems to apply to any animals, including your neighbor's 😂 pet iguana! 😂

Finally...

And just be aware that the same tactics will be increasingly used towards those "involved" in that pesky crypto-currency mumbo-jumbo, so if you want to be an upstanding citizen, do it the correct way. Trade "regulated" bitcoin futures, and "high-quality" crypto-related stocks on the SEC-regulated public stock exchanges! 😂

(crazy "crypto-related" bullshit stock pump du jour, courtesy of the "SEC-regulated" public exchanges)

Link: How much would STEEMIT or BitShares be worth as SHARES on the New York Stock Exchange?!

As always, I appreciate your upvote, your follow and all your comments!