I’m Glad I Just Payed That Fine To Keep You From Dying Of Boredom, City Of Winnipeg Animal Services Guy
by Cookie
Yesterday afternoon, as I was tackling the never ending task of laundry, the doorbell rang. I was little bit irritated, because I have one of those signs that basically says ” I don’t want your shit so fuck off” (in a nice way), and people always seem to think it doesn’t apply to them.
Well it certainly applied to this asshole.
It turned out to be someone from Animal Services. I opened the door, completely confused. My dogs were well behaved, both sleeping on the couch. They hadn’t bitten anyone. I didn’t let them outside to bark and annoy my neighbours and they were both up to date on all their vaccinations and they were registered.
Or so I thought.
Somewhere along the way, between one job or one kid, between trying to remember to feed all the living beings in this house and get everyone to swimming lessons or gymnastics or whatever, I had fucked up and missed the renewal on one of my dog’s licenses.
Shit. So, I said to guy “Honestly, I had no idea but I’m happy to take care of it right now.”
No dice. He had to write me a ticket. A 231 $ ticket.
Jesus. Fucking.Christ. Considering a dog license is about 30$ a year, that’s a pretty big fine for a shitty mistake that isn’t really affecting anyone’s life. My dogs have never been lost, they aren’t putting anyones life in danger. The City wouldn’t even know they existed if I hadn’t registered them in the first place. Also, my other dog is clearly licensed to it’s pretty obvious that I didn’t miss it on purpose.
Anyway, that’s not the stupid part.
Fair enough. I broke the rules. In trying to manage all the things in my life as a working mom, the dog’s license was pretty low on the priority list and I have to suck it up and pay the fine.
That’s not even the part I’m that mad about.
The guy comes back with my ticket and explains the process to me. I ask a couple of questions, including “I don’t understand, have my dogs been disturbing someone? How did you end up here on a Sunday afternoon?”
And this is what the douchebag said to me:
“Well, you know, we’re City Workers and right now we’re experiencing a lull in activity. We can’t just sit around the office together with nothing to do. We’d go crazy! So we pulled up all the addresses with an expired license and starting driving around to find you.”
This is seriously almost his EXACT WORDS. I was flabergasted. I couldn’t even respond because I couldn’t believe this asshole actually said this to me.
- He’s in a middle class/working class neighbourhood, where 230$ is likely way more than an entire day of pay. Where people with young children are stretched so thin financially and physically trying to stay ahead that it could make a significant impact on their quality of life for that month.
- I am a self employed teacher/musician who has to take her job seriously or I wouldn’t have enough students to pay my bills. I have had to work while I was sick, my kids were sick and still so a good enough job to earn the money my families pay me.
- Besides that, I keep a part time bartending job because I can always work more to cover extra bills or save up for something nice without increasing our debt load. Which means I sometimes work 7 days a week.
- My husband works a rotating shift in a technically and physically demanding job that leaves him so exhausted sometimes that he hardly ever knows what day of the week it is. He has chronic pain and numbness in one of his hands. Oh, and the work is dangerous as well. One wrong switch and BOOM.
So, I’m super sorry that you’re cushy, well paying job with good government benefits is SO TRYING because you have nothing to do. I’m sorry that you came to my home to write me ticket to ward off your BOREDOM. I’m sorry that you had SO LITTLE respect for me as a working parent that you would have the balls to say this to me.
I’m sorry that our roads aren’t properly plowed, that the police never have enough staff to come and help sort out domestic disputes. I’m sorry that every time the psycho that used to live next door got drunk and threatening you didn’t have enough resources to come and deal with it because your resources were tied up in a department where the staff is underworked, overpaid, and disrespectful.
I’m sorry that this city hides behind the words “safety” when it cracks down on fines of any kind, when obviously, in many cases it is simply just a way to make money. I’m sorry that my property taxes go to pay for this guy’s salary.
I’m sorry that there is litter and dog shit all over the place in this city that no one picks up. I’m sorry the city can’t afford to properly keep the boulevards cut and tidy or to clean up the graffiti everywhere. I’m sorry that instead we chose to pay a bunch of spoiled city union workers to do nothing.
I’m sorry that the words this guy said perpetuated every opinion about lazy government workers and a system that bleeds the people who actually work hard for their money.
I’m sorry I didn’t tell this guy to fuck off right there.
Rant done.
Brutal.
Just wondering, did you receive the “courtesy invoice” 1 month prior to the license expiring that Animal Services claims they send out? I’ve never once received this. Your rant, which happened to be posted to FB by my uncle, is the ONLY reason I ‘remembered’ to renew my dog’s license, which I did 5 minutes ago (it expired Jan 1).
I’m so sorry you got this bullshit fine. Even sorrier the messenger was an arrogant prick.
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I honestly don’t know. He said my license expired March of 2015. If it was such a big deal, why have they not contacted me before this?
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Boo hoo. Pay the license fee like everyone else or pay the fine. You are not special.
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Read the post like everyone else or fuck right off.
I said I wasn’t angry about paying the fine. irritated, yes, because it’s a little excessive, but I’ve been trying to get through all morning to pay it, thank you very much.
I said his comments were inappropriate and rude, and inconsiderate to someone who actually has to earn the money they make.
Go back to your union protected job.
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“Fair enough. I broke the rules. In trying to manage all the things in my life as a working mom, the dog’s license was pretty low on the priority list and I have to suck it up and pay the fine.
That’s not even the part I’m that mad about.”
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You are seriously complaining about customer service from the guy that has to get you to pay your bills? Really?
And just because he has a professional, educated job, doesn’t mean he’s lazy. What if people were as mean about your important job? We all have to work right, even you telephone solicitors or whatever Miss Important does. Just because he has a professional educated job, doesn’t mean he’s lazy. What if people were as mean about your telephone solicitor job? We all have to work right? I think the more cry babies they ticket the better. I’m happy to see your money go to funding animal shelters, because they are so full of innocent animals tha are mistreated by deadbeats that don’t make them a priority. You know, like paying for their bills?
I think the more cry babies they ticket the better. I’m grateful to them to see your money go to funding animal shelters, because they are so full of innocent animals that are mistreated by deadbeats that don’t make them a priority. You know, like paying for their bills and expenses? You know like everyone else has to pay?
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Do you even know how to read or use a keyboard? Did you cut and paste your comments from some other article you are also trolling?
He TOLD me flat out that they sat around their office all day.
To me, that is a waste of city resources. I will pay my ticket. I deserve to pay my ticket.
What i don’t deserve is to have this spoiled union brat say what he did to me to me.
I ALSO am an educated, professional person. And I don’t think his comments were acceptable. I don’t expect him to give me customer service. I expect him to be respectful of hard working people who have to give a shit about their job to keep them.
And to imply that I mistreat my animals because I forgot to renew a dog license makes you as arrogant and ignorant as the person who issued me a ticket with a smug rank smirk on his face.
Some people appreciate what they have and what they work for. Some people don’t have to because they are handed every thing on a silver platter.
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I have no idea who the telephone solicitor is here? What a loser that commenter is!
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I’m not sure either. I’m just letting the troll go. The conversation has run it’s course….
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Your an idiot if the coty made a law saying everyone had to suck there dick you would probaly be ok with it
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bahahaha!
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Instead of taking all the time to come out to your house, they easily could have called and given a reminder about and then you clear up your outstanding license, these tactics are unethical and just a cash grab. I got a visit yesterday as well. I was soo pissed as i have always renewed my dogs licenses in the past, and the fact i hadn’t renewed was an honest mistake!
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Where I live they can ACTUALLY HONEST TO GOD FINE YOU for your dog NOT WEARING ITS TAGS. I kid you not, Animal Control has WANDERED NEIGHBORHOODS looking for yard with dogs and then fining people for their dogs IN THEIR OWN YARDS not wearing tags! When they decided we needed to register cats as well they WARNED people they would make housecalls to make SURE the cat is wearing its tags! Y’know because EVERY animal can wear a collar and EVERY human wants to hear tags jingling all day long!!!
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Yes, they can ticket us for that as well. I never have my dogs collars on in the house or in our fenced yard, but make sure to wear them when we’re out on a leash or at the lake.
It just burns my ass, because when you have a real problem, the by laws never seem to get enforced, but when it’s time for the city to make some money, they will go after people who aren’t affecting anyone else.
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How much you wanna bet “ihatecrybabies” has about $3000 in unpaid speeding tickets?! Anyone who actually supports asinine government fines for non-issues either works for the government or needs a lobotomy. AND I WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT.
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“ihatecrybabies” can bite me. And there’s probably a fine for that too.
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Animal licensing isn’t a non-issue. It’s an important part of public safety. It costs money to enforce rules. Most “government workers” would have a comprehension level to realize that.
But then some think school zone enforcement is a tax grab too. Can’t fix stupid.
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No you can’t which makes me feel really sorry…FOR YOU. As you clearly did not get this post at all.
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I think the later part of this post would be great reworked as a complaint letter. Basically that they are over resourced in this particular area by the worker’s own admission and so under resourced in so many vitally important areas – many of which you list in the post.
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I just got dinged for failing to renew the licences for my three dogs on a Sunday afternoon as well. I am with you in that it was totally my fault and I am responsible for the fines, but it does irk me that they couldn’t be bothered to send one courtesy letter to the effect of “Did you forget to renew?”, but they can send out people with a list on Sunday afternoons to attend at your home to hand you a fine that is nearly 8 times the original licence fee.
Can you imagine if you forgot to pay your $100.00 hydro bill or what not and instead of sending a reminder, you all of the sudden owed $750.00?
Not to mention, the $231.00 amount ($125.00 fine and the remainder “court costs”) is the early payment amount. If you wait till the court date on your summons, the fine itself goes up to $250.00 with increased court costs.
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I have been rescuing hard to adopt out dogs for 10 years and paid licence fees or renewals on 2-3 dogs for the last 10 years. (Not to mention shots, heartworm and some pretty hefty vet bills for elderly adoptees or dogs with health problems) It should’ve kind have been obvious it was accidental oversight by an otherwise very responsible and passionate dog owner/ lover.
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I hope you got this guy’s ID number or something to that effect and reported the prick! Thanks for this post…I have 3 dogs, 2 of which are rescues that are pretty much so old they can’t do much more than sleep on the couch. I saw said “douchebag” parked outside my house the other day. Good thing I rarely answer the door! I will re-new ASAP!
Maybe Mr. Douchebag would like to spend some of his boredom at work walking the river trails down by Riverview hospital and clear out the drunks and sniffers. A place where I would love to walk my licensed dogs but I can’t for fear of getting shanked! I have called “the authorities” on many occasions and have been told that there just isn’t the man power to deal. Send the animal control services workers….apparently they have nothing better to do!
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I have his signature on the citation!
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Whining about something that never would have happened if you had taken the responsibility of pet ownership and citizenship more seriously. Yawn.
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Again, read the post. That’s not what the complaint is about.
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As a government worker myself, I’d love to string up asshats like that personally for basically shitting on the rest of us. We tend to – as a rule- be a group that’s easy to hate. We don’t need help from fucktards like that.
That being said, in a similar bomb to my family’s resources, my numbskull husband got nabbed by a damn red light camera recently. That ticket basically equaled 2 weeks of groceries or 2 months of diapers. I had to content myself with writing “go fuck yourself” on the check’s subject line when I mailed that bullshit in.
Sorry. Now I’m done.
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This actually made me laugh really hard…..sorry about your ticket though, lol.
The thing is, most people who break the rules are honestly just having an off day where their attention slips and they screw up. To me, the amount of the tickets these days are extremely excessive. Maybe for a repeat offender it would make sense, but if it’s your first ticket in 5 years? Yikes.
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Agreed. At that point it seems less about law and order and more about a money grab. I also hate to hear about animal control being dicks, particularly since there are so many dogs/cats that need homes; these types of stories about nasty and punitive fines for a rather minor “oopsie” (and a first time offender at that) may have the opposite effect by discouraging folks from adopting.
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That’s exactly what it is….humans make mistakes. We aren’t clocks, or digital beings, we have off days.
Some allowance should be afforded to people who are having an ff day and there is no intent on breaking rules. One should also consider that there is no negative impact to certain “violations”. The City is acting like a bully. They set the rules, they set the fines, they are inflexible. It’s a shame when common courtesy is thrown out the window.
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oppressive mediocre little town…..feeding on it’s own to survive.
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That’s pretty much it, isn’t it?
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I love this, it’s so true
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“Hate crybabies”. Where ever did you get the idea the money funds animal shelters? From our caring city Councillors? That’s old news.Would have thought someone as “intelligent” as you would know by now that the city reneged on that contract and only the WHS gets any.The rest will just sit there moldering And for anyone thinking of taking up the offer of FIXEM February for cats,be aware the WHS might not mention it, but your pet will be licensed from then on, and this lady could be you next year. Take your ticket to court and you could get it reduced or even dismissed.
BTW it is very obvious that “Hate crybabies” doesn’t volunteer at any animal shelters,because they think only deadbeats abuse animals. CAN’T FIX STUPID!
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Poor things- blame everyone else for being a deadbeat. Pathetic.
Your parents were supposed to teach you to pay your bills. Not the city.
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An unique use of WordPress
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I am sorry that you had to pay a fine- but as you said- it is your fault it was missed. I do not live in your city, so I can not comment on the services, but you are being very unfair to government workers. You are perpetuating the idea that they are lazy. If they were so lazy, why would they take the time to make a list of people that had broken the law (yes, sorry- that includes you!) and then go and collect the fine? Yes, life is busy and we all have a lot of things on our plates, but don’t blame the person who gave you the bad news. Go and talk to your mayor. Tell them the fee is too steep. The only thing unfair about your rant is the fact that your lumped government workers all into the same bunch and added an insult.Stop passing the blame and use your energy to get the people that set the fines to understand that the amount is too high. Oh- and set a reminder to renew your dog’s licences now, for next year so we don’t have to hear about it again.
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I didn’t perpetuate the idea that government workers were lazy. HE did. When he talked about how they all sit around the office ALL DAY. His words, to my face.
I certainly don’t think that all government workers are lazy, but in this it seems that these funds should be reallocated to a department that needs more staff, instead of going on a door to door crusade to collect fines in order to pay for staff we don’t need.
I have a huge problem with the fact that when I had a legitimate complaint that potentially put my safety at risk, the city didn’t have the resources or time to enforce that bylaw, which was greatly affecting our quality of life.
The municipal system is very, very broken.
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Wow this is so crazy for a few reasons. Here we don’t have dog licenses. Maybe we should. Maybe it would help discourage people who aren’t good pet owners from having pets.
But also, I would have flipped my lid on that guy. Um just go back to your desk and scan the internet you douche.
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