BrianGarst.com

For years, many neighborhood New York City bars were dog friendly. Aware of their own worthlessness, self-loathing bureaucrats need their misery to be shared be all. So seeing how taking their dogs to the bar pleased the people, bureaucrats sprung into action:

[I]t has always been a violation of the city’s health code to allow a dog anywhere near a beer tap. But for years, this has been one of the most widely — and gleefully — violated rules in the city.

Not any more.

Since the health department adopted a letter grade system for bars and restaurants last year, bar owners say, health inspectors are allowing no wiggle room for four-legged patrons.

The stricter enforcement is apparently bringing to an end a rich tradition of dog-friendly bars in New York.

“Bars are built around characters,” said Andrew Templar, an owner of Floyd NY in Brooklyn Heights, which received a violation notice after health inspectors twice observed dogs on the premises this summer. “Now it’s just people and their people problems.”

Given the types of things that often happen in bars, dogs ought to be the least of the health concerns. But even if there are legitimate concerns (and no where in the article is it every asserted than anyone’s health has been threatened), no one is forced to visit a particular establishment. Don’t want dogs at the bar with you? Go to a different bar.

It’s just one more instance of unnecessary government meddling curtailing freedom.

Overgovernment