by Ashley Lau

hamster
Karl Barrett/iStockphoto.com

It may soon be illegal to sell dogs and cats in San Francisco. Also, hamsters.

The city could become the first in the country to ban the sale of all pets (except fish), the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The ban would include mice, rats, chinchillas, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, lizards and every other creature that the commission deems a "companion animal."

 

In a packed meeting room last Thursday, the city's animal control and welfare commission heard testimony on the issue.

"It's terrible. A pet store that can't sell pets? It's ridiculous," a local pet store owner told the Chronicle. "We'd have to close."

The ban, it turns out, is largely about hamsters and other tiny pets. The Chronicle writes:

People buy high-strung, nocturnal rodents because they're under the temporary impression that hamsters are cute and cuddly. But the new owners quickly learn that hamster are, in fact, prone to biting, gnawing through expensive wiring and maniacally racing on their exercise wheels at 2 a.m.