What is the pet-protecting Maple Law?

The Maple Law is an initiative presented before the Congress of Mexico City that seeks to regulate establishments that offer services for pets. According to Congressman Royfid Torres, the Maple Law arises from the need to regulate boarding facilities, pet hotels, training centers, and dog training centers that to date operate without any regulation.

"They are regulated as commercial service establishments, but in the end, they attend to non-human living beings," said the Deputy of Movimiento Ciudado, after explaining that this initiative arose from listening to dozens of experiences of pet owners.

How the Maple Law came about

Although the Maple Law was inspired by dozens of testimonies, the initiative began after the case of an eight-month-old Shiba Inu puppy that was taken by its owners to a camp for training. Unfortunately, his ashes were sent to his owners in an urn without any explanation. It was said that Maple died from a snake bite.

Another case is that of Nydia Fernández, who lost her best friend, Mixtli, a mongrel puppy that she left in the care of a dog boarding kennel. Without explanation or apparent reason, the boarding house managers told Nydia that "he ran away." Hopeful, she tried to search the surrounding streets until she managed to find her best friend, but he was dead.

"There was no blood, he was just there and well, we went to do a necropsy and the necropsy showed that Mixtli had an inguinal hematoma that caused an internal effusion," said Nydia, assuring that she did not believe in the version of the canine pension. Congressman Royfred Torres came up with this plan after hearing stories like this and Maple's, so that no one else in the capital will have to go through what Nydia and her pets did.

The Movimiento Ciudadano and PAN parties have already presented the initiative, which seeks to have the mayors of Mexico City regulate and verify the operation of service providers. Among other things, the initiative also foresees forcing establishments that offer services for pets to have adequate space and be responsible for the pets that are entrusted to them by their owners.