The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles by Gregory S. Paul

Author:Gregory S. Paul
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2016-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

4.6 Advertisement in the Chicago Tribune by the Humane Society of the United States. May 21, 2007 (courtesy of HSUS).

Repeal

Then, in May 2008, a Chicago alderman named Tom Tunney crafted a way to pull the ordinance onto the floor of the City Council’s monthly meeting for a repeal vote.35 Like many others, I only learned that this would happen at ten o’clock the night before, when I got a phone call from Mark Caro telling me I had better join him in the Council’s press box the next morning. The City Council’s intention to vote on rescinding the ban was announced as “Miscellaneous Business” on their website by its ordinance number, rather than name, only forty-eight hours before the meeting. Someone at the Chicago Tribune had spotted it, realized what it was, and quickly made a few calls and published a short announcement on the Tribune’s website.

Unlike previous council meetings I had attended, all was quiet when I arrived at 9:00 a.m. There were no protestors or rallies either outside City Hall or in the lobby outside the Council chambers. Like me, local animal rights leaders had only learned of the potential repeal of this amendment to Chapter 7-39 of the Municipal Code the night before, and they had not had time to rally their troops. The guard at the metal detector sent me to see the Sergeant-at-Arms for a pass to sit in the press box. I told her I was doing research on controversies about food, and she chuckled, “Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place! Today is going to be … interesting.”

The meeting began at 10:00 and dragged on for over four hours. From my seat in the press box, I watched both Tunney and Joe Moore work the floor, lobbying their colleagues. As various resolutions were announced and approved, aldermen shuffled through their papers and wandered between their seats and the antechamber where there were boxes of doughnuts and large coffee urns. A small rally in the lobby for more cops in neighborhoods sounded like a dull roar from inside the chamber. As gray-suited committee heads began taking turns standing to offer their monthly reports, a few people in the press box were literally dozing off. It was almost too easy to see how an issue—any issue—could slip through undetected.

Then, at the tail end of the meeting, “Miscellaneous Business” was announced. The room became silent as people took their seats. One of the aldermen with whom I’d been talking about his opinions on foie gras looked straight at me, raised his eyebrows, and whispered loudly, “Here we go!” Tunney stood up and announced a move to “discharge the ordinance from the Rules Committee.”36 Moore stood to object; then ranking Alderman Bernard Stone stood and ruled the motion “not debatable.” A roll call vote of 38–6 pulled it onto the floor. Several aldermen abstained. As the “aye” and “nay” votes began, Joe Moore stood and protested loudly that the issue should be debated “on the floor, on its merits,” although it had also not been debated two years earlier.

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