On a rescue dog like this, likely minimal. Maybe the thieves thought it was a purebreed?

But on a designer or purebreed dog? Pretty large. People will buy puppies / young dogs off craiglists (Example One: https://boston.craigslist.org/sob/for/d/norton-french-bulldog/7598631116.html Example Two: https://boston.craigslist.org/nwb/pet/d/boston-female-mini-poodle-mix-puppy/7601380906.html) and ask minimal questions about where they came from. For someone looking to make a quick $500 - $3,000 it's very easy to grab a dog off the street and then resell it.

Trust me, it's a very real problem. ;p

A shot from my office in the seaport - I think it gives a good sense of the sheer size of it.

https://imgur.com/a/M9WY56R

It docks at the autoport in Charlestown. You can see it pretty well from the Tobin if you drive over when it's docked.

Yeah my commute at 5:30 was pretty standard for that day/time.

Yeah - I actually think coffee shops that are allowing dogs should stop because they are causing problems for the places that are trying to follow the law but giving the impression this is "choice" rather than a law that could get an establishment into deep trouble.

As an aside, beyond people not wanting dogs around their food, pets in places like restaurants, etc have a big negative impact on people who rely on service animals. I have a friend whose service dog was attacked by a pet dog in a hardware store, and it took the service animal months of (expensive) training to overcome the resulting fear of dogs and be able to resume service animal work. For those months my friend didn't have their service animal their life was severely negatively impacted.

I'm a dog lover, have a dog myself. But I understand my dog doesn't get to go everywhere in order for other people to get to enjoy their lives.

My understanding about how breweries get around this, and I could be wrong, is the ones that allow dogs do not prepare or serve food on the premises. Drinks yes, food no. Some have food trucks that serve food, but that's not on premises. Little bit of a legal loop hole.

Just pointing out we hire nationally and $16 is our starting wage in other states, no MA. In some locations $16 - $17 is a living wage (https://livingwage.mit.edu/) for a single person.

"Unfair competition for jobs" Listen, I work in HR, and we are desperate for hourly employees willing to work for $16 - $22 / hr. Unemployment is at a record low. We NEED more people to perform work.

Not to mention the jobs many undocumented immigrants do are jobs Americans do not want to do. Look into what happened during COVID when vegetable and fruit farmers in the south were unable to utilize LEGAL temporary immigrants during the harvest due to border closures.

We might not like it, but we rely on both legal and illegal immigration to keep the economy going.

The handful of people I know who voted against it were less focused on the income part, and more on the impact on the sale of a small business or home. There are many more people in MA who don't make 1 million annually, but have the potential to have a home or business sale over 1 million in their lifetime.

Still outrageous, if your home or business nets you profit over a million you should rightly pay more tax, but just pointing out where some of the supporters may have come from.

Listen - as long as we have geopolitical instability and the opportunity for a better life in the US what there will be illegal immigration. It would be naive to pretend otherwise, so we need policies to address that.

So the question really should be:

1. Will this law incentives more people to participate in illegal immigration
2. Does the greater good of this law outweigh any of the possible downsides

On point 1 above - I really don't think making illegal immigrants get licenses and pay for insurance is somehow going to incentivize more people to immigrant illegally.

And for point 2 above - resoundingly yes. Primarily through the general public safety benefit which will improve quality life for legal MA residents.