A Dog on Unemployment and the Puppy Bowl

A dog in Michigan was approved for $360 per week in unemployment benefits. 

            Ryder, recipient of the $360/week benefit, is a Norwegian elkhound.  I used to own a Norwegian elkhound and I can spot these magnificent animals a half-block away.  They will be the dog with the “hail fellows, well met” attitude, the tightly curled wagging tail, and mischief in their almond shaped eyes. 

            Mind you, there are lots of dogs that work.  I plan on watching the Puppy Bowl today and will have a chance to see approximately 50 puppies (all between 12 and 21 weeks old) play in a 10x19 plexiglass stadium.  These puppies are filmed during some 50 hours of play over several days in October.  The Puppy Bowl is what we see as the edited coverage.  While these pups are not paid, they have the advantage of being available for adoption. 

Other dogs have earned real money. Toto earned $125/week (the Munchkins only earned $50—explain that); Rin Tin Tin got $6000 and Lassie got $4000 (no doubt the victim of lower pay for women—oh, wait, that dog was a male parading as a woman—well now there is a whole different area of victimology to exploit).  But, regardless of money earned, those dogs never really got a check, their trainers did.  Those people might have qualified for unemployment, but not their dogs. 

            That brings us back to Ryder and his $360/week unemployment windfall.  It seems that the claim was filed by (or under the name of) a chain of upscale sea food restaurants in the Detroit area.  The dog’s owner is a Saugatuck, Michigan attorney and he was a bit surprised to get the letter informing him of his dog’s good—if unearned—fortune.  The letter was sent to Michael (the attorney’s first name) Ryder (the dog’s name).   The attorney lives on the opposite side of the state from Detroit, has never worked for the restaurant, and promptly reported the problem to the Michigan department of Bureaucrats in Charge of Handing Out Taxpayer’s Money. 

            According to the Washington Post’s interview with Ryder’s owner, amusement and wonder turned to a little bit of pique when he had a hard time getting anyone at the Bureau for Handing Out Money to take his concern seriously.  He finally found one person who said, “…fax us the letter and we will look into it.” 

            “Look into it?!?”  Deny it!  This is clearly a false claim.  It might be criminally false, accidently false or just stupid false but it is false.  It doesn’t need to be “looked” into.  It needs to be corrected.  Some outrage should be shown; maybe just a smidge of righteous indignation.  But, no, just one more bureaucrat with more paper work to do.  Alas.

            The St. Louis Federal Reserve published a report showing that fraudulent unemployment benefits in this country cost taxpayers something north of $3.3 Billion each year. The cost of building a new elementary school, capable of benefitting over 600 students, costs a little less than $17,000,000.  You could build 194 new schools each and every year for what we are wasting on people who are cheating us out of unemployment benefits.   

            The problem, of course, is not the odd case of an animal getting an unemployment check.  The biggest problem is the criminals who bilk the government out of our money.  The second biggest problem is the bureaucrats with their tapeworm mentality who figure that it isn’t their money, so why worry. 

            Love a dog, despise a cheat and keep the faith.