A Tale of Two Cities

Today's San Francisco Chronicle covers the success in reducing the City's pit bull populations via a sterilization law that was put into place after the tragic death of 12-year-old Nicholas Faibish in 2005. Here are the stats collected by San Francisco Animal Care and Control for the 18 months that the law has been in place:

-- 250 fix-it tickets have been issued (dog not fixed, get it fixed, then get credit on ticket)

-- 204 citations have been issued

-- 38 pit bulls or pit bull mixes have been seized

-- About 500 pit bulls have been spayed or neutered

This is good news in that today only about a quarter of unwanted pets in the Animal Care and Control Shelter are pit bulls compared to three quarters before the law was passed.

There's the hint of another story in this article, one which needs more research. Across the Bay, Oakland has a record of more pit bulls being registered than any other breed. Instead of a law to force surgeries, there's a concerted effort by advocates and officials alike to educate owners and have them voluntarily sterilize their pets. Donna Reynolds, Executive Director of the pit bull advocacy group, Bad Rap reports, "...we're seeing huge numbers pour into the doors to get their pit bulls fixed."

After all the controversy over the California Healthy Pets Act, there's a question of whether we need laws in place to ensure control of pet populations, or whether we have another avenue by reaching out to pet owners to do the right thing without additional legislation. If the numbers can be gathered in Oakland to validate their success in sterilizing pit bulls via education, this is a strong statement that pet owners are a much more responsible group than we're given credit for, and we will do the right things without additional red tape to complicate an already complicated world.