Let's Make this Work for Them

In California, the news of the passage of AB 1634 in the State Assembly this week has animal lovers of all persuasions talking and sharing their thoughts. The bill is named the California Healthy Pets Act and requires pets to be sterilized with only a few exceptions.

The motivation for the legislation is to reduce the number of pets that need to be euthanized because there are more pets coming into shelters than being placed into homes.

In early April, there was a chilling article published by the New York Times that went into great detail of the triage that takes place in shelters across the country. The numbers are staggering. Here are just a few statistics:

• About four million dogs enter shelters nationwide each year, with half of them being euthanized. That's 5,000 dogs each day, which is one every 16 seconds.
• In the same article, it's estimated that it's even worse for cats.
• California estimates they are putting down a half a million animals each year, at a cost of $250M to taxpayers.
  

Shelters have long been dealing with this problem. And they realize it's a multi-faceted problem that's a combination of animal and human behavioral dysfunction that results in an animal being surrendered. Programs have been put into place that screen, educate, train, and counsel pets and their adopters. But it is still not enough.

Is it any wonder a law like this wouldn't come along?

The bill is very controversial. For some, it's a political issue that threatens privacy rights. The law sees our pets as property, and many folks don't want the government meddling in this part of our lives. For others, it impinges on the work animals can perform.

The San Francisco Chronicle gave a brief overview of this for search and rescue dogs. I have some very good friends who are avid sportsmen and have dogs who are not only members of their families but also join them in hunting, and they feel equally threatened. In both instances, the vast majority (up to 95%) of breeding is done from home and hobby breeders who will have trouble getting an exemption. The California Veterinary Medical Association supports the bill, but understands that there are additional amendments needed to make the bill successful. They made a decision to be at the table to help shape the bill so that it will ultimately generate the most positive effect for animal overpopulation.

One ray of hope came in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle, which outlines the law passed in Santa Cruz in 1995 to require spay and neutering of the city's pets, and has been used as a model when discussing the statewide bill. The statistics are encouraging:

• Before 1995, 14,000 animals came through Santa Cruz's shelters each year. Today it's around 5,500, less than half.
• Euthanasia for sheltered dogs has dropped from 30% to 17%
• Euthanasia for sheltered cats has dropped from 60% to 50%
• There are still 7,000 dog licenses being issued each year, so "no one is having to share pets due to a shortage."

I'd like to see the various interest groups pull together and find the right amendments that will make this bill work. I don't want to have to read another article about the enormous numbers of animals being put down because we aren't taking the simple steps to circumvent the problem. We need to do this for our community and our animals.