California kills more than 400,000 dogs and cats, spending $250 million yearly due to overpopulation of companion animals. Yet the first meaningful attempt to stop the carnage and the costs with statewide legislation is being met with virulent opposition.
The needless deaths and atrocious waste of taxpayer dollars to manage the status quo appear unimportant to opponents of AB l634. Their agenda is to maintain unlicensed and unregulated breeding of dogs and cats as a “hobby,” escaping taxes on the income generated. Their agenda is to treat regulation of breeding as an intrusion into personal property rights ” thereby relegating companion animals to the status of “property” and vilifying legislators who deem animal lives worthy of more than the incinerator. Their agenda is to ensure no one is bothered ” from the veterinarian who may need to complete a form to the backyard breeder who would need to obtain a license.
Apparently opponents of the bill think these human inconveniences are more disturbing than the killing, because where mandatory spay/neuter has been enacted, the number coming into shelters dropped dramatically.
AB 1634 exempts service animals, sick or aged animals and every legitimate breeding purpose. It does not seek to abolish pet ownership or to create a world of purebreds. It does give animal control authorities a mechanism to cite irresponsible backyard breeders and provides incentive that will reduce accidental breeding.
AB 1634 also addresses public safety. California has the highest number of dog attacks in the nation, and altered animals are far less likely to bite. The health benefits of spaying and neutering are also well established in veterinary literature.
Anyone who thinks this bill is over-reaching should visit their local animal control facility. Watch frightened, lost, abandoned dogs and cats take their last steps to the euthanasia room. Observe the faces of shelter personnel as they hold the animal down and insert the needle.
Watch the puppy or kitten slump, draw its last breath, and die for the misfortune of having been born. Watch the lifeless body be discarded onto the pile of others ready for the rendering plant.
Watch that process four hundred thousand times a year and then tell me that mandatory spay/neuter is unnecessary.
” Jane Cartmill is the vice president of San Diego Animal Advocates and past president, board of directors, of the Rancho Coastal Humane Society.