Spay/ neuter bill in California

Everyone know about the spay/neuter bill in California? It would require dogs (and cats) to be spayed or neutered by six months of age, unless the owner gets a special permit. Permits would go to breeders (hopefully the more above board, legitimate ones), show dogs, police dogs, search and rescue dogs, etc.

This could be a chance to finally make some significant changes in the overpopulation problem, and reduce the hundreds of thousands of animals being put down in CA each year.

Check out the site:
http://www.cahealthypets.com/home.htm

does the owner have to pay for it?

This is really a bad bill. If fails to address the reason dogs end up in shelters. Most sheltered cats come from feral cats which no one owns and thus no one will be held responsible for spaying and neutering them and we will still have lots of cats in shelters.

Dogs are given up for a variety of reasons and drop off at shelters:
Family’s moving into situations where they cannot take care of their pet (not always the person’s choice)

Dog clashes with re-decorating ideas (This did actually happen).

Behavioral problems that the owner is unwilling to resolve or the dog has bitten someone.

In some cases, Pet owner dies and family either cannot or will not take care of the deceased’s pets.

How does this new law prevent these animals, which are the majority, from ending up in shelters.

Second, there is a huge disparity in euthanasia numbers reported by various groups. This is because many sources either report the total number of animals euthanised, or the reporting agency only looks at the totals. Even no kill shleters will Euthanise pets.

The important statistic to watch is adoptable animals euthanised.

Animals are euthanized for the following reasons:

Behaviorally unsound (Typically aggression)
Medically unsound (disease or genetic condition)
Owner request

These are the primary reasons dogs are euthanized in shelters. The number of animals Euthanized to create space will still higher than what I would consider acceptable, are not even close to the numbers published by some agencies.

I don’t want animals that are medically unsound or behaviorally unsound to be loose in the neighborhood. Medically, for diseases such as cancer can be very painful and uncomfortable for the dog. Does anyone want to adopt a dog which may bite your neighbor?

Other medical conditions can be manageable but even diabetic dogs and deaf dogs stand a good chance to be euthanised due to the difficulty in finding an owner willing to take these challenges.

Mandatory spaying and neutering again does noting to address why pets end up in shelters, and many organizations and agencies mis represent euthanasia statistics.

Legally, dogs and cats are personal property. Its possible one could argue that this laws is unconstitutional as a violation of the 4th ammendment.

AB1634 has been gutted by senator and has NO MSN as it was formerly written. there is now a provision concerning whether your dog is the subject of a complaint, there may be a fine and possibly the dog might have to be altered, BUT there is no MSN for the 98% of pets as it was written before….it’s on the activist website who brought the bill forward.