What's New

"California Healthy Pets Act" or the mandatory spay/neuter bill, Assembly Bill 1634.

Nearly one million animals enter California shelters every year at an average annual cost of $275 million. More than 51% of these animals are killed. That means over 500,000 animals a year, or over 1,500 animals per day. In the Sacramento area, the three main shelters euthanize well over 500 animals per month due to overpopulation. This is a shame.

Despite efforts by many wonderful volunteer foster efforts, increased public education and support of low-cost and in some cases even free spay/neuter surgeries to benefit low-income pet owners, the numbers of healthy puppies and kittens destroyed for no other reason than not having a home, is growing.

The proposed bill is not perfect. There are many issues that should still be debated such as how it will be enforced, can the requirement be done at a later time (e.g. by 6 months of age rather than 4), will this be the demise of the "mutt", is this even workable for cats, will breeders be forced out of the state? Although there may be flaws to address still, one must consider that nothing this big comes without controversy. If we could begin to address the problem from the source rather than from the excessive overflow issue, would that not be a start?

There are a number of amendments to the bill that have been proposed over the last few months that will likely be added to the bill. For current updates and information from the California Veterinary Medical Association, you can also link to http://www.cvma.net/doc.asp?ID=3189. Police dogs, guide dogs for the blind, and service dogs can obtain exemptions at no cost.

Discussion of this legislation is healthy. Awareness of the problem can only bring to light more and better ideas for resolution. This may be just one "tool in the toolbox" of law enforcement to prevent repeat offenders. Often local offenders bring in litter after litter to dump at the shelters.

As a community of pet owners and caregivers, we must all work together to help stop this trend from progressing in all ways that we can. Feel free to express your feelings and concerns amongst each other here. Discussion is the best way to enlighten each other and hopefully find a way to stop what continues to happen every day, right in our own neighborhoods.