The Los Angeles City Council voted 10 to 1 today to approve mandatory sterilization of most pets at the age of 4 months or older - a decision greeted by cheers and applause from the crowded room at the Van Nuys City Hall - where the council meets the first Friday of every month.
As U.S. shelters help solve local stray problems, a Tufts expert says many are importing dogs from other countries to meet demand for animal adoptions.
SACRAMENTO — A bill to require Californians to spay or neuter their pets or face stiff fines was pulled from consideration for this year by its author Wednesday after it ran into strong objections from members of a state Senate panel.
SACRAMENTO — The Legislature's customary agenda of healthcare, education, public safety and other human affairs was interrupted Wednesday by this year's issue that mattered most to the masses: the sex lives of dogs and cats.
Jean Heath's wish came true Wednesday after she stayed up all night to attend a Capitol hearing: Dogs and cats will not be required by state law next year to be spayed or neutered.
The latest pearl of wisdom to flow from the Sacramento legislative bathhouse is a bill that would require dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered by the time they are 4 months old. Purebreds who can prove they are pure would be spared the blade. According to the proposed law, you could get fined $500 if your dog or cat hasn't been neutered or spayed by 4 months.
The Legislature is barking up the wrong tree by suggesting that California dogs and cats be spayed and neutered, hundreds of impassioned pet owners told State Sen. Joe Simitian in Palo Alto on Saturday.
Sometimes good intentions, like bored retrievers, sneak under the fence and go astray. For instance, take the "California Healthy Pets Act."
LONG BEACH - State Sen. Jenny Oropeza broke ranks with many Democrats on Wednesday, and voiced her opposition to a bill that would require dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered.
Oropeza's public opposition comes as the bill awaits hearing in the Senate.
There's a bill, known as the Healthy Pets Act, wending its way through the state Assembly's committee process right now, that would require that all dogs and cats in California to be spayed or neutered by the time they're 4 months old. The idea behind this bill, AB1634, is that the large number of animals being put to sleep in shelters would be reduced if fewer puppies and kittens were born.
Spay Law Not a Solution
May 25, 2007 (Visalia Times-Delta (Editorial))
Although AB1634 sounds like it would address the problem of unwanted pets, it actually won't. It will drive the demand for puppies toward unscrupulous breeders, puppy mills and other illegal outlets.
Reducing the number of unwanted dogs and cats that are killed in shelters in California is a laudable goal. But, the proposed law is too broad and too intrusive, and would punish the majority of responsible pet owners while being ignored by the minority of irresponsible ones.
AB1634 would require almost every dog in California to be spayed or neutered by age four months. The vast majority of dogs and cats in the state do not fit the exemption and must therefore be sterilized. If that happens, then the current population of companion animals will be the last.
Assemblyman Lloyd Levine's bill to require the vast majority of California's dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered by the time they are 4 months old – which took its first step toward passage this week with the approval of an Assembly committee – is best described as a well-intentioned mess.
Animal shelters in the USA are casting a wide net — from Puerto Rico to as far as Taiwan — to fill kennels.
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