Sacramento Bee:
Relegated to Doghouse

Jim Sanders
Sacramento Bee
Jul 12, 2007

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.

Hundreds of spectators turned out to witness the shelving of Assembly Bill 1634, which would have required millions of family pets to be sterilized in an attempt to reduce unwanted births.

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, opted not to pursue a vote Wednesday when it became clear the Senate Local Government Committee would not support a last-minute amendment to save the bill.

Heath and other opponents left ecstatic after Levine announced he was shelving the legislation until January.

"We're very passionate about this," said Heath, a 75-year-old Pleasanton animal breeder. "We love our animals."

About 300 people attended Wednesday's hearing, but more than 20,000 signed letters or petitions to press their case, Capitol officials said.

"I've never seen this volume of mail," said Peter Detwiler, staff director for the five-member Senate panel. The committee's fax machine broke under the flood of missives, he said.

Lawmakers were lobbied feverishly.

When retired game show host Bob Barker held a news conference Monday applauding AB 1634, opponents countered with Jon Provost, who starred as Timmy in the "Lassie" television series.

Throughout Wednesday's 75-minute Senate hearing, a ninth-generation offspring of Lassie sat quietly on the committee floor.

Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod, a Chino Democrat who chaired the hearing, smiled at the collie's attention-grabbing presence.

"OK," she quipped to the bill's opponents. "But if Lassie's going to speak, it's going to count against your time."

Heath and dozens of other spectators began lining up for Wednesday's hearing before 6 a.m., as the sun rose, nearly two hours before the session was scheduled to begin.

"I found out that the best way not to oversleep is to not go to sleep," said Heath, smiling. "I didn't sleep all night."

"I knew that we had to be here early (to beat the crowd)," said Margaret Thompson, 54, of Pope Valley. "So if you're going to be here early, why not just be here the earliest?"

Supporters of AB 1634 also waited patiently long before the Capitol's doors swung open at 7 a.m.

"Passion verging on lunacy," Ed Buck said of emotion on both sides.

Buck, who applauds AB 1634, recalled attending a Los Angeles hearing on the bill at which a woman "grabbed my shirt, shook it and began to rant."

"If you just calm down and remove the passion, we all agree that there's a pet overpopulation problem," Buck said. "We need to do something about it. And spay or neuter is the solution."

Buck, a 52-year-old West Hollywood resident, said he spent about $400 on plane, hotel, taxi and food expenses to attend Wednesday's hearing.

The Senate's tiny, first-floor hearing room could not hold the crowd, so most spectators watched a broadcast of the proceedings from a separate room and two Capitol cafeterias.

Levine, after shelving AB 1634, accused opponents of twisting facts.

"The best way to kill a bill is to create fear and confusion," he said. "And they've done a good job of that."

Kelley Moran, campaign director for PetPac, a coalition of AB 1634 opponents, dismissed Levine's allegation as unfair and untrue.

"Assembly member Levine wants to say that everybody who opposed his bill doesn't know what they're talking about," Moran said. "But the fact of the matter is, every time he made an amendment, it just made a bad bill worse."

AB 1634, which narrowly passed the Assembly last month, 41-38, was touted by Levine as a way to reduce the strain on animal shelters, which spend $300 million annually to house, feed, euthanize and dispose of 400,000 unwanted dogs and cats.

AB 1634 would have required kittens and puppies to be sterilized before they are 6 months old.

Violators would have received the equivalent of a "fix-it ticket," requiring them to comply within 30 days or be fined $500.

The bill would have allowed permits to be purchased for breeding purebred dogs that participate in shows or athletic competitions. It provided exemptions for animals too old or sick to be sterilized, and for dogs used for police, signal, guide or herding purposes.

Levine's measure was aimed primarily at mongrels, but last month he accepted an amendment to allow local officials to permit one litter of mixed-breed dogs per household.

Opponents claimed that AB 1634 would infringe upon the rights of pet owners, be largely unenforceable, punish responsible families for others' irresponsible acts, be ignored by many of the worst offenders, and could put many hobbyist breeders out of business.

Levine, in a last-ditch effort Wednesday to keep AB 1634 alive, said he would be willing to narrow its scope to require sterilization only after a dog or cat were found roaming the streets or a separate animal-control law were violated.

Members of the Senate committee made it clear they would not accept the last-minute amendment, which was not submitted in writing and was aimed at beating a Friday deadline for Assembly bills to clear Senate policy committees.

Levine ultimately shelved AB 1634 without accepting the amendment.