Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Shortsighted California Politicians

If you haven't heard about the bill that recently passed the California State Assembly and is in the Senate that will require pet owners to sterilize their pets you can read more about it here.

Since I think that the government already intrudes in our personal lives too much, it's no surprise that I think this is a horrendous bill. We are really hoping that it doesn't make it through the Senate. It's typical of CA politicians, either they don't care about the unintended consequences or they know what's gonna happen and they are supporting it anyway. I've heard a number of places having to import adoptable animals, and not just in CA (the area we lived in while in CO sent dogs over to Denver all the time, they couldn't keep up with the demand).

The current costs in our area to fix a female dog are $140, we checked because we are considering getting one of ours done. There are some places that offer low cost clinics but they aren't everywhere. If this law goes into effect they are going to have a lot of people relinquishing their pets because they cannot comply. We already pay 4 times the amount in licensing fees in order to keep Hannah, she is our only unaltered dog. Unfortunately Californians as a group can't think. they won't see the problems with this until it's too late.

I haven't read about any vets who are for this, although I'm sure there are some, because it will seriously affect their practices possibly causing many to go out of business. The economic costs could be far reaching for some areas. Not only could the vets go out of business but the stores that furnish supplies and the groomers could be seriously impacted. In the more rural areas it will be harder felt than in the cities. People around here don't just have one dog most have several. They support 2 vets that have small animal practices and at least one pet store. Since we don't have a low cost clinic to alter pets in this county, many have unaltered pets which they would have to give up. That kind of monetary loss for the businesses in this small area would be serious. I also wonder what this will do to the rodent populations, with fewer cats would we see a serious rise in diseases caused by rats and mice?

One more question- Will this affect tourism? How many times have you seen older people with their little dogs in their car from out of state? If these people have dogs that are not sterilized, they will find other places to vacation and spend their money!

Why can't the state just go after the people allowing their animals to roam and get pregnant? Why should everyone be punished just because a few people are irresponsible? Grrrrr, can you tell this is one of my hot buttons right now?

3 comments:

Presbytera said...

All you'll get from me is another grrrrr. Have they nothing better to do with their time than find more ways to limit freedom?

ozmommy said...

AKC delegates just passed a resolution stating their displeasure with this bill too. I love this point from their resolution: "mandatory spaying and neutering has proven to be an ineffective solution because it fails to address the heart of the issue�irresponsible ownership."

Unfortunately, AKC/Eukanuba will still be holding their huge show in Long Beach through 2008 as they have a contract to honor. There is talk of boycotting the show, but I believe that when it comes down to it, dog lovers/owners will still attend. When you've worked for years to get to this level, boycotting may not be worth it to them.

I'm not entirely sure if it passes that this bill will have much affect on tourists. It allows for visiting non-neutered animals for a variety of reasons- such as dog shows.

The bottom line is it's a poorly written bill that we don't need and it does not take into account the well-documented health ramifications of early spay/neuter.

Kim said...

I read the bill awhile back, 6 weeks ago I think, and didn't see anything about visiting dogs. I'm glad to hear that's in there. I did see a couple posts on various sites from people who will no longer be vacationing here with their pets because they feel the law is ridiculous, probably not enough to make a difference.

The sad thing is, no matter how many times it has been shown that this type of thing doesn't work the politicians don't listen. The example of the counties up north that offered free spay and neutering and thus reduced their impound rates by 80-90% is great evidence that there are other solutions other than new laws.

Typical for socialist California though...