Countdown to the spay/neuter law

If you've been on the L.A. Animal Services website in the last couple of months, you know they maintain a digital countdown of the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the city's spay/neuter law goes into effect Oct 1.

Now, you have a week to comply with the ordinance requiring most pet cats and dogs to be sterilized -- like Hanna, above. The 1-year old spayed Sharpei is up for adoption at the city's North Central shelter. (Her ID # is A0971625, and if you want her, act quickly. She went on Red Alert Tuesday, meaning if she's not adopted in a week, she could be euthanized.)

There are a number of options for sterilizing your animal at a lower cost.  The city's shelters and many of their private rescue partners offer vouchers -- to everyone -- worth $30 toward the cost of a sterilization procedure performed by participating veterinarians. If you qualify by having a lower income or disability or by being a senior citizen, you can get a certificate for a free procedure to be done at certain veterinary hospitals, or you can have it done at a mobile clinic.

Ed Boks, general manager of L.A. Animal Services, also notes that the South L.A. shelter has a spay-neuter clinic and that the Harbor and West L.A. shelters have clinics that will be up and running in two months. (And, as part of a push to get more pets spayed and neutered, a group of organizations is sponsoring the third "Spay Day LA" event Oct. 24-26. During those days, certain veterinary facilities will offer free spay services. We'll post details in the coming weeks.)

The ordinance exempts plenty of dogs and cats: those who have special skills, are being trained for special activities, have medical excuses or are show dogs or aspiring to the show circuit. Otherwise, dogs and cats four months and older should be sterilized. Owners found not to be in compliance have 60 days to alter their pets or pay a $100 fine.  A third offense results in a $500 fine.

When the L.A. City Council approved this measure last February, the hope was that pet sterilization would stem the tide of unwanted and stray animals into shelters. According to the Humane Society of the U.S., 3 to 4 million animals are euthanized in shelters nationwide each year.

Since then, City Controller Laura Chick released a report in August stating that L.A. Animal Services was ill-prepared to implement or enforce the new law.  Animal control officers, Chick wrote in her report, "stated they currently have difficulty enforcing other ordinances dealing with privately owned pets, such as the leash law, and no one is sure how spay and neuter canvassing or enforcement should occur. The Department plans to rely primarily on voluntary compliance...."

Animal Services general manager Ed Boks issued his response saying that his department would enforce the measure "to the fullest extent possible. Owners should not conclude that they can avoid compliance without consequence..." Boks said it was not possible to go door-to-door or patrol streets to enforce the law since he has only 64 animal control officers covering the entire city.

Animal welfare advocates believe there are plenty of reasons to comply voluntarily. As Chick herself wrote in her report to the mayor: "Spaying and neutering our pet population will significantly reduce unwanted puppies and kittens that are too often euthanized. The Department of Animal Services reported that over 15,000 dogs and cats were killed last year in our City shelters."

Enforcement of mandatory spaying and neutering starts next Wednesday.

-- Carla Hall

Photo: courtesy of L.A. Animal Services

Comments

[Rebecca]

To book an appointment to have your cat or dog spayed or netuered for no cost on Spay Day L.A. please go to www.SpayDayLA.com

[Judy Tepper]

Hello,
I read the article, "Countdown to the spay/neuter law", with interest, and have some comments as a long-time observer of local animal issues and the plight of companion animals in general.
First, regarding the pictured dog Hanna, it is not correct to say that if not adopted by a deadline she will be euthanized. Euthanasia is defined as mercy killing, but if this dog is killed it is an execution or extermination-for-convenience due to our city shelter system's failure to aggressively implement proven no-kill strategies. Saying you do is not the same as actually doing.
Further, the result of mandatory spay/neuter in other communities has been an increase in killing, as a result of more punitive measures and more impounding of non-compliant animals. It does not take an expert to predict that many people will dump animals and relinquish pets to the pound rather than pay those fines and to keep the uniforms away. To give more power to a failed Department will only hurt, not help the animals.
What does work is readily-available free/low-cost sterilization, which has been proven right here in L.A. in the past. Unfortunately, if the performance-to-date of our current Animal Services regime is any indication, we will be waiting till hell freezes over before that is implemented by this General Manager.
It will take a revolution of philosophy away from the entrenched catch-and-kill mentality of the shelter industry to help these animals, and there is, I believe, an unstoppable movement in this direction. All you old-school dogcatchers earning six-figures-to-fail---start paddling with the new wave or get out of the water--there's a Big One a-comin'.

[RR]

It's going to be up to the public to spread the word on this new regulation. I have imparted information, already, to many people, and for the most part, people are willing to do the right thing. I've helped numerous people obtain their vouchers and get to the low cost vets. There are a few idiots that don't want to comply, because, they have some misguided idea that their pet will be missing out on something, (after wasting 10 minutes of conversation with these people, I discover a pattern of ignorance that is not only limited to this subject). In those cases I will be handing their information over to Animal Control, for enforcement. I applaud Los Angeles for it's leadership on this matter. I wish it was statewide. The shelters are bursting and wonderful pets are being killed. Rescues are at their limit emotionally and financially. Common sense must prevail. Now if we can shut down the puppy mills we'd really get a handle on this problem.

[ds]

RR: Great post. Dead-on accurate. People I speak with either already do or would, if they had or intend to adopt a pet, act responsibly and subscribe to this law. I, too, come across a few idiots -- oftentimes breeder zealots who talk about "my right to property" and couldn't give a damn about millions of stiff animal carcasses carried out of shelters and Animal Control in old blankets and bags. They also don't care about the health benefits of spay and neuter. I suppose this kind of ignorance and/or anti-government, above-the-law mentality mirrors what we see elsewhere in all walks of life. In many respects it's why we need the laws and regulations we have.