April Deadlines

The ill-named California Healthy Pet Act (AB 1634) will be heard on April 10th, the first day after the Assembly Members' spring recess. Go here for the full text. Write and make your calls now! The Assembly member roster is here, and info on the office of the Chief Clerk is here.

Be sure to attend the April 17th Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Meeting, starting at 2:30pm (click on Item 42, then read the PDF files in the right column). Right now it looks like the only topic for discussion is the Animal Overpopulation Ordinance. Get there real early and sign up to speak. The Board is expecting a HUGE turnout, and based on what I've heard the folks who want to "spay/neuter everything to save lives" crowd will be pulling out all the stops. If you want to tell Sacramento County what you think about the proposed cat and dog genocide ordinance (oops - did I say that?), call - write - attend!!!

Info on contacting all the Supervisors is here. The April meeting will be held at 700 H Street, Ste 1450 in Sacramento.

MSN Fails Again.. and again... and again...

Want to know what *really* happens when mandatory spay/neuter ordinances are enacted? Check out an in-depth article from an animal rights/welfare organization posted this May. Their conclusion from studying the results of 8 MSN ordinances and 11 cities/counties with subsidized spay/neuter clinics:

"... funds devoted to breed permitting programs and compliance enforcement may be better used for subsidized spay/neuter clinics. Laws that target every dog and cat owner and attempt to limit most if not all breeding seem to result in decreased compliance and expensive permitting programs that are difficult to administer. These laws do not, in any event, appear to achieve the critical goals of reducing shelter intake and euthanasia rates."

More interesting thoughts:

"... According to the Journal of Veterinary Medical Association, the characteristics of most dogs who are left in shelters include lack of veterinary care, obtained at little or no cost, lives mostly outside, needs more care and attention than expected, comes from a family who are divorcing, moving, or has changed financial circumstances; is noisy, destructive, or soils the house.... Clearly, many of the reasons animals end up in shelters have nothing to do with breeding, but rather irresponsible pet owners who opt not to care for their animals. Only education and aggressive fostering and adoption programs will help resolve these situations."

Yep.

Do note, however, that the author recites the oft-repeated AR mantra that two dogs will produce 67,000 puppies and two cats birth 420,000 kittens within 6 generations. Um.... no. According to a study by the Cat Fanciers Association, using real-life cat stats:

"Realistically, over 12 years one unspayed female with all her unspayed female offspring can reasonably be expected to be responsible for over 3200 kittens if there is no human intervention."

I'm guessing the canine situation would be similar.

True Numbers

Last week Sacramento City Animal Control finally provided some figures resulting from a HSUS audit:

Year 2000 - Intake: 20,482

Year 2006 - Intake: 9,841

That's a 10,641 *Reduction* or -52% over the past six years.

Now according to this audit, the number of euthanized dogs was 1,898 for 2006. In 2002, it was 4,133. That's a -54% reduction in dogs killed by AC over the past four years.

Does anyone else out there think it sounds like whatever programs are in place are already working?

Posts from the War

Freedom never is free, is it? We must be constantly vigilant against the steady, measured tramp of the enemy upon our most basic rights. Sometimes freedom is secured by reading between the lines... other times, by magnifying the words.

Read yesterday's Sacramento Bee article by Jim Sanders on Assembly Bill 1634, then check out the online comments . One major blunder in the Bill's construction was caught by a sharp-eyed reader:

(sec 122336.2). For a permit to be issued, "all" of the following have to exist: 1. Registration with AKC, etc; 2. Trained and qualified as a Guide or Service Dog.; 3. Trained and used as a Law Enforcement Dog by a Law Enforcement Agency; and 4. Vet's cert that the dog is too old/ill/etc to be altered.

Hmm.... I wonder how many AKC registered Chihuahua Service Dogs who occasionally work as federal drug detectors, and are either old or sick will receive breeding permits under this Bill?

Supporting Education

I read an interesting idea while on one of my favorite Yahooo! Lists tonight - CAPetLaw. Actually there's a bunch of good thoughts posted there, some better than others. Check it out.

Another good Yahoo! group to visit for an overview of the national situation is PetLaw - a couple thousand souls strong and growing all the time. Posts are moderated for both Lists, but the ARs do get their say now and then to remind us why we're in the fight of our pet-owning lives. Oh, what they said about the Iditarod -!

Here are a few sites with something to say about Mr.Levine's AB1634:
www.NoPitbullBans.com
Fanc-E-Mews from the Cat Fanciers' Association
Pet-Law.com