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BPO Legislation Forum => Bills & Other Legislative Acts => : maxsmom February 01, 2008, 12:15:20 AM
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OMG. It passed. I can't believe it. How could anyone agree with this? It looks like we will all eventually end up living with this type of interference in our lives. This is so sad. 4 months of age for mandatory spay and neuter. Have they all lost their minds? What do they think that is going to do to the poor animals?
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So what are the Penalties?
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I copied the following from the AKC website. I hope that is okay. Apparently, LA county is meeting on 4-18 to discuss their version of the mandatory spay/neuter legislation.
The Los Angeles City Council will hear a proposed mandatory spay/neuter ordinance at their meeting this Friday, February 1st. It is vital that responsible dog owners and breeders attend the hearing to oppose this measure.
The ordinance will require that all dogs or cats over the age of four months be spayed or neutered unless they qualify for one of the following exemptions:
The dog or cat is registered with a registry approved by the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services and the dog or cat is used to actively show and has competed in at least one show or sporting competition in the past year or is being trained to show or compete. (It is unclear how an owner would prove that an animal is being trained to show or compete and this would be decided by the Department of Animal Services when they draft additional regulations.)
The dog has earned, or if under 3 years old is in the process of earning an agility, carting, herding, protection, rally, hunting or other title from an approved registry or association.
The dog is trained or in the process of being trained as a guide, signal or service dog or is enrolled in a licensed breeding program for these activities.
The dog is trained or in the process of being trained and is actively used by law enforcement agencies or the military.
A licensed veterinarian certifies that the animal’s health would best be served by spaying/neutering after a specified date, or that due to age or poor health it is unsafe to sterilize the animal at this time.
The owner of the dog or cat has a valid breeding permit issued by the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services.
In addition intact animals must be microchipped and the chip number must be registered with the department.
The proposal will also establish an Animal Services Spay/Neuter Advisory Committee to advise the city on providing spay/neuter services to low income residents. Each member of the Los Angeles City Council will appoint a member to the committee.
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i think this is a brillent law. I am sorry, but it will definitly help stop all the back yard breeders. I wish they had this law in MA it would be great. People keep haveing accidental pregnancies... although if you have intact male with intact female and female is in heat...that is not an accident... oops sorry it fell in? that doesn't work here. I am so for this law. It does have the exceptions which works well. But in NY and in MA it will help tame the pittie population...s ince everyone on craigslist seems to have these poor pups for sale.
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it is not brilliant in my humble opinion.
First off, with a hubby as a law enforcement officer, as busy as they are and short help they are, how the hades are they gonna enforce this???
it is utterly rediculous
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I am sorry and don't mean to offend anyone, but I don't think it is a brilliant law. Where I live all pets have to be licensed. We are only allowed to have 3 dogs. There are numerous people in my neighborhood who have 5 or 6. As long as you don't take your dog to the vet for a rabies shot, you do not have to buy a license, because the county does not know you have them. When you do get the shot, if you don't license them, you are fined. In other words, the people who are indiscriminate ly allowing their dogs to breed are most likely not going to give them their vaccinations either. If they don't take their dogs to the vet, nobody knows they have them and they won't be forced to obey this law. It is a law, that in my opinion, will do more harm to the animals, than good for them. This country needs to worry about owner education and programs to teach responsible dog ownership and stop trying to legislate it.
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I have heard solid agruments on this bill for many months from both sides. At this point if it can put a seriouse dent in the hundreds of thousands of dogs that are on Pet Finder I am for it as much as the "keep the governemnt of my back" side of me loathes it.
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I am seriously not trying to make anyone mad or offend anyone here. If this country was trying to pass laws that would seriously help the pets in this country, I would be the first one to support them.
1. Stop shelters from importing dogs to adopt out. Pass a law against that. Let's take care of the dogs we have here and stop killing them before we bring them in from other countries. I believe we should help our own. http://enews.tufts.edu/stories/020603FillingEmptyPounds.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-21-dog-imports_N.htm
2. Force shelters who have more adoptees than pets to bring in pets from other parts of the country, where they are stil killing adoptable pets.
3. Make low cost or free training available to individuals who would otherwise drop their dog or cat at the shelter.
Any law that forces me to castrate or spay my pet that I bought and paid for, is WRONG and I won't comply! I will not take my pet to the vet for vaccinations, if that is my only option to avoid it. Any law that forces me to castrate or spay my pet before they are sexually mature is animal abuse and cruelty. This law won't prevent puppy mills or indiscriminate breeding of dogs who aren't taken care of in the first place. It will unfairly penalize the owners who are responsible pet owners, but for reasons of their own don't spay or castrate their pets, although they are not breeding. I'm not going to castrate Max, unless it becomes medically necessary, although I will never breed him. There will always be pets turned in to rescue groups and shelters, as long as their are pets in our homes. There will always be someone who purchases that beautiful, little ball of fur, that turns into a cat that pees on the furniture, or dog that barks incessantly, or untrained dog that bit someone, or dog that just got too big or sheds or eats too much, or cat that is scratching the furniture, etc. Okay, I am getting off my soapbox now and going to get a drink. Sorry, but I really feel strongly about this and if you don't agree, that is your constitutional right and I wholeheartedly support your right to your opinion.
Kathy
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There is a really amazing book called "Redemption" that addresses what needs to be done to become a "no-kill" society and he makes an argument that increased legislation doesn't cut it, for all the reasons some of you have listed. I would love to see all puppy mills and BYB nonexistent, but I don't necessarily think this legislation is going to accomplish that goal. :( I think the hopeful thing is that at least someone in power is thinking about these issues. We just have a really long way to go as a society. :'(
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perhaps i need to explain myself a little more. I do agree with this law, spay/neuter before 8-9 months i do disagree with. Although it will prevent the "accidental pregnancies" I know the laws are getting way to intense. And yes i agree that shelter should stop rescuing out side of USA and adopting them out. We do have enough here! I do not agree with the early spay/neuter...i do think they should all be done though with in the certain amount of time, except those who are activly showing and so forth. Look there are so many more benefits of spay/neuter...less chance of certain cancers, behavioral problems, and more. I do understand that trainers would be out due to less behavioral issues, But this law would be great if and only if the population would tame itself down, and then the law lifted. JMO
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I am seriously not trying to make anyone mad or offend anyone here.
I don't think you're offending, you're just stating your opinion, just like everybody else!!
My take, the bottom line is that there is no way this can be truly enforced!! If animal control doesn't have enough officers to do their job now, they aren't going to have enough tomorrow either. I think every city has a "law" that your animal has to be licensed/registered in the city. I have yet to have an officer of any kind stop and ask me if mine are registered, they do however stop and talk to me sometimes about the dogs!!
I also have no desire to ever have an intact animal. I am not a breeder, don't intend to ever be one so there is no reason my animals need to be intact. But I do think putting a mandatory age on it, especially 4mths is a bit much. I know of some shelters though that as soon as they get a puppy in, regardless of age will have it fixed even at 8wks!
Regardless of what any city tries to come up with they aren't going to please everyone, but what law does?!?!? I guess they should get some credit for at least trying!!!
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By putting a dent in puppy mills, wich, i doubt it will even touch them, it hurts those of us who breed seriously, and esp myself who has occasional litters, not pumping out litter after litter.
It affects me more ways than the normal person, and, again, i doubt they will be able to enforce it.
no offense was intended to anyone here by my reply, simply a hot topic that is all.
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I can not undersand some in this law. Must be spayed at 4 mo unless has earned show titles???? What show titles a pup can earn before 4 mo????
Here, for example, puppy can participate at the show only from 4 mo, and only on specialized one breed show, and no titles are given then, only evaluation... Do puppies can ear any serious show titles before 4 mo birthday?????
Other thing - as this is large breed board, here all bitches and stud dogs to get breeding permission must pass the HD ED test which must be done at 2 y! Not earlier. It wary, but HD with ABC goes as possible breeding staff, if D or even worse - better be spayed as they will never get the permission on breeding. It is quite fashion thing, these HD tests here, but it is another question, so again... ????
How at 3 mo somebody can decide that this will be worth breeding or not???
I would offer different thing - licence costs. Double or even triple the licence for unspayed anymal unless (all the exceptions mentioned before) And - project planned here - mandatory microchipping(can be done at very early age without a damage for healts) and make illegal (with very high penalty fee) selling any dog without microchipping. It still will let some morons breed how they want, but if the penalty for seling pup without a microchip will be really high, then it will take out most of the BYB.
Just my 2 cents here :) Sorry!
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Looks like the only right were gonna have left is sitting still and shutting the heck up
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If they passed a mandatory spay/neuter here I wouldn't like it.. but in a way it could be a good thing. :-\
The 4 months old part ticks me off. >:( Even the humane society here is 6 months of age for puppies.
I don't feel it should apply to legimate registered breeders. Although at the same time I've seen some pretty horrible registered breeders. Since they can't really weed out the good from the bad they lump them all into one catagory. :(
Regardless.. I don't see how they can enforce it either. ???
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Starting this year in San Bernardino County, California, a bit east of LA County, to register a spayed or neutered dog is $15.00 or $9.00 for owners over age 65. Unaltered dogs cost $96.00. It will be interesting to see how many unaltered dogs mysteriously disappear from the rolls.
The LA law has not actually passed yet. It has preliminary approval and will undergo a second reading next week. It will most likely pass. Here is a summary of which dogs can be legally excluded from the order:
The proposal includes exemptions for animals who show and have competed in at least one legitimate show or sporting competition; dogs that are in the process of earning an agility, carting, herding, protection, rally, hunting, working or other title; guide, signal or service dogs; dogs that are used by law enforcement agencies; and animals with valid breeding permits.
I should set up a business bringing my pygmy goat to Los Angeles and giving herding lessons. I don't actually know how to do that, so the "process" will take a really long time.
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I can just see it now. Lots of poorly bred, poorly handled, poorly groomed dogs competing in everything from herding to conformation. "Okay, I showed him. Now leave me alone." LMAO
Kathy
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For me this is a HOT topic.
On the plus side we possibly could reduce the number of dogs that are being put to sleep on a daily basis in the US. Also if someone is required to spayed/neutered or have thier dog in some type of training, then just think of all of the dogs that are now going to benefit from that training. I did notice that they did not specify that the dog had to be a purebreed dog to be exempt because of the training.
Also there is the clause that if the vet feels that 4 months is too early, then you can wait until the animal is considered old enough to be spayed/neutered as per the vets recommendation . What this is going to do is make people seek out the advice and have a vetrinarian involved in the animals care.
I would like to see restrictions put on breeders, not to hurt the legitimate breeders but there has to be some control of the BYB's and the puppy mills. Its not the honest decent breeders that are causing the harm.
Now how is it going to be enforced? Who is going to enforce? Is this just going to be one more law that is on the books but no one has time to enforce?
We have a law here in Texas. No tethering for more than 3 hours per day. We can not get the local Sheriffs dept to enforce this law. The local Sheriffs dept states that it is not a valid law, even though we have provided them proof.We are now having the attorneys who helped to draft the law contact this law enforcement entity. There is a Pyr that is living on a 4 foot chain which is clearly violating that law.
Then lets go to the fact that as Maxsmom pointed out- Poorly bred dogs from BYB's and Mills who are able to get the permits or somehow bypass the permits limitations.
Are we now going to make the average mutt an endangered species? Or, since they are now called Designer Dogs, maybe that is going to be approved.
I have had some wonderful mixed breed dogs in my life, will we only have poorly bred purebreed dogs? ( I say purebred loosely )
There has to be some way to stop the killing of innocent dogs and cats, but I think that we need to focus on the BYB's and the puppy mills first.
Maybe this law will bring more people to the forefront who otherwise would not get involved, to help modify the law for the better. As a rescuer, I am overwhelmed at times with grief for the ones I had to say no to because of lack of space or funds.
I guess I am looking for the "perfect" world.