Well time to bump this....LA has passed it...though I can't say I know what to think of it....nor the way the article was written
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/radio...,2010695.story
The fix is in
The L.A. City Council was right to pass a mandatory spay-neuter law. It should've left out the loopholes, though.
By MEGHAN DAUM
February 16, 2008
On tuesday, the same day as the final rounds of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the dogs and cats of Los Angeles lost their reproductive rights. After an often contentious bureaucratic journey, the City Council, by a vote of 14 to 1, passed an ordinance that requires pet owners to spay or neuter all dogs and cats by the age of 4 months. You have to wonder if the pets sprawled on the floor in front of the televised dog show felt some form of unconscious resentment. After all, it's one thing to sacrifice your fertility for the common good. It's quite another to watch the incontrovertible evidence that to be a champion, you need to be not only purebred and perfectly proportioned, you need all your parts.
Of course, not everyone likes all that this implies. In five cities, stations airing the dog show ran a series of anti-breeding andpro-animal-birth-controlads put out by the radical animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. (They weren't shown in L.A., but they're posted on the PETA website.)
In one of the ads, a man in a KKK hood enters a meeting of the American Kennel Club and announces that he feels right at home because of the group's belief in the "sanctity of pure bloodlines." In another, parents encourage their teenage daughter to "pop out all the kids you want" because "we can leave them in the shelter or dump them in the street." ("Parents Shouldn't Act This Way. Neither Should People With Dogs and Cats.") In the third spot, a family signs papers for the purebred dog they'll soon receive, only to be presented with what they're told is a dead dog in a plastic garbage bag because "when you buy a dog from a breeder, you kill a dog in a shelter."
Whatever one makes of PETA's message, it's hard to argue against spaying and neutering. There's the very real safety hazard of aggressive, unaltered dogs roaming the streets. More important, according to the Humane Society of the United States, between 6 million and 8 million dogs and cats enter shelters each year nationwide, about half of which are euthanized. Here in L.A., the Department of Animal Services reports that more than a third of the 45,875 animals impounded last year were put to sleep. As bad as that is, it's a significant drop from 2002, and General Manager Ed Boks has said he hopes that the mandatory spay and neuter law will help make us a "no kill" city by 2010.
Whether this can be achieved is, of course, yet to be determined. Animal Services is making it easy to comply -- it will distribute more than 30,000 free or reduced-cost spay or neutering vouchers -- but at the same time, it's easy to get around the law. For one thing, it's unlikely that police officers will be knocking on doors and inspecting cats for intact ovaries. For another, licensed breeders or owners of herding, guide, law enforcement or show dogs, among others, will receive exemptions. Moreover, anyone outside of those categories who wishes to keep a dog or cat intact can do so by paying a $100 fee and microchipping and licensing his pet.
Those who disagree with the new rules have their reasons: "Don't tell me what to do with my property." "Irresponsible owners will be irresponsible regardless of the law." "Four months is too young for sterilization." (That view is disputed by the veterinary community.) There are also conspiracy-tinged conjectures: A post on Boks' blog suggested that mandatory pet sterilization is tantamount to performing hysterectomies on preschool girls.
Despite the threat of PETA members storming playgrounds and mistaking little girls for Shih Tzus (both tend to wear barrettes, after all), I'm in full support of the spay and neuter law, with one caveat: I don't think you should be able to buy your way out it. By allowing exemptions to anyone who can afford it, the exception to the rule risks turning an unsterilized pet into not just a potential nuisance or safety threat but into a status symbol. Just as being affluent is no guarantee that someone will make a good parent, being able to pay $100 has nothing to do with the ability to manage an unfixed animal.
As for the potential body image crises brought on by the Westminster dog show, it turns out there's a cure for everything. For about $60, a neutered male pet can be fitted with a pair of "Neuticals," a canine testicular implant that, according to the company website, lets male dogs (and cats, horses and bulls) retain their "natural look and self-esteem." Should L.A. Animal Services get wise and offer vouchers for these too? Maybe so. Behind nearly every pet with low self-esteem stands an owner with even less.
mdaum@latimescolumnists.com