Urban Jungle

The United States is a place full of paradox. Sometimes they can perpetuate self-evident lies about their response to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, being in denial because doing something to reduce emissions may have a negative effect on the growth of the US economy, but in the area of animal welfare they are in many ways the pioneers of new ideas.

A bill has been presented to the legislature of the state of California, which has made it past their preliminary assessments and may become law. The bill is a radical attempt to try to curb the euthanasia of tens of thousands of dogs and cats statewide that have been abandoned.

The bill proposes that all dogs and cats by law shall be neutered at four months of age. An offending owner, after a citation and a month's notice, will be fined US$500 unless the dog is properly registered or has a waiver from a veterinarian for health-related problems that rule out early neutering.

For professional breeders there is a waiver, but there is a US$100 annual registration fee compared to a US$10 fee for those who neuter their pets. For pet owners or amateur breeders who do not want their animals sterilised, there is a US$100 fee for each animal, so for example, an owner with two dogs will have to pay US$200 a year to keep them legally unneutered. There is a waiver for working dogs, such as those used by the police and the blind. The increase in the cost of breeding and keeping unsterilised animals is to deter owners from breeding when there are tens of thousands of animals euthanised every year. The money raised from fines and registration will be channelled into low-cost neutering clinics that further decrease the animal population. The proposal will not only saves needless suffering but also saves taxpayers money because it costs millions to euthanise all those unwanted animals.

It looks like a great plan but of course it has kicked up a real stink with some factions, especially those who breed dogs, who resent the new fees and fines. There is also the potential to lose some gene pool and breeders will lose the flexibility of the current large population of dogs to select from. It is a fact that for breeders to judge animals to select some traits such as behaviour and some congenital deformities, the animal may need to be older than four months or else there will be inaccuracies.

Some argue that this will be the end of the lovable mongrel and no one will pay a fee to breed these lovable tramps. It is argued that pure breeders would benefit more from the bill if it passes and that in the long run there will be no more mixed-breed dogs. This will not be the case because there is a niche for everything, no matter what. If there is a market for labradoodles and cockeranians, then there will continue to be mongrels. There will also always be the inevitable mongrels that slip through the net and those lovable mongrels will be available from the pound in copious quantities.