Before I get into a discussion on whether I support CA SB 250 or mandatory spay/neuter laws in general I must emphasize that any opinion expressed here is solely my own and does not necessarily represent the opinion or position of FieldHaven Feline Rescue in general. While I am the President of the Board of Directors of FieldHaven (and volunteer Executive Director) the Board has not discussed nor positioned themselves on SB 250 or other mandatory spay/neuter legislation.
OK, now having gotten that out of the way. How do I feel about SB 250?? I am definitely sitting on the fence and heavily leaning towards the opposing side. What?, you say. Me, the self-proclaimed spay/neuter “nazi” who never hesitates to ask someone if their cat or dog is fixed and is downright evangelistic about spaying and neutering?!
Yes, you heard right. I am NOT convinced that a law to require everyone to spay and neuter their pets is the best way to get the job done. That job being putting an end to euthanizing of 4.5 million dogs and cats a year for no reasons except there are not enough homes and there are too many irresponsible people letting their animals breed.
We all know it is an American tragedy that these animals are killed each year and I think (hope) we all agree on 2 points; all cats and dogs should by spayed and neutered unless a breeder has a responsible, purposeful breeding program and that puppy mills need to be shut down and done away with.
Beyond that, there seems to be 2 definite factions – those that are for mandatory spay/neuter and those that are opposed. I lean towards the latter and here’s why:
Access to low-cost spay neuter – Not all areas in California are as fortunate as we are in Placer County with our low and no-cost spay/neuter programs. For example, several counties in the Central Valley have very limited or no low cost spay/neuter clinics or programs. Veterinarians will not provide discounted rates to anyone and many will not even accept feral cats for spay/neuter. How can we enact a law when there are no provisions for people who want to comply with the law but cannot afford to? How can we put a law in place that doesn’t even provide a reasonable means for people to comply? Wouldn't that would be like mandating that everyone has to get a driver’s license but putting DMV offices 200 miles apart.
A Law will Discourage Citizens from Helping – In a survey by Alley Cat Allies it is estimated that 82% of owned cats are already spayed/neutered. But only 3% of stray and feral cats are fixed. We have found through our spay/neuter assistance program (SNAP) at FieldHaven that a majority of the cats are strays and ferals that caring citizens have taken on the responsibility for. Sometimes, these people are unable to continue caring for them and we then assist them in trying to find them homes. But, more often they are very willing to continue caring for the cats once possibility of them multiplying has been addressed. My fear is that these caring people will not be so willing to help the cats if a law has now made them legally responsible for them. What happens if a new cat shows up that isn’t fixed? They may now think it much less complicated to call animal control to pick up the stray since they don’t want to risk any legal issues than to get the cat fixed and continue caring for it.
A Law Will Not Reach the Target Audience – I think most educated, intelligent law abiding citizens in America “get it” with respect to having their pets fixed. Do we really think the population of people that have the majority of unfixed pets are of the socio-economic group that are going to go “oh, it’s now a law honey – you better get your pit bull neutered”? Let’s be realistic here….... those are the people that we have hand-hold through the spay/neuter process by making it extremely easy and attractive for them to get the animal fixed. A law is only going to alienate them and make them even more resistant .
What about the couple in rural Lincoln who had 42 adult cats spayed/neutered through FieldHaven’s SNAP this spring, none of which were their own? All cats that had wandered onto their property or people had abandoned in the area. They are happy to continue caring for them now that they are all fixed. They didn’t need a law to do what they feel is morally right – they needed the financial assistance to get the job done.
We need to focus our efforts towards providing access to low-cost spay/neuter. For people like the couple with the 42 cats in rural Lincoln. That’s 42 cats that are not being euthanized at animal control. For people that would like a pet but don’t understand the importance of spaying and neutering, we need to provide education and easy access to low-cost spay neuter. For the busy family that finds a stray female cat in their yard we need to make it very easy for them to get the cat spayed and keep the cat in their family rather than making it complicated so that it becomes easier for them to just drop the cat at the animal shelter.
If all of the money spent by everyone supporting or opposing mandatory spay/neuter were to be put towards providing low-cost spay/neuter with easy access I think we’d be a lot further along in our effort to decrease the euthanasia rate in shelters.
Am I too idealistic in believing we can accomplish our goal without laws? I have a good friend who once told me, tongue in cheek, that my optimism reminded her of Pollyanna. Maybe I am too Pollyanna-ish – what do you think?
Here are some websites from both sides of the fence for you to peruse to form your own opinion:
http://www.yesonsb250.com/sb250-home.php
http://network.bestfriends.org/california/news/33373.html
http://capwiz.com/alleycat/issues/alert/?alertid=12987106&PROCESS=Take+Action&external_id=10519.0
http://www.akc.org/news/index.cfm?article_id=3802
PS: I am NOT opposed to requiring breeders to pay for an annual breeder’s license fee. But only if that license fee would be put towards accessible, high-volume low-cost spay/neuter programs.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
More Fun and Learning at HSUS (and wearily heading home)
Yesterday's most enlightening session was on one of the most current trends on the internet - Social Networking. I have dipped my toes into the waters of this booming craze with this blog, a facebook page and a LinkedIn page but, no, I have not TWITTERED yet. I found out that I am oh so out-of-date and I better get my tweaking my tweets because I could be missing out on lots of Twitter friends! New friends who could be FieldHaven supporters. Oh NO, I guess I better get twitting, twigging and tweating!
This morning’s session was another brain-burner (ie, giving me lots of good info…..and ideas). It focused on feline behavior and how to rehab cats in shelters with the goal of making them more adoptable presented by Miranda Workman of Purrfect Paws Animal Behavior Center in New York. The Erie County SPCA has a great program called AdvoCats. I think we have some AdvoCats at FieldHaven! Let’s give the FieldHaven team a name – any suggestions for a catchy moniker?
Alrighty then – time to head to the airport. I am READY to come home!!
This morning’s session was another brain-burner (ie, giving me lots of good info…..and ideas). It focused on feline behavior and how to rehab cats in shelters with the goal of making them more adoptable presented by Miranda Workman of Purrfect Paws Animal Behavior Center in New York. The Erie County SPCA has a great program called AdvoCats. I think we have some AdvoCats at FieldHaven! Let’s give the FieldHaven team a name – any suggestions for a catchy moniker?
Alrighty then – time to head to the airport. I am READY to come home!!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
HSUS Animal Care Conference in Las Vegas
Since Sunday night I've been in Las Vegas at the Annual Humane Society of the United States annual Animal Care Expo mingling with hundreds shelters, rescue and animal organizations. I've been staying at Bally's on the strip. LV is really isn't my kind of town!
On Monday I was across town at the Rio presenting at a medical record conference with my partner Jan. But, Monday evening I put my shelter hat on and dug into learning as much as I can at HSUS.
Here’s just a few of the interesting things I’ve learned, observed and experienced so far this week:
New Shelter Pet Campaign
HSUS is launching a HUGE adoption campaign in July! There are about 4,000 shelters, rescues, etc in the US today all working hard to end pet overpopulation. Much progress has been made in the past 2 decades but there are still 3.7 million cats and dogs being euthanized each year in shelters. This number has been slowly decreasing but not fast enough for all of us working towards the goal of No More Homeless Pets. Consider this: only 20% of household pets are being adopted from shelters! When people are thinking to add a pet to their family they need to think first of the shelter! HSUS, Maddie’s Fund and the Ad Council are joining forces to launch the Shelter Pet Project to basically ingrain it into the American public that a shelter is the best place to get a new pet.
Stay tuned as preparations for the campaign launch unfold – this is going to be exciting!
Pets being surrendered to shelter due to economic hard times
Every shelter is seeing the impact of the economy in more pets being turned in with the most common reason being “we have to move and the new place doesn’t allow pets”. Some solutions offered in one of the round table discussions I attended:
· PetCareInsurance has a policy for renters to cover any damage made by their pets.
· One organization posted inquiries on Craig’s List for pet-friendly rentals then compiled a list.
· HSUS has a brochure called “13 Steps to Finding Rental Housing that Accepts Pets”
Adoption Returns
We are definitely not alone with this problem. No one had any great solutions in spite of a variety of adoption screening practices among the group. A couple of points:
· Don’t alienate people returning animals. No matter how hard it is to “bite our tongues” sometimes we should look at this as another opportunity to educate, educate, educate so hopefully those people will think twice about the commitment before adopting another pet.
· Another reason to not alienate – this person could be a future donor or could say positive things about the organization to their friends.
· Shelters that have done studies on home visits vs no home visits prior to adoption do not report any decrease in returns when they do home visits.
· Same for imposing “waiting periods” before an adopted animal can go home.
I attended a fabulous session in the afternoon presented by Drs Hurley and Newbury of UC Davis on shelter statistics. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the details of that session but, being the stat geek that I am, I came away with some great ideas!
The exhibit hall also had some terrific networking opportunities. This being Las Vegas and the land of the $4 cup of coffee and $8 scoop of ice cream (yes!) I decided I should suck it up and try the food HSUS was offering for lunch and dinner. You know, it actually wasn't so bad. Don't know how they make that "chicken" taste like chicken but it was pretty tasty. But I have to draw the line at the fake shredded cheese. I can really understand being a vegetarian but veganism ......hmmmm....I just don't have that much willpower.
OK that was Day 1. I’ll fill you in on Day 2 (today) later tonight (or tomorrow morning).
On Monday I was across town at the Rio presenting at a medical record conference with my partner Jan. But, Monday evening I put my shelter hat on and dug into learning as much as I can at HSUS.
Here’s just a few of the interesting things I’ve learned, observed and experienced so far this week:
New Shelter Pet Campaign
HSUS is launching a HUGE adoption campaign in July! There are about 4,000 shelters, rescues, etc in the US today all working hard to end pet overpopulation. Much progress has been made in the past 2 decades but there are still 3.7 million cats and dogs being euthanized each year in shelters. This number has been slowly decreasing but not fast enough for all of us working towards the goal of No More Homeless Pets. Consider this: only 20% of household pets are being adopted from shelters! When people are thinking to add a pet to their family they need to think first of the shelter! HSUS, Maddie’s Fund and the Ad Council are joining forces to launch the Shelter Pet Project to basically ingrain it into the American public that a shelter is the best place to get a new pet.
Stay tuned as preparations for the campaign launch unfold – this is going to be exciting!
Pets being surrendered to shelter due to economic hard times
Every shelter is seeing the impact of the economy in more pets being turned in with the most common reason being “we have to move and the new place doesn’t allow pets”. Some solutions offered in one of the round table discussions I attended:
· PetCareInsurance has a policy for renters to cover any damage made by their pets.
· One organization posted inquiries on Craig’s List for pet-friendly rentals then compiled a list.
· HSUS has a brochure called “13 Steps to Finding Rental Housing that Accepts Pets”
Adoption Returns
We are definitely not alone with this problem. No one had any great solutions in spite of a variety of adoption screening practices among the group. A couple of points:
· Don’t alienate people returning animals. No matter how hard it is to “bite our tongues” sometimes we should look at this as another opportunity to educate, educate, educate so hopefully those people will think twice about the commitment before adopting another pet.
· Another reason to not alienate – this person could be a future donor or could say positive things about the organization to their friends.
· Shelters that have done studies on home visits vs no home visits prior to adoption do not report any decrease in returns when they do home visits.
· Same for imposing “waiting periods” before an adopted animal can go home.
I attended a fabulous session in the afternoon presented by Drs Hurley and Newbury of UC Davis on shelter statistics. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the details of that session but, being the stat geek that I am, I came away with some great ideas!
The exhibit hall also had some terrific networking opportunities. This being Las Vegas and the land of the $4 cup of coffee and $8 scoop of ice cream (yes!) I decided I should suck it up and try the food HSUS was offering for lunch and dinner. You know, it actually wasn't so bad. Don't know how they make that "chicken" taste like chicken but it was pretty tasty. But I have to draw the line at the fake shredded cheese. I can really understand being a vegetarian but veganism ......hmmmm....I just don't have that much willpower.
OK that was Day 1. I’ll fill you in on Day 2 (today) later tonight (or tomorrow morning).
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