On Wednesday, I noted that Los Angeles announced that they will be discontinuing their free/low cost spay/neuter voucher program for the remaining part of this fiscal year, and the cuts may be ongoing in FY2010. The discontinuing of the voucher system is due to the city of Los Angeles seeing a $500 million deficite due to current economic conditions.
While discontinuing the voucher system would be bad on most areas, the bar is raised more in Los Angeles where last year the city passed an ordinance that would require all residents to alter their animals.
The ordinance had a dismal first year, with dog intakes going up 19%, and euthanasia going up 24% - and euthanasia for cats was up 35%.
Obviously, the eliminating the low cost spay/neuter vounchers, but keeping the ordinance is a recipe for disaster.
I've been pretty please with how much national press this has received -- it really is a big deal.
TheLos Angeles Daily news had a great article about this development. Lisa Levell, a vet tech in the area, said she was surprised that the voucher distribution had been halted.
"It's really important for the people with no income or now especially with people who lost their jobs. Almost all pet owners that come from the pound have a coupon for the surgeries."
Last year, the department issued 22,000 $30 discount coupons, and 12,000 $70 coupons - about 65% of the vouchers were used. So last year, 22,000 vouchers were redeemed.
Linda Barth, the assistant general manager for the shelter said that demand for the vouchers has been high since July (when they began enforcing the mandatory ordinance) - and because of the slow processing time between when the vouchers are given out, and when the vets are reimbursed -- the department is just now seeing a the rise in coupon usage.
The AP also picked up on this story -- which is great for the exposure of the problem -- but unfortunately left out a lot of the information about the failures of the mandatory law and how devastating the development may be.
Meanwhile, the Examiner.com folks have continued to miss the point on just about every issue. While the majority of the column is actually fairly good, they lost me with the second paragraph:
"In February 2008, the city council moved to make spaying and neuteringof pets mandatory in Los Angeles. This legislation was heralded nationwide as a key step toward the goal of reducing shelter killing of homeless and unwanted animals in LA."
Whoa. "Heralded"? The ordinance was criticize by virtually every animal welfare organization in the country. But they ignored that -- as well as the reality that the ordinance has been failing. Sigh.
Meanwhile, Winograd has some great suggestions at his place for additional provisions that any animal welfare group should insist on if they are pushing for mandatory spay/neuter laws with the idea that it will eliminate shelter killing. The suggestions only make sense.
Take a problem, make it worse. Rinse. Repeat.
Posted by: YesBiscuit! | March 16, 2009 at 09:58 AM
I'm a fan of sterilizing most dogs and cats. I think it's ethical and responsible.
It's a bit disingenuous, though, to mandate a procedure and then eliminate programs that facilitate legal compliance.
(I think it's really disingenuous to even mandate spay/neuter under the guise of wanting to "help animals" - time and time again, these unenforceable laws have done nothing of the sort).
Posted by: Rinalia | March 16, 2009 at 01:52 PM
I think that was a much needed program and it's a shame that it will be discontinued. But, the real proplem still lies with the irresponsible owners. Is there any means of dictating (not a fan of dictatorship, but...) responsibility with pet owners? Probably not.
Posted by: Brett | March 17, 2009 at 09:38 AM
This is like writing a bad check. The vouchers are already given. The city should make good on them.
I am outraged at the money the City of LA spends on killing dogs and cats instead of spaying. This is a indicator of how those in power thinks of the importance of life and morals.
Civilized humane societies do NOT kill their domestic dogs and cats and use the citizens taxes to do so. They have no right to the word "shelter"; this is fraud. I am fed up with this killing. Who will help me.
Posted by: Alice Vanderbelt | March 17, 2009 at 05:48 PM