Tough Policy for Pets : Shelters Spay, Neuter Even Young Animals

Hardly anyone who adopted a puppy or kitten from Laguna Beach’s animal shelter used to take the pet to be spayed or neutered--even though the shelter made the veterinary appointment and footed the bill.

So Laguna Beach decided to get tough.

Following a national trend, shelters in Laguna Beach and two other Orange County communities have approved mandatory spay-neuter policies for all adopted dogs and cats, some as young as 4 weeks--or as soon as they are weaned. Also requiring spaying or neutering are Irvine’s shelter and San Clemente’s shelter, which mandates sterilization for rats and rabbits as well.

Under the policies, all healthy cats and dogs that leave the shelter are sterilized--including lost pets whose owners do not find them before a five- to seven-day waiting period.

Next week, a coalition of animal activists from groups including the Orange County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will present a proposal to Orange County Animal Shelter officials, asking them to require sterilization for dogs and cats starting at age 8 weeks. Coalition leaders point out that shelters nationwide--including the six run by the city of Los Angeles--require spaying or neutering without significantly hiking adoption fees.

“You might get some vets that say the puppies and kittens are not [sexually] developed yet, but that has proven to be incorrect,” said Dolores Ulrich, an Orange County People for Animals activist who is leading the unnamed coalition.

“People like little puppies and little kittens. If they want them [young], we have to make sure they’re spayed or neutered.”

In the past few months, the coalition’s meetings have drawn representatives from 15 animal groups, but it is not yet clear how many will back the proposal, Ulrich said. The coalition is scheduled to meet with shelter officials on Oct. 18.

The county animal shelter, which serves 20 cities, has not seen the coalition’s proposal yet, director Judy Maitlen said. Maitlen said the shelter does not have the money or staff to sterilize the thousands of animals that are adopted there each year.

“If somebody can find a veterinarian that can donate 7,500 free spay-neuters a year, that would really be something,” she said. “That’s probably a little pie in the sky.”

Others raise questions about mandating the procedure at such an early age, noting that many veterinarians do not perform spay-neuter surgeries until the pet reaches 6 months old.

The Animal Assistance League of Orange County supports spay-neuter programs but hasn’t decided whether to back the coalition’s proposal, said league President Ruth Frankel. The league wants more information on whether the procedure is safe for such young animals.

“You know, there is an emotional thing to overcome,” she said. “I think it’s hard for us to accept major surgery on tiny, undeveloped organs. . . . But our organization is keeping an open mind.”

The American Humane Assn. and American Veterinary Medical Assn. have endorsed the concept of spay-neuter procedures on puppies and kittens as a way to cut down on the growing number of unwanted dogs and cats. At 5,000 shelters nationwide, between 7 million and 10 million animals are destroyed each year, according to Humane Assn. estimates.

At the Orange County shelter, one of the largest in the West, about 16,000 animals were euthanized in 1995, half because they were unwanted or not adoptable.

The Humane Assn. does not keep statistics on the number of shelters that require early spaying or neutering. But very few shelters mandate the procedure, said Humane Assn. spokeswoman Joyce Briggs.

The movement for mandated shelter policies started to spread a few years ago when veterinary medical journals ran studies saying the procedure was safe for dogs and cats from 6 to 8 weeks old, experts said.

Also, in the last few years, the early procedures have become more common as veterinary medicine perfected safe anesthesia procedures and smaller surgical instruments for baby animals, Laguna Beach veterinarian John Hamil said.

Research shows that spay-neuter surgery does not cause physical or behavioral problems in puppies and kittens, said Hamil, a coalition advisor.

Other veterinarians aren’t convinced.

Aliso Viejo veterinarian Bob Totman said he prefers to wait until the animal is at least 3 months old.

“Mother Nature developed puberty for a reason,” he said. “For a really young pet, removing developing organs that don’t have an opportunity to interact [with glands] . . . is interrupting a natural maturing process of the body.”

Besides the medical concerns, a mandatory spay-neuter program would raise economic questions, coalition leaders acknowledge.

In its proposal to the county, the coalition will suggest ways to pay for such a program, such as using volunteers to help transport animals to veterinarians, Ulrich said. The coalition would try to enlist veterinarians to perform the procedures at reduced costs, she said.

Shelters with mandatory policies say they have been able to work out logistics with the help of volunteers and veterinarians who donate their services or give them a price break.

Mission Viejo’s shelter does not have a mandatory policy, but supervisor John Gonzales said he supports the concept.

“We’re in a throw-away society,” he said. “People will have a cat, and then they’ll decide, ‘Hey, I don’t want it anymore,’ and they leave them behind, and they don’t get them spayed or neutered.”