Barking Up the Overpopulation Tree

The city’s Animal Regulation Commission has recommended imposing a $500 licensing fee for any dog not spayed or neutered. Currently dog owners pay $30 to license unneutered pets and $10 to license those that are.

The board’s recommendation exempts licensed dog breeders, show dogs, guide dogs, police dogs and employed performing dogs. A dog whose owner completes 100 hours a year of volunteer service for the city also would be exempt.

The proposed ordinance could be considered by the Los Angeles City Council early next year. DEBORAH BELGUM spoke to an opponent and a proponent of the measure.

* Pro: There are too many unwanted pets that the shelters can’t accommodate

GINI BARRETT: Member of the Animal Regulation Commission since 1993; western regional director of the American Humane Assn.; owner of three dogs and two cats, all neutered

I have rescued animals all my life and have a pretty good idea of the unbelievable number of cats and dogs out there.

The $500 fee would encourage more pet owners to have their cats or dogs spayed or neutered and reduce the number of animals that end up on the street or in a shelter. A Humane Society of the United States study says that if every home in America had eight dogs and eight cats, there still wouldn’t be enough homes for all the animals we are producing.

There are just too many animals. It is a financial nightmare. We pay too many taxes to run the animal control agencies.

The city of Los Angeles kills 55,000 dogs and cats every year, and it costs taxpayers $4 million to keep them, to feed them and then you end up killing them. And that is just for the ones who die. It’s another $3.5 million for the ones who live and are adopted.

The national average is that 67% of all pets who go into a shelter do not come out alive, and Los Angeles is on that national level. That doesn’t even begin to touch the tens of thousands who live and die on our streets and don’t go to our shelters. They live horrible lives.

And the public safety issue should be considered. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta issued a report stating that dog attacks are one of the biggest health crises for children. It is more serious than measles, mumps and whooping cough combined.

Most of the people I am running across who have a problem with this are middle-class whites who have a nice dog and want to have a litter once every year or every two years. They think it is fine to take the puppies to the shelter or give them to just anyone, who may give them to a shelter six months later. We want to try to recognize responsible owners, so we have put lots of exemptions into the proposal for those who participate in animal-related activities.

*Con: L.A. would lose money, plus everyone should have right to breed his or her dog

Scott Jones: North Hollywood, owner of a 1-year-old black Labrador named Sheila, which he hopes to breed

They are going to lose money on this proposal. The pet population people say we spend $4 million a year to euthanize 55,000 dogs and cats. Half of those animals are probably cats (whose owners don’t have to get a license), so that is $2 million spent for dogs.

Half of the dogs are probably dogs who have to be put down for reasons other than they are from an unwanted litter--elderly dogs and strays. So that’s about $1 million to dispose of unwanted puppies. And by the Humane Society’s own figures, only 25% of the puppies that end up at the pound are from licensed dogs. So that’s $250,000 a year we spend to put to sleep puppies from licensed dogs.

This year, 59,000 people licensed their dogs at $30 apiece to keep them intact, compared with 100,000 who paid $10 each because they had been fixed. That is $1.77 million we paid for the privilege of having an intact dog. It more than pays for the $250,000 spent on euthanizing the unwanted pups from these dogs.

I called Camden, N.J., where a similar law has been in effect since April 1996. Camden, because it’s smaller, is a heck of a lot easier to regulate than Los Angeles. According to the municipal clerk, so far no one has paid the $500 fee. During a normal year, they have 344 dog licenses. When they passed the ordinance, it dropped to 244 dog licenses. One-third of dog owners probably went outside the city to license their dogs. So here in Los Angeles, they will lose $1.77 million from people who used to pay $30 for a dog license.

Another major problem is you have to license your dog when he or she is just 4 months old. Most vets won’t fix a dog until after it is 6 months old. If you spay or neuter a dog when it is 3 months old, it doesn’t grow to the normal size of the breed and has a high-pitched bark.

I want to breed my dog to keep her line. After she has the puppies, I will keep one of them and then have her fixed.

The alternatives to this measure would be to offer education on how to be a responsible pet owner. Give people a pet book or video and require them to pass a simple test to get a dog license. Or start ticketing those people who haven’t licensed their dogs. There are things that can be done.