Passions Unleashed on the Topic of Spaying

Terri Mitchell of Atwater Village writes:

“Dear Scott,

This is your treatise on the licensing fee:

Hundreds of thousands of animals are killed in LA County every year.

It sucks.

I feel guilty--my own family dog wasn’t spayed and had lots of puppies that ended up who knows where.

I don’t care.

I think all dogs should have puppies. . . .”

Well, apparently that was one way of interpreting my recent column concerning the proposed $500 licensing fee for dogs that haven’t been spayed or neutered.

That wasn’t how I interpreted what I had written. But then, I’m biased.

Terri Mitchell, I would later learn, also didn’t care for my opening line: “Heidi was a bitch, but I loved her.” Although I don’t have a dog now, you see, I grew up with Heidi and Fanny and because of them witnessed the proverbial miracle of birth.

People are passionate about their pets. Some are so passionate, in fact, that they eschew the term pet in favor of animal companion. Both the volume of reader mail and the emotion expressed were impressive.

Readers touched upon such diverse topics as: Are implanted microchips or tattoos the best way to ID dogs? Do pit bulls and Rottweilers get a bad rap?

But the closest thing to a common theme were questions about how I ended the story. I recalled a boyhood memory about the time I chased off a few of Fanny’s suitors . . . and then ran for my life as the dog pack turned around and pursued me with fangs bared.

“These days,” I wrote, “I’d probably just have the bitch spayed. After one litter, maybe.”

Call it a small note of ambivalence. But in matters of passion, ambivalence is seldom appreciated.

Wrote Patti Everett of Chatsworth: “Are you serious or are you being sarcastic? If you are serious, why would you want to add to the overpopulation problem? If you are being sarcastic, right on! Dogs don’t ‘need’ to have the experience of motherhood to be good pets.”

Added Janine Adams of Brooklyn, N.Y. (who said she read the column on the Internet): “There’s no reason to let a dog have a litter. Unless you’re part of a responsible breeding program, in my opinion, your dog shouldn’t be bred at all. And dogs who are spayed prior to their first heat are protected from future health problems like breast cancer. I think that off-hand remark diminished the quality of the column a great deal.”

And meanwhile, there was this from Liza Botkin of Studio City: “I’m thinking that maybe I woke up a little dense this morning, and that your intention was humorous. Was it? If so, I hope others woke up less dense than I and didn’t take you seriously! But seriously, thank you for your support of responsible pet ownership.”

Other readers, it should be noted, expressed dismay over proposed ordinances that would penalize those who choose not to spay or neuter their dogs and cats. One man said he hoped for his bitch to have one litter, so that he could keep one of her puppies as a family pet. Another insisted that, contrary to Adams’ contention, his dog experienced health troubles because it was fixed.

But back to the sentence that puzzled so many readers--and, I suspect, inspired Terri Mitchell’s wrath.

This is how her e-mail continued: “Scott, do the people like myself who have to deal with the consequences of your stupidity and selfishness by scraping what’s left of these animals up off the street a favor and write about something else. Or better yet, don’t write at all. Do something else. In fact, why don’t you get off your ass and go out and start picking up animals like the rest of us? You need to go out and take a real panoramic look at what you advocate.”

Well, I didn’t know I advocated allowing dogs and cats to run wild and have unprotected sex. Matter of fact, I’ve had two male cats, the late Lou and the living Killer, both of which I had neutered before they could start tomcatting around. The last time I got a dog--as a gift for my father after Fanny had died--I got her from the Ann Street Animal Shelter. She was spayed.

But all that noted, fond memories of Heidi and Fanny--and their puppies--still leave me wondering whether, at some future time, I would be so quick to have the family bitch spayed.

Ambivalence certainly didn’t sit well with Mitchell. I tried to explain my wishy-washiness by e-mail, and she answered:

“It looks like you still don’t get it. You either fix your animals or you don’t. You either contribute to the problem or you don’t. You’re either a macho dummy or you’re not. You apparently are, as evidenced by your (ha ha) clever little ‘bitch’ language and your position on spay and neuter. . . . Quote me. Please, make my day.”

My pleasure.

*

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to him at The Times’ Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311, or via e-mail at scott.harris@latimes.com Please include a phone number.