Rounding Up Stray Dogs

Capt. Jaime Meraz and his colleagues at the L.A. County Department of Animal Care and Control perform an important and difficult job and they deserve our support (“Chasing 4-Legged Gang Members,” Voices, Jan. 23). In every case, a domestic dog is added to the rolls of roving packs by our negligence. Meraz’s crew is really just picking up after us when we fail to spay, neuter, register and tag our dogs and cats and provide them with secure, comfortable homes. We humans create the problem when we don’t accept responsibility for pets. The shelters are full of beautiful, adoptable pets. There is no need to breed more when, given the finite number of homes, every puppy we cause to be born equals one more homeless dog.

GARY PAUDLER

Summerland

I, also, have spent many years rescuing dogs from the streets of L.A. But, no matter how many strays we pick up, this tragedy won’t end as long as puppies are continuously turned out like sausages in thousands of backyards. We’d better get serious about this problem that costs millions of dollars per year in taxes and increased insurance rates and causes immeasurable suffering.

We must pass legislation to turn off the pet overpopulation faucet. Let’s have dog owners face substantial financial liability for endangering others and immediate monetary citations for failure to provide care for their dogs.

We could also move into the 21st century by providing our animal control officers with modern, humane tranquilizing devices such as those used in wildlife rescues.

PHYLLIS M. DAUGHERTY

Los Angeles