License Fee Increase for Unneutered Pets Urged

Saying drastic measures are needed to stem pet overpopulation, a Los Angeles commission recommended Monday that license fees for unaltered dogs be hiked to $100 and that cat owners be required to keep their pets indoors unless the animals are spayed or neutered.

The unanimous vote by the five-member Animal Regulation Commission followed several years of lobbying by animal rescue groups, who have called for tough new rules to reduce the thousands of animals euthanized each month at the city’s shelters.

Additional public hearings on the measures are expected to be conducted before the Public Safety Committee of the City Council and before the full council. The final council vote could come by March.

“I really hope this moves along quickly,” said Teri Austin, spokeswoman for the Amanda Foundation rescue group.

Dog breeders, however, say the regulations only punish responsible pet owners. They plan to file legal action against the city if the proposed ordinances are adopted.

“I am absolutely flabbergasted and outraged,” said Mary Di Biasi of Perris, who represents the American Federation of Dog Clubs and other organizations.

Calling the commission action “reprehensible,” she said the proposed ordinances “have nothing to do with stray and loose dogs in the city.”

But Al Avila, the acting commission president, said in his motion for approval that “the abandoned and unwanted leftovers of a disposable society . . . overwhelm our shelters.”

“Last year, 47,000 dogs and cats were killed by this department,” Avila said.

If approved by the City Council, the regulations probably will go into effect Jan. 1, 2001, with a six-month amnesty period for pet owners to comply.

License fees for unaltered dogs would increase from the current $30 per year to $100. An estimated 42% of the city’s 32,000 licensed dogs are unaltered. The annual fee for a spayed or neutered dog would remain at the current $10.

“The desired effect of the dog license fee differential is to encourage these owners to spay/neuter and renew at the lower license fee,” wrote Dan C. Knapp, department general manager, in a memo to commissioners Monday.

Commissioners agreed to drop a proposal to license cats and charge a similar $100 fee for each unaltered one. However, all cats that have not been altered would be required to be kept indoors at all times, according to the recommendation.

Breedable cats over the age of 4 months that are found outside could be impounded and the owner fined.

Owners of both dogs and cats would be charged an additional $100 annual fee for each dog or cat that breeds and would be restricted to producing only one litter of puppies or kittens per year per household. The owner of a mating pair of dogs, for example, would pay $200 each, for a total of $400 a year.

Owners cited for violations would be given 45 days to comply or be subject to $500 fines.

Breeders would be required to include their breeding permit number in all advertisements offering puppies or kittens for sale or adoption. Pet stores offering dogs and cats not bred within the city would have to display the name and address of the breeder.

The Department of Animal Services estimates that 160,000 dogs in the city are unlicensed. Of those, about 45,000 are strays that, along with an estimated 60,000 feral cats, roam the streets of Los Angeles.

After more than two years of debate, the City Council safety committee last March ordered that steps be taken to curtail animal overpopulation. A series of nine public hearings was held throughout the city, sometimes drawing several hundred people into highly polarized debates between breeders and rescuers.

Only about two dozen people paid a $16 parking fee to attend the department’s final hearing Monday, held at the Department of Water and Power headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. Breeders again warned that the dog license fees would create an economic hierarchy in which only wealthy pet owners could afford costs for breeding pets.

The laws would exempt service animals such as police and guide dogs.