Commission Recommends Raising Dog License Fee

Saying drastic measures are needed to stem pet overpopulation, Los Angeles Animal Regulation commissioners voted Monday to recommend raising license fees for unaltered dogs to $100 and to force cat owners to keep their pets indoors unless they are spayed or neutered.

The unanimous vote by the five-member commission was taken after three years of lobbying by animal rescue groups, who have called for tough new rules to reduce the thousands of animals euthanized monthly at the city’s shelters.

Additional public hearings are expected to be conducted before the Public Safety Committee of the City Council and before the full council prior to adoption, possibly 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, but more importantly, by the residents of this city,” Avila said.

If approved by the City Council, the new regulations are expected to go into effect Jan. 1, 2001, and would allow a six-month amnesty period for pet owners to comply without penalties.

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. In contrast, 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 [of unaltered dogs] 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 with a similar $100 fee for each unaltered adult. However, all cats that have not been spayed or neutered would be required to stay indoors at all times, according to the recommendation.

Cats over the age of 4 months that are capable of breeding and found outside could be impounded and owners 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 only one litter of puppies or kittens per year per household. The owner of a mated 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 else be subjected to $500 fines.

Breeders would also 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 also have to display the name and address of the breeder.

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

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

A hearing in August at the Mid Valley Regional Library in North Hills was canceled after a meeting room proved too small for all of the people who came for the meeting.

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 fees would create an economic hierarchy in which only wealthy pet owners could afford the fees to breed pets.

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