Pets Turned In by Owners Deserve Same Protection as Those Off the Streets

KAREN KARLITZ recently spoke to Paula Kislak, who was instrumental in drafting this law.

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PAULA KISLAK

Veterinarian, Sherman Oaks

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Former Sen. Tom Hayden’s legislation aims to give animals in the shelter system a better chance of being reunited with their owners or adopted.

A significant number of animals turned in by “owners” turn out to not belong to the people bringing them in. Los Angeles shelters get calls all the time from people whose pets have been trapped by neighbors or former spouses and brought in as owner-relinquished.

The city of Los Angeles has six geographically dispersed shelters, and an animal that is turned in can be transferred to any one of them. Owners must check them all, every day, for their missing pets.

Many shelters also have customer-unfriendly hours. The Hayden legislation modestly increases the number of days that stray animals are held before they can be euthanized and increases the hours or days, or both, that shelters remain open. Before the Hayden bill became law, owner-relinquished animals could be killed the moment they entered the shelter, because, technically, ownership transferred to the shelter from the person turning in the animal. And that usually was the case, because that was how the shelters controlled their populations.

Shelters were never mandated by law to take in owner-relinquished animals, and under the Hayden law they’re still not. But as of July 1, shelters must keep owner-relinquished animals for the same time they do strays.

Studies done by Tufts University and Colorado State University veterinary schools show the owner-relinquished population to be the most adoptable.

Even with the new holding time, California will be one of the six states with the shortest holding periods. Extended holding periods do not have to cause overcrowding. Shelters can go back to their funding authorities--city, county or private--to ask for money to build more kennels.

This law was passed because we wanted to end absolute shelter discretion to kill. We also wanted improved spay and neuter opportunities and improved options for adoption and recovery of lost pets. These are cost-effective methods for reducing shelter populations.

Since this law was enacted, shelters have reduced their impound rates. In 1998 about 98,000 animals were impounded in the L.A. County shelter system. By 1999 the number had dropped to 91,000 and one year later had fallen to 81,000.

Every time an animal is adopted, the shelters generate revenue; every time one is killed, it costs them money. If the law’s provisions are implemented faithfully, the shelters could save money.

Opponents of this law sometimes claim that adoptable stray animals will have to be put to sleep sooner to accommodate potentially less-adoptable owner-relinquished animals.

We shouldn’t have to make a choice, and we should do whatever it takes to accommodate all the animals that end up in our shelter system.

Shelter funds should be used productively to save lives rather than kill animals. They are, after all, supposed to be shelters.