February 20, 2010Comments are closed.mandatory desexing
Why mandatory desexing fails to save the lives of pets;
In her article, Davis wrote, “On February 12, 2008, The City Council of Los Angeles passed a law that requires all cats and dogs in the city be spayed or neutered (desexed) after the age of 4 months (with some exceptions).” Unfortunately, Davis failed to present the kill data in Los Angeles shelters from before and after the time that law went into effect.
Beginning in 2001 the numbers of dogs entering shelters in L.A. and the numbers of them killed dropped every year until 2008 when the law was passed.
In 2001 40,442 dogs entered shelters in LA. 22,675 of them were killed. By 2007 canine deaths in L.A. shelters had plummeted to 6,038 – still too many, but a dramatic improvement.
In 2008, immediately following the mandatory spay/neuter law, dog deaths in L.A. shelters increased for the first time in 7 years. They increased by 24% from 6,038 in 2007 to 7,514. They rose again in 2009, erasing virtually all of the progress that had been made in the two years prior to the law.
The explanation for this is actually pretty simple: spay/neuter laws expend resources rounding up and killing animals. Those same resources can and should be spent spaying or neutering animals for people who many not be able to do so themselves.
The cost of seizing, holding, killing and disposing of an animal because their owner has not neutered it could cover the cost of sterilizing the pet, plus others.
Furthermore, spay/neuter laws place more authority in the hands of people like Los Angeles Animal Control and justify the catching and killing of more animals.
