A few months ago I wrote an entry about mandatory spay/neuter laws and how I supported them, and I still support them, at least in theory, but there is one problem that deserves to be mentioned, and that is what occurs when MSN legislation is passed and there is no system in place for people to get their animals sterilized cheaply and easily. And unfortunately, that's what seems to happen in just about every instance where MSN exists.
When MSN is passed, people are less likely to license their animals, and low income families and individuals frequently have their pets confiscated and are unable to retrieve them because they can't afford the fines or the cost of the surgery. The number of animals killed in shelters increases. Clearly, while spay/neuter means fewer animals, the way we mandate it has a lot of bearing on how effective it will be.
My state has a bill on the table for spay/neuter assistance, and that's a great start, but when the state funding runs out, the nonprofit sector needs to be prepared to partner with local law enforcement to provide low-cost or even free spay/neuter in order to increase pet retention. Simply confiscating pets and destroying them in shelters isn't helping the situation; people need animals in their lives, and when you take them away, they will get more. When you return a sterilized animal to the home where you found it, people don't need to produce or purchase more pets.
So if I were writing a mandatory spay/neuter bill, this would be the gist of it:
- First offense: animal(s) are sterilized and returned and a citation is issued; low income individuals may apply to waive the fee
- Second offense: animals are sterilized and returned, a citation is issued, and low income individuals may apply for a reduced fee
- Third offense: animals are confiscated, sterilized, and impounded; owners have two weeks to pay for sterilization at a reduced rate; no impound fee is charged
- Subsequent offenses result in impounding of animals, misdemeanor charges, and search of the home
- Feral and free-roaming cats are sterilized at no charge and returned to the place of capture
- No cat leaves a shelter intact unless the animal is too old for surgery
- An intact animal license may be purchased by breeders annually at significant cost
Just some ideas. There has to be a way we can do this legislatively without forcing people to go underground. Affording it, now that's another story, but I suspect that the more money we put into spay/neuter, the more we save in the long run. It might even be worthwhile to pay people in low income areas to spay and neuter their pets.
