LA Spay/Neuter Mandate A Financial Disaster

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New Evidence Points To Disaster If
Chicago Passes Pet Sterilization Law

Los Angeles, Louisville In Deep Trouble – Dallas Next?

by JOHN YATES
American Sporting Dog Alliance
http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org
asda@csonline.net

CHICAGO, IL – Aldermen supporting an ordinance calling for the sterilization of all pets say they want to model the program after the City of Los Angeles, which passed a similar ordinance earlier this year.

If Los Angeles is the model, then the City of Chicago will be in deep financial trouble, according to a recent audit of the Los Angeles animal control program. The Los Angeles program has been virtually bankrupted in only six months, and the ordinance hasn’t even taken effect yet, according to the audit report.

Chicago will be in even deeper trouble if it follows in the footsteps of Louisville, KY, which also passed an ordinance this year that imposes high license fees for intact dogs, financial records from that city show. The entire fiscal backbone of Louisville’s animal control program has collapsed, and the Louisville shelter system has become a slaughterhouse since the ordinance was passed.

That’s bad news for the Chicago city budget, which already is trying to make up a multi-million-dollar shortfall for this year. But there is even worse news for the highly evolved and successful network of private animal shelters in Chicago.

Those private shelters may stand to lose $40,000 in vital Maddie’s Fund money immediately, and many times that amount in the future. Maddie’s Fund’s policy is not to award grants to communities to help implement mandatory spay and neuter ordinances, internal documents show.

The irony is that Chicago has one of the best sheltering systems on Earth, formed around the Chicago Animal Shelter Alliance. CASA is a coalition of municipal and private shelters in the city, and works closely with other shelters in the metropolitan area.

CASA’s success has been nothing short of spectacular, and the city is very close to achieving coveted no-kill status honestly, with no manipulation of statistics. The CASA 2007 annual report shows that only 445 healthy dogs were euthanized, and both shelter admissions and euthanasia rates continued a 12-year-long unbroken string of major improvements.

It is no exaggeration to say that the CASA program is working perfectly. Now the city aldermen want to fix it, when it certainly isn’t broken. The aldermen are being prodded by the PAWS program, which is the smallest shelter program in the city but by far the wealthiest and most visible.

PAWS founder and Chairman Paula Fasseas is a disciple of the radical Humane Society of the United States. HSUS is working toward a long-range goal of eliminating animals from American life. PAWS recently completed a luxurious $9 million shelter to house only 70 animals in separate rooms. Crystal chandeliers adorn the lobby, and fund-raisers are diamond-studded black tie affairs. Fasseas has a lot of clout in Chicago, and a lot of political influence with some members of City Council.

Based on new evidence from Los Angeles and Louisville, the ordinance that is being pushed by PAWS and HSUS is likely to destroy the success of the CASA sheltering system. This new evidence reiterates the lessons learned by every other American community that has passed a spay and neuter mandate: It will be a disaster. No one has been able to make this grand scheme of the animal rights movement actually work.

There also is a strong message in the new evidence for the City of Dallas, which passed a similar ordinance in July. Dallas just hired a new program manager for $100,000 a year, a retreaded shelter manager named Kent Robertson, who was unable to make changes in Dallas before he moved to Houston to oversee a similar ordinance there that has failed totally and left the shelter system in chaos. License sales in Houston have plummeted, while shelter admissions and euthanasia rates have soared. Now, Robertson is coming back to Dallas to try the same approach, even as it is failing in Los Angeles and Louisville.

The Los Angeles Audit

The City of Los Angeles passed an ordinance this year that mandates spaying and neutering of virtually all dogs. In theory, the ordinance allows for owners of intact dogs used for show, performance events or breeding to buy expensive special licenses, provided they work through an approved registry. Thus far, no dog registry, including the American Kennel Club, has been approved.

The ordinance is supposed to take effect October 1 but animal control revenues have already plunged, an August 19 audit by City Controller Laura Chick shows.

According to the audit report, license sales and revenues have dropped substantially and the program’s budget is drenched in red ink.

Chick’s fiscal audit found the Los Angeles Animal Services Department has lost “millions of dollars” in revenue by failing to license and renew the licenses of hundreds of thousands of dogs.

A reported 27 animal control officers will have to be laid off, the city doesn’t have the money to open a new $14 million satellite shelter, there has been no money to pay for any of the required community outreach and no money is available to enforce the new ordinance

"If you don't put something behind (the ordinance), then it's a feel-good gesture, and we don't want to be a city that does empty feel-good gestures," City Controller Chick said. "I always think that legislators should research, not only the outcomes and impacts ... but should always research and ask questions about enforcement. Otherwise we, government, run the danger of enacting legislation that is not going to be enforced, which to me is the clearest of messages to our citizenry and our public -- go ahead and be a scofflaw, nothing's going to happen."

Los Angeles also has stalled on a plan to create satellite centers for spay and neuter procedures, as veterinarians simply aren’t signing up to do the job, the audit shows.

Noted California Akita breeder, handler and activist Dannielle Malcolm analyzed Los Angeles shelter system financial records and found the source of the problem: fewer dogs and cats entering the system, but far higher costs per animal, mostly because of skyrocketing salaries.

Over the most recent four-year period, she found, costs per animal serviced increased by 56-percent, while the number of animals services dropped by 30-percent.

Here is what Malcolm found:

· In the 2005-2006 fiscal year, Los Angeles paid $350 for each cat and dog serviced by the shelter system. The cost for each animal’s food and medical supplies was just under $14. The per-animal share of fixed costs to operate the system was $20. Each animal’s share of salaries was a whopping $316.

· For the 2001-2002 fiscal year, Los Angeles taxpayers paid $220 for every dog or cat entering the sheltering system. Each animal’s share of the cost for feed and medical supplies was less than $6, and the per-animal share of operating costs was $9.43. But $205 in salaries was paid out for each animal serviced.

In a related matter, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club of America recently performed an analysis of animal control costs, which showed that 90-percent of the budget is for fixed costs to maintain and operate facilities, pay for administration, operate vehicles and pay for bare bones staffing, regardless of the number of animals housed.

Louisville Evidence

The Louisville Kennel Club has obtained and is analyzing fiscal data for the city’s animal control program, as part of evidence gathering for a federal lawsuit against the new ordinance. The ordinance requires owners of unsterilized pets to pay high license fees and submit to home inspections.

Here are some of the preliminary results for Louisville:

· The city shelter was built to house 80 animals. It has been flooded with abandoned pets, and now has to care for between 400 and 450 animals.

· Euthanasia rates have risen to 70-percent since the ordinance was passed.

· Less that 10-percent of the animals brought to the shelter are reclaimed by their owners.

· Revenues from the sale of licenses for unaltered pets have fallen by 48-percent.

· Staff time is stretched thin by a 30-percent increase in the number of required investigations.

· A part of the ordinance dealing with dangerous dogs has led to the identification of only 28 dogs (in a city of 700,000 people) that fall under this category.

· Costs to city government are skyrocketing.

The Louisville Kennel Club is analyzing all of the data, and will release a full report soon.

Maddie’s Fund Losses

Maddie’s Fund is a national philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting “no-kill” shelters and programs. “No-kill” means a goal of not euthanizing any healthy or adoptable animals.

A policy statement says: “Maddie's Fund® does not provide funding for government programs, including state and local animal care and control mandates. This policy applies to mandatory spay/neuter laws, as well as to other requirements imposed by federal, state and local legislation.”

Grants from Maddie’s Fund have been a vital element in starting and improving many no-kill shelters around the country, and Chicago’s Tree House Humane Society has been approved for a $40,000 starter grant. This is the initial grant, and much larger grants normally would follow.

Maddie’s Fund reportedly has funded several other Chicago programs in the past.

Because of the policy statement, it appears that all Maddie’s Fund grants to Chicago would be in danger of being lost if this ordinance is approved.

Most members of CASA have not announced a position on the new ordinance. PAWS is the only Chicago group that publicly supports it.

However, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (the nation’s largest animal sheltering organization), the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association and the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association staunchly oppose spay and neuter mandates.

The American Sporting Dog Alliance also is totally opposed to this ordinance, as is a local association of Chicago dog owners that is in the process of organizing.

What You Can Do To Help

It is very important for dog owners to take action before City Council meets again in early September. This ordinance can be stopped if strong opposition arises from every neighborhood in Chicago, and from all segments of the dog community.

Please contact local organizers to coordinate with us and the newly forming Chicago group. They are Karen Perry (ouilmette4@sbcglobal.net), Margo Milde (mrm1206@yahoo.com) and Michele Smith (msmith@cmscrescue.com).

Next, please contact your friends and members and officers of any clubs or organizations you belong to that can help. These include dog clubs, sportsmen’s clubs, farmers’ groups and firearms rights organizations. Hunters, farmers and firearms enthusiasts know that these kinds of laws stem from animal rights groups that also want to eliminate hunting, raising animals for food and the right to keep and bear arms.

It is very important to contact members of the City Council as soon as possible. Letters sent by surface mail are the most effective, followed by faxes and phone calls. Emails are the least effective. Even if they are brief, personal letters are much more effective than form letters.

Here is a link to the web pages of each of the aldermen, where you will find contact information: http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webp ... Government.

The American Sporting Dog Alliance represents owners, hobby breeders and professionals who work with all breeds of dogs, and especially with a focus on the breeds that are used for hunting. We are a grassroots movement working to protect the rights of dog owners, and to assure that the traditional relationships between dogs and humans maintains its rightful place in American society and life. Please visit us on the web at http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org. Our email is ASDA@csonline.net. Complete directions to join by mail or online are found at the bottom left of each page.

The American Sporting Dog Alliance also needs your help so that we can continue to work to protect the rights of dog owners. Your membership, participation and support are truly essential to the success of our mission. We are funded solely by the donations of our members, and maintain strict independence.

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