Mandatory Spay/Neuter Ordinance in Los Angeles Not a Panacea

Adopting a mandatory spay/neuter ordinance in Los Angeles is a positive step toward reducing some breeding by pet owners. However, it is not a panacea. For one thing, there is the enforcement issue. And it does not address the major reasons animals are dying in the pounds.

It will do nothing to reform the character of a General Manager who will still murder 60 - 80 percent of the animals impounded. He will continue to "cook the books" and factor out entire categories of animals from the kill stats. He will still slaughter - but not report the deaths of - ferals and their newborns; exotics; wildlife; owner surrenders; animals labeled "unsociable" or "aggressive"; animals who are "missing" or who have "escaped"; and animals who die in-house from neglected treatable illnesses and injuries. He will still make little to no effort to find loving homes for the animals in the shelters - preferring, instead, to collect his six-digit annual salary from hard-earned public taxpayer dollars while blogging and boozing.

It has been the experience of every single city nationwide - except Santa Cruz, CA - after enacting a mandatory spay/neuter ordinance, that shelter deaths have increased rather than decreased. This is because individuals who don't want to or can't pay for spay/neuter simply dump the animals at the shelters. This ordinance does nothing to mandate free spay/neuter clinics - plus there are far too numerous exceptions for those who have the money to spay/neuter but would rather breed.

The ordinance also doesn't deal with ferals; the lack of a comprehensive foster programs for neonates; gruff, unprofessional, and lazy employees who work at the shelters; the refusal to market (advertise) the animals; and the absence of multiple daily off-site pet adoptions.

Statistics prove that there are plenty of people in the city of LA who buy pets from pet shops and breeders or who adopt from private rescue groups. If they adopted directly from the shelters, we'd be no kill by now. The fact still remains that ordinances don't halt the killing of animals in pounds. The only thing that will accomplish that is a comprehensive implementation of the No Kill Equation - along with an expert to evaluate and overhaul a pound system rotten from top to bottom and who will make sure the indicated changes are speedily instituted and properly executed.

That a mandatory spay.neuter ordinance will prove to be the "silver bullet" to solve all the problems is a pipe dream on which the public and humane community may have too optimistically hung their hats. As history has proven repeatedly and unequivocally, it takes more than just one spoke in the wheel to stop the killing. Legislation alone never has stopped and never will stop the abuse, neglect, and systematic killing of animals in our six City shelters - especially with Ed Boks at the helm.

The No Kill Equation - with someone competent and caring in charge - is still essential if the city of Los Angeles is going to become No Kill.