[ SHOWGSD-L ] WEST PALM BEACH, FL - CURB ANIMAL OVER BREEDING
- From: "Ginger Cleary" <cleary1414@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Showgsd-L@Freelists. Org" <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 20:57:13 -0500
Ms Sauve's comments to the contrary... this WILL result in a sharp increase
in the number of animals left in the shelter.
Ginger Cleary
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from
opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that
will reach himself. ~Thomas Paine
My Ebay site
<http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=ginny2003>
Rome, GA http://www.rihadin.com/
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/03/29/
s3b_animal_0329.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=17
County commission backs rules to curb animal overbreeding
By Hector Florin
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH - Pet owners reclaiming their animals from the county's
shelter will soon face this choice: Pay $15 to have their pet spayed or
neutered and microchipped, or plop $300 down to get their animal back
without surgery.
County commissioners supported that suggestion Tuesday, along with turning
14 temporary animal care and control division employees into full-time
status, at a time when the county's pet population is increasing and shelter
space shrinking.
Commissioners could consider a mandatory spaying and neutering policy for
all dogs and cats, including those purchased at pet stores, at a later date.
Dogs and cats adopted from the county's shelter must undergo surgery.
Officials at the animal care division support the policy, which would exempt
animals that can't be operated on.
Commissioners also discussed, without conclusion, an idea where pet owners
would pay to breed their animals.
The $400,000 in county funds administered by the animal division and
dispersed to at least a dozen private agencies will remain, as commissioners
said they would consider additional money to go toward controlling pet
breeding.
The $300 fee will have to be approved at later meeting, but it had the
support of six commissioners Tuesday.
Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti said such a fee would require dogs to be
held for "ransom."
"If we do it this way, people are just going to leave their dogs there to be
killed," Masilotti said.
Others disagreed.
"I don't believe, as a pet owner, that somebody would leave their pet to die
at the animal care shelter" instead of having it neutered or spayed,
Commissioner Mary McCarty said.
But solving the grave problem of pet overpopulation is still far away.
The county shelter is the only one that doesn't turn away pets, and it
euthanized 16,411 animals just last year.
The division expects 30,000 animals to go through the shelter this year,
where there is room for only 20,000.
"This will increase each year without action" to stop the overbreeding of
animals, said Dianne Sauve, the county's animal care and control director.
"Needless euthanasia will continue unless the breeding stops."
And adoptions are not keeping up with the numbers of animals coming in,
Sauve said.
Kay-Lynette Roca, director of the nonprofit Safe Harbor Animal Sanctuary and
Hospital in Jupiter, said spaying and neutering is the only way to curb the
overpopulation.
And cats and dogs do breed quite a bit: According to Spay/USA, cats are 45
times as prolific as humans, and dogs 15 times.
"Spaying and neutering should be mandatory," Roca said. "We're a progressive
county."
Commissioners considered, without conclusion, requiring pet owners to pay to
breed their animals, something Roca supports.
Plans to expand the county's animal shelter, located on 14 acres on
Belvedere Road, will move forward, but funding is still short and the
expansion may have to be bigger than previously envisioned.
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