Californian exclusive: Florez to propose strict animal control law
The Bakersfield Californian
James Burger
February 23, 2009
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, will launch statewide legislation today requiring animal owners to spay and neuter their pets unless they get a license to leave them unaltered.
He expects a firestorm of opposition from animal business and breeding interests after he formally introduces it at a 10 a.m. news conference.
Florez says SB 250 would hold animal owners accountable for their pets’ health and welfare.
It is not mandatory spay-neuter, he said, but animal breeders, show participants and business owners will likely call it that.
The goal is to reduce a $250 million annual bill for catching and killing stray and unwanted pets in California, Florez said in an exclusive interview.
“It will come down to personal responsibility,” he said. “If you’re doing the right thing, don’t worry about it. If you have an unaltered animal, license it.”
The bill would require animal owners to obtain licenses for cats and dogs they want to be able to breed. Those licenses could be taken away if, for example, the owner neglects his animals, lets them run free on the streets or if the animals are declared dangerous.
Those neglectful owners would then need to spay or neuter their pets. It provides exemptions for animals a veterinarian rules would be harmed or killed by the surgery.
The law would heap extra regulation on owners of unaltered cats, which represent the majority of euthanasias performed in Kern County Animal Control shelters.
Unaltered cats older than six months would not be allowed to live outdoors.
Animal breeding, show and business activists killed a mandatory spay-neuter law carried by former Assemblyman Lloyd Levine last year.
Florez said SB 250 is different and will have a different fate because it does not mandate sterilization.
Animal activist Judie Mancuso, who led much of the private campaign to pass Levine’s bill, is working with Florez on SB 250.
She said Levine legislation opponents will call SB 250 mandatory spay-neuter and claim it would damage their businesses and unfairly restrict their rights — but it wouldn’t.
Florez said he understands people don’t want more regulation but opponents of mandatory spay-neuter need to accept some minor regulation in exchange for being able to keep unaltered animals.
“This allows them to do what they want under the law. Unless they’re violating the law,” he said. “These are the same people who own cars and we tell them to have licenses and wear seat belts and follow the rules of the road.”
Florez plans to aggressively educate his legislator peers about the realities of his bill and would like to see it in the Assembly in June.
Florez pointed to Kern County as the perfect example of where irresponsible animal ownership has created a massive problem.
Kern County Animal Control killed 19,742 animals in 2008 — an annual increase of 5.7 percent, powered by a 10.3 percent increase in the number of animals that flowed through county shelters.
