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• Veterinary Care & Adverse Effects of Early Spay/Neuter
We are opposed to laws that take veterinary medical decisions out of the hands of the animal owner and their veterinarian. Early spay/neuter has been documented to have very adverse effects on the health and temperament of dogs, and can include several forms of cancer, joint disease, autoimmune diseases and hypothyroidism, to name just a few.

• Aggression
More aggressive behavior has been documented in neutered males and females.

• Registries
Local agencies will be empowered to make “exemptions” for animals that are registered with one of several purebred animal registries. Where does that leave California’s ranchers, sheepmen, and farmers who use their animals as “tools” and breed their animals for their working abilities but do not register them with any organization? What about guide dog and search and rescue organizations who follow the same policy? Animal control agencies do not have the expertise to determine which registries are appropriate. Dozens of “registries” will spring up in order to satisfy the exemption requirement.

• Existing Decrease in Surrenders & Euthanizations
The number of animals surrendered to shelters and euthanized throughout California has been steadily decreasing for over a decade without this kind of restrictive legislation.

• Successful Low-Income Spay & Neuter Campaigns
Low or no cost spay/neuter clinics with programs targeting low-income neighborhoods, using aggressive PR campaigns have been enormously successful in numerous locales throughout the country.

• Successful Trap/Neuter/Release Program for Feral Cats
Up to 90% of owned cats are already neutered: this law will do nothing to reduce the number of unowned cats. Trap/neuter/release programs have been extremely successful in reducing feral cat populations.

• Decreased Compliance & Increased Shelter Costs
In other places where this kind of legislation was passed, instead of increasing revenue, the typical scenario has been that shelter populations dramatically increased while compliance with licensing dramatically decreased thereby raising the costs to implement animal control programs in the long run.

• Shortage of Quality Purebred Animals
There is already a shortage of carefully home bred, well bred, pets produced by student hobbyist breeders in this country. If the public cannot find a purebred pet to fit their needs from one of these dedicated local breeders, they will buy on the Internet, from high volume out-of-state for profit only producers of puppies, or import them from other countries. There are already several places in California, and elsewhere in the US, that are importing dogs and puppies from Romania, Puerto Rico, or Taiwan, and there are carloads of puppies coming over the Mexican border daily. This law will do nothing to impact those situations and will probably cause them to increase in volume.

• “DesignerBreeds”
There are no registries for the dozens of fad “designer” breeds that unscrupulous people are producing. When an endless number of “registries” are developed to accommodate these mixed breeds, what exemptions will animal control agencies impose then?

• Lost Revenue
Hundreds, if not thousands, of dog and cat competitions are held in California annually. Collectively, these competitions bring in millions of dollars of revenue to the state through the locales in which they are held: municipal permits, restaurants, hotels/motels, vehicle rentals, gasoline, pet supplies, advertising, etc. Hobbyist competitors will move to nearby states to pursue their hobby.
 

TALKING POINTS FOR AB1634

• A registry approved by the department puts the Animal Control Department in the position of deciding which animal registry is valid. This would concern most citizens, much as a county department deciding which community group is valid for permits to assemble. It is the free choice of dog owners to belong or not to belong to a registry or a dog club of their choice, and they should not be penalized for making such choices.

• Dogs are often injured and are sometimes not exhibited for a year or more. Often, a conformation dog is "set aside" to mature before exhibiting in a conformation event. Compelling a dog owner to join a club or group would be challenged in court. Many individuals might participate in registry events without joining a club. For instance, AKC does not register individuals; they are a club of clubs. Yet an individual may register their dog with AKC and participate in AKC sanctioned events.

• Early spay/neutering of dogs has been incontrovertibly shown to be detrimental to the health, growth and mental functioning of a dog. It also has not been shown to have any positive effect on altering some sexual behaviors. (Note: can this be a legal challenge?)

• Requiring some types of dogs to be exempted, yet prohibiting other types of dog from this exemption is arbitrary and discriminatory

• Many careful and knowledgeable breeders have followed the advice of their veterinarians to have back-to-back breedings. It is not the job of an Animal Control department to have dominion over the expertise of breeders or veterinarians. A healthy, well-cared-for dog may easily have more than five litters in her lifetime. Not all breeders would choose to do that, but it is the choice of the breeder to decide the health of their breeding dog.

• Other Attempts at Mandatory Spay/Neuter - Supporters of AB1634 have claimed that other localities have passed mandatory spay/neuter regulations. In error are these: Rhode Island has S/N for cats only, due to a huge feral cat situation. The New Mexico bill has been pulled.  San Mateo attempted a mandatory spay/neuter regulation and suffered such a reduction in licensing that it was forced to repeal that ordinance.

• Statistical Games at the Shelters - AB1634 was touted as a means of decreasing animal shelter populations yet without mandatory spay/neuter regulations, according to nationwide surveys, there has been a gradual, yet significant drop in shelter populations in the last decade. Where mandatory spay/neuter has been initiated, there have been small decreases in shelter populations, followed by dramatic increases.   Los Angeles County launched their Mandatory Spay/Neuter ordinance, with the promise of reduced shelter populations and animal euthanasias. This county is now being questioned as the effect does not appear to be as promised, according to recent Los Angeles Times reports. A high of 862,652 animals was housed in shelters in 1998, according to state statistics. These statistics are very seldom broken down by type of animal, and may include mice, ferrets, and rabbits as well as dogs and/or cats. Fact: While California's population has risen the past decade, the animal shelter population has fallen

• Supply and Demand - Animal Shelters across the nation are running out of adoptable dogs. Puppies and kittens are being transferred from some shelters to supply the demand in others. Puppies are being smuggled in from Mexico. According to San Diego news media, there is an actual Border Puppy Task force formed to attempt control of this smuggling. Dogs are being transferred from Israel, Romania and other countries for adoption and sale, according to the same San Diego news sources. When stringent controls make well-bred animals scarce, and healthy, well socialized young animals raised in private homes are unavailable; the public will obtain them through the internet or out of state.

• "Impure" Breeding - Some purebred dogs do not belong to any registry but of their own breed. There registries possibly could not be recognized as an approved registry; therefore, AB1634 would require those dogs (for example, the New Zealand Huntaway, The English Shepherd, and more) to be spayed or neutered, removing their bloodlines from their breed across the world.  There is no provision in this bill for dogs that are bred specifically to be guardian dogs, a vital part of the agricultural industry. Some of these dogs may not be pure bred, but bred to meet the specific needs of the stock they are expected to work.

• Effects of Spay/Neuter - Convincing data has been presented about the effects of early (before maturation) spay/neuter on hip dysplasia, cranial cruciate ligament rupture, long bone development, body weight, diabetes, urinary tract infections, mammary cancer, and several other conditions. The studies on this subject are easily available on the Internet. Other studies show the relationship between spaying and urinary incontinence, a common side effect. Some studies actually, one of many is noted in www.caninesports.com by Chris Zink, DVM, Ph.D., DACVP, suggest that some breeds of spayed female dogs tend to be more aggressive toward their owners and to strangers than intact females. And, studies have founds that contrary to popular belief, there is little evidence that castration was an effective treatment for aggressive behavior in male dogs, and may exacerbate other behavioral problems.

• Our Rights and Our Freedom - Small hobby breeders who raise their puppies in the house may be put our of business because if the sale of one litter is a business, then zoning laws may prevent such a "business" in a residential area. Ironically, puppies raised in the home make the best pets.

• Other Negative AB1634 problems - AB1634 would force people who stay in animals to go underground. Those who defy local governments and continue to breed will seek medical assistance even less. Animals sold this way may not be properly socialized, may lack health warranties and may not receive optimal veterinary care.

• Solutions - Money spent on stringent spay/neuter programs would be better spent on education, low cost spay/neuter assistance, and more support of trap, neuter, return policies. Shelters with the best adoption programs do not have overcrowded shelters and high euthanasia statistics.

• Restricting one's right to own, breed or sell dogs will not in any way reduce dog overpopulation. The people who will be directly affected by such restrictions are law-abiding citizens who make an effort to obey all laws. The people you want this proposed law to affect are the people who obey no laws. Increased taxation on dog owners will only negatively affect those who pay the taxes in the first place, not those who ignore government.

• The people who need to be reached are the people that are invisible until they break a law. Please don't let their misconduct force law abiding citizens to either pay a great deal more money to stay within the law or leave the area entirely. Stringent enforcement of lease laws and penalties for those who allow their dogs to run loose is a much more effective way to attack overpopulation.

• Another point to consider is that increasing license fees has not been known to be successful. A city in Maryland increased its fee for neutered animals twofold and threefold for intact animals. The drop in numbered licensed was such that two years later, they rescinded the increases. It took five years for them to recoup the number of licensed dogs they had before the increase.

• There are many dog events throughout each locality. These events bring needed commerce to the cities located throughout the area. Onerous regulations, such as those outlined in the Mandatory Spay/Neuter ordinance proposed will drive those groups presenting these events elsewhere protest.

• Other jurisdictions that have enacted similar laws have lost revenue from caring and careful breeders of dogs. Using the American Kennel Club registry, breeders and dog show exhibitors will actively seek communities that do not restrict their activities.. Contact breeders and dog show exhibitors and ask them what they feel is a reasonable method of increasing responsible dog ownership.

The following points were taken from an article by:

Chris Zink DVM, PhD, DACVP

The full article and the article's fifteen references can be found at http://www.caninesports.com.

Dr. Zink writes that veterinarians and owners with dogs should revisit the standard protocol in which all dogs that are not intended for breeding are spayed and neutered at or before 6 months of age.

1) Studies found that dogs that were spayed early had delayed closure of growth plates, and that they were significantly taller than those spayed after a year or more of age. Sex hormones promote the closure of the growth plates, so the bones of dogs or bitches neutered or spayed before puberty continue to grow. Dogs that have been spayed before puberty can be identified often by their longer legs, lighter bone structure, narrow chests and narrow skulls.

2) It is postulated that because of uneven bone growth, neutered dogs have a higher incidence of CCL (Cranial Cruciate Ligaments) Rupture and higher incidence of hip dysplasia.

3) Damage to cranial cruciate ligaments is more prevalent in female dogs spayed early than the slightly increased risk of mammary cancer in unaltered females.

4) Studies showed a FIVE times greater risk of hemangiosarcoma in spayed bitches than intact ones and a 2.4 greater risk in neutered males. Further, dogs neutered before one year old had a much greater risk of developing bone cancer, which is much more lifethreatening than mammary cancer. This affects both male and female dogs.

5) There appears to be no benefit to neutering males to prevent prostate cancer.

6) Early neutering in one study showed more sexual behaviors in males and females; the rate of occurrence of hip dysplasia was higher, and noise avoidence was also prevalent.

7) A recent report of the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation reported significantly more behavioral problems in spayed and neutered bitches and dogs. The most commonly observed behavioral problem in spayed females was fearful behavior and the most common problem in males was aggression.

8) Intact males in one study had less cognitive impairment when they grew old

9) Other negative side effects of early neutering were; female urinary incontinence, urethral sphincter incontinence in males, hypothyroidism is some breeds, adverse reactions to vaccines and some animals showed more risk of catching infectious diseases.

Cats

Studies show 86 percent to 92 percent of owned cats are already altered. But the unowned feral cats continue to reproduce. Mandatory spay/neuter with intact permits and a penalty of $500 for each noncompliance are harsh for those living where low cost spay/neuter is not available.

When breeders who provide home-raised cats are discouraged, those who want a pedigreed breed will import them from out of state. Cats will still be in shelters, but the state will lose cat shows, breed rescue, education and donations for health studies.

Animal control agencies do not have the resources to implement a complicated intact cat permit program when even cat licensing has been a dismal failure everywhere. How can animal control agencies approve registries when they know little about them?

There are thousands of feral cats in California, and the most effective population control is trap-neuter-return. There is no way that Mandatory s/n would affect this population, and as approximately 90 percent of owned cats are already neutered, the effect of AB1634 on the shelters will be zero.

California State Senators