Warner Robins [GA] city council passed an ordinance Monday night setting up a fine and prison time for people who don't sterilize their pets.
The law will apply to animals adopted from the city shelter.
[...]
Council member John Williams says the penalties [up to 6 months in jail and $1000 fine] will help control the city's pet population.
Yeah but see, no. What it will do is drive pet owners away from the city shelter. Responsible pet owners want to neuter their pets in their own time with consideration for their individual circumstances and recommendations from their Vet. Or they may choose not to neuter but rather to safeguard their pet from unintended breeding. In any case, how many owners are going to be willing to risk jail time when there are so many other means of obtaining a pet? I couldn't find any solid figures on the shelter's adoption rates online but I did come across a recent petition against their use of the gas chamber to kill pets. If the shelter is gassing pets to death, why make it far less likely anyone will want to adopt from there by instituting fines and jail time for non-compliance?
But wait - there's more!
John Williams is also leading an effort to protect people from vicious dogs in the city. That's after police say a pit bull attacked a small child last week causing serious injuries to the girl.
Given Mr. Williams' approach to "helping" the city's pet population, I can't wait to see his ideas on "protecting" the public from biting dogs.
Posts
6 comments:
Do people just lose their minds when it comes to passing dog laws?
This is an extremist AR's wet dream. I mean, what a precedent! Now, when shelter killings go up as adoptions falter, betcha a small fortune general MSN will be introduced as a "reasonable and much needed" tool" to help "stem the tide of killing due to irresponsible owners"
Yep, sorry you lost your job or your kid got sick and you couldn't afford the 200-400.00 the vet quoted you for spay surgery, turn over your dog or cat or we throw you in jail.
How about the city stepping up and altering pets prior to leaving the loving arms of the shelter? Too out there a concept I guess.
Yep, people will pass shit like this on pet laws that would not be considered for anything else. If people do not start paying attention to who gets elected, we are all going to find ourselves stripped of due process and our animals. For starters.
JenniferJ
That's Lame. Yes, with a capital L.
-says this animal rights activist.
shelter policy is made by homeland security, ya know
The jail time for not neutering thing has been the policy in other GA counties for some time. WHen my husband and I adopted a kitten from a high-kill hell hole earlier this year, we had to sign something that said we could be arrested if: 1. we failed to take the kitten to a vet within 3 days (the shelter provides no vet care and only started vaccinating and disinfecting relatively recently, due to public pressure) 2. we failed to get the kitten rabies vaccinated within a specified period of time (the shelter doesn't do this either, not even for adult animals) 3. we failed to get him neutered within a specified period of time
We were provided with a form for the vet to fill out, sign and fax back to the shelter to document that each of these tasks had been accomplished. My (now former, but that's another delightful story)vet refused to fax the documents and told me I was on my own for that as she didn't get involved in these things. Apparently a colleague of hers was threatened with a lawsuit when a client of his was pulled over for a traffic violation and arrested for failure to spay her adopted cat. She spent the night in jail. The vet was able to document that he'd sent the fax certifying that he'd spayed the cat.
The shelter had lost the paperwork.
Since we adopted a kitten, the shelter has had three separate opportunities to lose our paperwork.
I have been told that this particular shelter is lax in following up on these things, and that the one from which that unfortunate woman adopted her cat is more zealous (though utterly incompetent).
Did I mention that shelters down here are staffed by prison inmates?
Lovely. And some people bash animal lovers for not wanting to get their pet from such a place?! No wonder BYBs do such brisk business. Some shelters seem desperate to funnel customers to them.
Post a Comment