Doghouse Properties - Cody & Havana's Tails: California to Outlaw Mixed Breeds

On June 7th, Members of the California State Assembly voted 41-38 to outlaw the existence of mixed-breed dogs and cats in the Golden State.

According to a Press Release from PetPAC, who opposes the Bill:

Assembly Bill 1634, authored by Los Angeles Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, will allow only select purebred dogs and cats to breed. Pet owners who don’t sterilize their mixed breed pets by four months of age will face a $500 fine and possible criminal penalties.

AB 1634 will blanket all 58 counties in California with an expensive forced spay/neuter law that not all shelters want – or need. According to the State of California, dog impounds have fallen 86% over last 30 years. Puppies and kittens are already being transferred between counties to alleviate a shortage of adoptable pets: San Francisco and Marin Counties need to bring pets in from other areas to be adopted locally. In San Diego County – which has no mandatory spay/neuter law – only one adoptable animal was euthanized in 2004-05.

Not only family pets, but police dogs, search and rescue dogs, service dogs for the blind and disabled, and working stock dogs serving California’s $6 billion livestock industry will be decimated under AB 1634.

LA Animal Services in California is in favor of the bill. They argue a main benefit of the bill is the reduction in expenses/budget of keeping mixed breeds alive. Ed Boks, General Manager for LA Animal Services, ironically calls it the The California Healthy Pet Bill and claims:

AB 1634, The California Healthy Pet Bill, is legislation designed to end the incalculable suffering of unwanted homeless and lost dogs and cats in the State of California.

...$240 million a year in taxpayer dollars it cost the state’s public animal control agencies to care for, then kill approximately 430,000 animals last year. Then there’s the $120 million the state government has had to pay local agencies to fund the extra days of animal care required by the “Hayden Bill,” approved in 1997.

Numbers like these remind us that trying to solve the pet overpopulation problem from the back end is expensive. It is like trying to mop up a flooded basement without first turning the water off.

Despite the debate, The bill now moves to the State Senate.

My question is: Why are mixed breeds seen as the problem?
What do you think of this bill?

Assembly Bill 1634 | California | Mixed Breed
Lloyd Levine | Ed Boks | Pet Overpopulation
PetPAC | LA Animal Services | California Healthy Pet Bill
Pet Friendly | Cody | Havana | Doghouse Properties

1 comments

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Jeff de la Rosa commented on 8:42 PM, June 11, 2007: While I am all for apay/neuter, I think this is an unenforceable costly way to "save lives."

This might as well be called the Anti-Pit Bull Act. Since breed specific legislation has failed in California, this is their next try. 40% of the impounds in Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS) pounds are Pit Mixes. They are numerous in less affluent areas where residents are less likely to follow the licenses laws (or even know about them.)

Ed Boks, GM of LAAS has preached his no-kill promises for nearly 2 years now and he can't get the numbers down because of failed programs or programs with catchy monikers that never get implemented due to the bueuracracy within the LAAS Board of Commissioners.

Ed Boks has spent more time lobbying this bill than he has doing his real job. The job that the citizens of L.A. pay him for.

I imagine Ed thinks he can get everyone to stop allowing their dogs to have puppies. Pipe dream. If he can get all the unwanted Pit mixes off the street then his "euthanasia" numbers will plummet. Bigger pipe dream.

What he needs to do is to clean house at LAAS and sweep out the old guard who think killing animals is the way to control poplulation.

Like any other public welfare issue, the answer to pet over population (if it exists) is education and creative thinking AND action.

There's a reason why Animal Planet does not have a L.A. Animal Cops show. If they brought cameras into this corrupt and disorganized mess of a department, it would be shocking!

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