And Bob Barker Rubs His Hands Together And Cackles Gleefully
As California’s Assembly passes a mandatory spaying and neutering law.
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.
“This crazy measure will end up costing families heartache and taxpayers billions,” said Bill Hemby, Chairman of PetPAC, an organization dedicated to the rights of pets and owners. “California will be the poster child for an invasive and overreaching government mandate that is impossible to fund, administer or enforce.”
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.
I know Marshall is an animal lover, but I’m really curious to see what he thinks about this bill. As for me, I think it’s nuts (pun not necessarily intended, but accepted).
Jim: I think the only good news is that this isn’t a federal law.
I don’t want to get all depressing, guys, but I look at nanny-state messes like this and think, “this is the future. We’ve been so conditioned to demand that government “do something!” about problems large and small, that we’ve now got people demanding large fines and criminal penalties for the smallest of misdeeds.” Yes, it’s good to ensure your pet won’t have any unexpected litters. But now the good is mandatory by law, and the bad is punishable with the heaviest burdens the state can command. This is on par with people who are so enamored with the new energy-efficient light bulbs that they want to ban the old ones and criminalize those who don’t change over to the new ones fast enough.
June 8th, 2007 at June 8, 2007 - 6:19 pm
On the subject of Bob Barker, I thought you might enjoy this one:
File this one under Unproven Conspiracy Theories.
In a news release, Global Warming Key Factor in Increase of Cat Population yesterday, Pets Across America President Kathy Warnick said global warming is thought to be a contributing factor to the dramatic increase of stray, owned and feral cats.
Pets Across America, self-described in the release as “the largest umbrella organization for animal shelters serving more than 130 million people” also stated that cats outnumber dogs by 13.5 million and that the number is growing and that animal shelters across the United States are reporting skyrocketing influxes of cats and kittens being brought into their agencies. Most importantly, however, they used their news release to tell the world that “many believe global warming is extending cat-breeding seasons and causing the cat population to swell.”
I repeat their claim: “many believe global warming is…causing the cat population to swell!”
WARNING: Below is where the conspiracy-theory angle, though still very much unproven, comes into play. Proceed at your own peril.
After taking into account this earth-shattering news from Pets Across America, can you honestly believe it’s a coincidence that this Kansas City, Mo.-based group chose to issue its news release only one week prior to the airing of Bob Barker’s last episode of The Price is Right? No way!
I suspect that Barker, arguably the world’s most-visible advocate of spaying and neutering pets, opted to retire this year only after coming under immense pressure from a below-the-radar campaign by animal shelter advocate groups like Pets Across America. Their never-made-public argument: Barker’s spaying and neutering advocacy was a flop, and we should have been concentrating on stopping Global Warming.
Something to think about from Bob McCarty Writes™
[Editor’s Note: The final episode of The Price is Right featuring Bob Barker airs on CBS June 15 at 11 a.m. Eastern.]
June 10th, 2007 at June 10, 2007 - 4:35 pm
See Dog Play’s excellent coverage of AB 1634 at http://dogplay.com/Articles/MyArticles/againstAB1634.html?refby=DP#1
I’ve been rescuing purebred dogs (English Springers) in California for almost 20 years, and believe this is a bad law. I am for responsible breeding, spay/neuter of pets, etc but to mandate everyone to spay/neuter or face huge fines is just not in line with our freedom we enjoy here in the U.S. We need greater access to “affordable” spay/neuter clinics, more public education about the benefits of spay/neuter, intervention to prevent dogs from being surrendered to shelters, better enforcement of current laws, none of which this bill offers. It just makes a majority of pet owners outlaws. The statistics touted by the so-called Santa Cruz law aren’t all attributable to that law. We are seeing reductions in shelter euthanasias all over the state anyway. ~~ diane, golden gate springer rescue, www.homestead.com/springers