pet connection

From the Los Angeles Times:

The Los Angeles City Council voted 10 to 1 Friday to approve mandatory sterilization of most dogs and cats at the age of 4 months or older, and city officials pledged low-key enforcement driven by complaints. The ordinance must get a second reading in a week, but it is expected to pass.

The measure, initiated by Councilman Richard Alarcon, offers exemptions for animals of licensed breeders, show animals and service animals.

Veterinarians who believe that sterilizing certain dogs and cats is too risky, or that four months is too young an age, can provide a letter to get the animals exempted.

The council decision Friday was greeted by cheers and a standing ovation from about 100 supporters, most wearing bright yellow stick-on badges proclaiming their position.

Proponents as well as dozens of critics filled the Van Nuys City Hall room where the council met Friday. Those in favor of mandatory sterilization and those against the measure spoke passionately and staked their positions on their concerns for healthy dogs and cats.

“The bottom line . . . is that all of you are here to save animals’ lives,” said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel.

Yes, because those of us who support no-kill solutions  (Maddie’s Fund and NoKillAdvocacyCenter) and the responsible, ethical breeding of healthy, well-socialized dogs and cats by breeders who remain responsible for those animals for life are all about killing animals.

Pretty interesting that L.A. goes this direction, considering that the L.A. Times is the news organization that has done the most to expose the selling of sick, underaged puppies from Mexican puppy-mills.

The winners in this bill? Meth-heads who abuse their pit bulls litter after litter and sell the puppies for cash aren’t going to be affected. Puppy mills who sell through the Internet or retail puppy boutiques — hello, Paris! — aren’t going to be affected. Feral cats … will keep producing more feral cats.

We’ve written about this legislation before. Click to read it all.

People who don’t pay attention to the laws now won’t in the future. And instead of a community-wide no-kill effort to truly reach the people who are causing the problems, we get feel-good crap legislation that punishes people who aren’t the problem.

Simple solutions rarely are either simple or solutions, and California is where the laws of unintended consequences are always the strongest.

***

This week I’ve got the third of three different but nonetheless extraordinary DogCars — the Honda Element SC, the new Volvo XC70 wagon and the new Mazda Tribute. I’m writing up my reviews of them all for the DogCars.com Web site today. The Tribute would be a wonderful DogCar by any measure, but the model I’ve been driving is even more spectacular — it’s a hybrid! (Alas, the hybrid model is in very limited production for 2008.)