"By a vote of 5-2, the Las Vegas, Nevada city council has passed an ordinance requiring residents as of April 1, 2010 to spay/neuter their dogs and cats 4 months of age or older. There are some exceptions: the animal cannot breed or a veterinarian certifies the animal is medically unfit for the surgery, the animal has been trained and is used for law enforcement, search and rescue or as a service animal, or the owner has a valid dog fancier's, cat fancier's, breeder's or professional animal handler's permit. A violation would be a misdemeanor with fines up to $225 for the first offense, $500 for the second offense and $1,000 for the third and subsequent offenses."
I was pretty happy to find that this law was finally passed, even though I didn't have much hope that it would even put a dent in the animal overpopulation problem. You can imagine my joy when I found someone on Craigslist warning all the breeders that vets were turning in their names to Animal Control, so that fines could be sent via postcard. Brian seems to think it's a little excessive, and maybe I agree a little, but I find nothing "sneaky" about it. Where else does this law exist? What do you guys think about it?
WOW! What a victory!! Maybe this will allow people to open their eyes and finally get it.
ReplyDeleteI wish we had that law here.
Isn't there a similar law in California?
ReplyDeleteNice blog!
I am big on spaying/neutering and this law sounds like a great idea.... but the problem with this law is that people will opt to surrender their animal rather then pay the fine. This happened in L.A California, I think it was L.A. Unfortunately it backfired.
ReplyDeleteWhat is needed is low cost spays/neuters.
Personally I think breeders should be required to spend a week in the back area of a kill shelter.
Anyone wanting to get out of this fine should be able to opt for community service working in a shelter. That's such a great idea- thanks for bringing it up, I might need to write to someone on the board!
ReplyDeleteSwSmartie wrote:
ReplyDeleteAnyone wanting to get out of this fine should be able to opt for community service working in a shelter.
Excellant idea!
I like the idea of this law but I know a lot of animal activists who are against the idea of legislating spay/neuters as mandatory. I'm not sure why they don't agree and was hoping to see some dissenters here but all you seem to have attracted is agreement.
ReplyDeleteAs for people not will not pay the steep fess, I think the onus should be on breeders, pet stores and rescue orgs to either provide the speuter if the animal is old enough or to build the cost of the speuter into the purchase or adoption price.