VIRGINIA
**May also be forwarded to other appropriate email lists**
We are facing a number of unfavorable bills this year, but the worst so far
is SB 1151, sponsored by Senator Ryan McDougle, Hanover County. We have been
unable to get in to talk to him, but we've been told that he has no plans to
withdraw this bill and believes it will solve "pet overpopulation" problems.

THE BILL
Summary: Companion animals; releasing agencies. Requires any owner who is
reclaiming his dog or cat from a releasing agency, such as a pound or
shelter, to have such animal spayed or neutered if the animal has been
impounded on a previous occasion. Currently, mandatory sterilization applies
only to new owners that adopt a dog or cat from a releasing agency.

WHAT IT MEANS

SB 1151 would require Virginia animal shelters to require owners to
sterilize their dogs and cats if they get picked up twice by animal control.
In other words, the second time you go there to get Mopsy, you have to sign
a contract that you'll have her spayed, same as you would if you were
adopting her. There are no exceptions. Those who want to research the bill
for themselves can go to:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+sum+SB1151

or

http://tinyurl.com/acj348

To read the actual text, click the blue line under 'Full text:' As usual,
plain type is existing law and italics are language added by the bill.

WHY VFDCB OPPOSES IT
I'm sure someone is thinking, "Well, if your dog is picked up twice by
animal control, you are an Irresponsible Owner and by cracky, you should
have Mopsy spayed! My dogs sure don't get picked up by animal control!"

Before you get too far with that line of thinking, try a little compassion
and think about these scenarios:

1) The Kid Factor

You have your show dogs in the yard and someone (neighborhood child? Animal
rights fanatic? Your own child?) opens the gate or just doesn't close it
properly. If that happens once, it can happen again, folks. And you might
just be unlucky enough to have animal control called by a neighbor before
you can track down Ch. Chompers.

2) The Breed Factor

Say you've got a breed like, oh, whippets. A breed that loves to run, and
while they don't actually intend to run away every time, they do take off if
given half a chance...like a lead dropped when you're bringing in a dog and
your show bag at the same time. Or like a door you didn't immediately closed
behind you when you brought him back from the vet. . Ever tried to catch a
dog running 35 miles an hour? About all you can do when a sighthound runs is
wait to tell if he circles around and comes back. He usually does. But what
if animal control gets him before he manages to saunter on back home? We see
notices on the whippet lists every single week about sighthounds who got
away from a handler or a good owner.

3) The Houdini Factor

You have an escape artist who scales the fence and gets picked up. You raise
your fence two feet and put him out only under supervision for several
months. He can't get over the new fence and all is well, so you start
leaving Houdini out for an hour at a time....till one day you open the door
to bring him in and the little &*%^$%( has dug under the fence. You had no
idea he was a digger as well as a jumper, but hey, animal control doesn't
want to hear your story.
Maybe none of those have or could happen to you, but I could give you a
dozen more scenarios by which excellent owners might end up with dogs in the
pound, and if it can happen once, it can happen twice. And this does not
even include the few of us who might be targeted by an animal rights
neighbor who decides to liberate your dogs and then call animal control.

The claimed reason for this bill is 'overpopulation' as shown by shelter
euthanasia. However (except for the notorious PETA operation) Virginia's
shelter dog euthanasia rates are good and have been improving for decades.
This is actually hard core AR legislation: HSUS is frantic to get some sort
of mandatory spay/neuter passed in some state as a springboard to getting a
federal bill in the next four years.
At the shelter level, the goal is simply to have another way to punish
animal owners.

The majority of shelter euthanasia now is feral cats and unwanted ADULT
dogs, many of them unsuited to be pets. We have far more reason to be
concerned about a dog shortage in the next few years, than 'dog
overpopulation.' The few Virginia shelters with unwanted puppies available
can (and increasingly do) send them to other shelters where they're snapped
up as they come in.

Requiring spay/neuter of shelter animals when they are adopted does reduce
birthrates. No other kind of mandatory spay/neuter works, and in fact the
other schemes actually cause more euthanasia.

WHY SB1151 WON'T WORK

About 75% of pet dogs and 85-90% of pet cats are already sterilized. Those
that aren't, either:

1. Are no-owner (usually feral) cats, or,

2. Belong to an owner who feels she can't afford the spay/neuter operation
-- typically $150-up -- or,

3. Have owners who are keeping them intact for breeding or performance
reasons.

Unowned cats or "loosely owned" cats are the biggest problem -- but no law
can help that situation. If you try to force people to spay or neuter cats,
they very often simply abandon them (where they do contribute to the
overbreeding of cats) or turn them in to shelters (where they are often
euthanized).

Most pet owners who don't have their dogs sterilized, confine them to
prevent pregnancy. And most of the accidental puppies find homes without
ever seeing the shelter.

Dogs and cats kept for breeding must be intact; hunters often feel that
intact animals perform better and may in any case want to breed a good dog
at a later time. While breeders are fanatics about confinement (especially
when a bitch is in season), escapes DO happen sometimes. The contribution to
the birthrate of unwanted animals from breeders is zilch. And when a breeder
does have an unplanned litter, she nearly always places the puppies herself.

If SB 1151 is passed, it will:

1. Have no impact on birthrates,

2. Increase abandonment of a greater fraction of dogs picked up for a second
time by a shelter, due to owner inability to pay for the operation. With
unemployment increasing, this problem will get worse.

(Shelters that actually care about the animals usually figure out that
mandatory spay neiter laws increase abandonment and stop enforcement after a
few months. Do we want another law like that?)

3. Cause pointless sterilization of breeding and hunting dogs that are
intentionally kept intact. For a small breeder the loss of the breeding
potential of even one bitch would be a major setback. And hunters' dogs are
so frequently out (although not lost or abandoned) that many of them are
indeed picked up twice within the same year.

WHAT TO DO

EVERYONE NEEDS TO DO #1. It will take less than ten minutes to get out an
email or fax or make a phone call. And we could really, really use help with
number 2 as well.

1) SB 1151's sponsor is Sen. Ryan McDougle. He's a Republican from
Mechanicsville, Hanover County, has generally been one of the 'good guys,'
and needs polite education.

His capital phone number is (804) 698-7504 . Ask for his legislative aide,
Anne Creasy, tell her who you are and where you're from. If you're a
Virginian and from his (4th) district, be sure to say so and ask if you can
speak to him personally. His email address is:

district04 @ senate.virginia.gov (take out the spaces)
His fax phone number is (804) 698-7943 .

You can say as little as "I'm calling to ask that Senator McDougle withdraw
SB 1151." Or you can go into reasons that the bill is a bad idea.

By email use a subject line like "Please withdraw SB 1151." Get the same
message at the end of your text. Keep it short!

2. The bill is likely to be heard in the Senate Agriculture Committee as
early as next Monday AM. Below is the list of members and their contact
information. Please make as many contacts as your time allows. We will let
you know for sure when we find out if it is on the agenda for Monday

FYI, a lot of shelters do not give even one "get out of jail intact card". I'm not so sure I disagree with this proposed bill but before you start burning my effigy, this DOES NOT mean I'm FOR MSN. JMO.