Full disclosure: I’ve spoken and previously written in support of the ordinance; this article is intended to explain the details of the ordinance and give an idea of how the meeting went. There has been some confusion and misunderstanding as to the details of the MSN ordinance, which does exempt registered purebreds and working dogs and also gives a medical exemption. Links to the videos have been provided below, and I encourage you to watch them.
Ordinance details
On March 17, the city council passed some controversial and detailed pet-related legislation. The Mandatory Spay/Neuter (MSN) and Pet Shop ordinances were added to the Long Beach Municipal code with a city council vote of 7–1, with 8th District councilmember Al Austin casting the single no vote. The March 10 meeting to declare amended language for the ordinances was passed with a 6-0 vote, with councilmembers Lena Gonzalez (District 1) and Roberto Uranga (District 7) absent. The March 10 meeting can be viewed here; March 17 may be seen here.
The ordinances amend Section 6.16.085 of the city’s municipal code, adding unaltered dogs to the prohibition of unaltered cats, which has been in place since 2010, and Section 6.16.062, which regulates animal sales. Both ordinances were spearheaded by humane educator and animal advocate Judy Crumpton and drafted by councilmembers Suja Lowenthal (Vice Mayor and District 2), Suzie Price (District 3) and Stacy Mungo (District 5).
MSN has been a far bigger bone, so to speak, of contention than the Pet Shop Ordinance, which most of the speakers at the meeting expressed approval for. MSN is directed not at licensed breeders but city residents who allow their dogs to breed either for profit or through neglect or unawareness of low-cost or free options for spay/neuter procedures. It was conceived—again, so to speak—for the purpose of curbing shelter overpopulation, promoting pet health, decreasing dog bites and educating the public about their responsibility as pet owners.
The Pet Shop Ordinance was put into place to promote adoption as an alternative and also to help put an end to the millions of dogs bred in unhealthy conditions in puppy mills in different areas of the country.
Both ordinances will go into effect October 1.
There has been some misunderstanding about the ordinances, particularly MSN, so they’re detailed here.
The Pet Shop Ordinance prohibits the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits unless the following conditions are met:
- A breeding and a transfer permit is obtained by the pet’s owner (this applies to dogs only; unaltered cats wouldn’t be subject to it because their breeding is not permitted, and there aren’t as yet any specifications for rabbits).
- A rescue or other approved nonprofit that may charge an adoption fee is housing the pet.
- A shop that sells animal supplies has dedicated space to house adoptive pets, which Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS) has released to them. (Adopt and Shop in Lakewood and the Paw Shoppe Pet Center on Spring Street in Long Beach are two such locations)
In each case, a certificate of source must be posted in a conspicuous place or three feet from the animal’s cage.
MSN requires that all dogs at 6 months old and cats at 4 months be altered (again, there were not yet any specifications for rabbits), with these exceptions:
- Those used by law enforcement agencies for enforcing law; by search-and-rescue agencies; as licensed guide dogs, hearing-assistance animals, seizure-alert animals and social and therapy animals approved by Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS); as a competition, herding or livestock animal; and any dog used as breeding stock for any of these types of dogs. Owners and guardians of these dogs must present proof of any of these conditions.
- A dog breed approved by and registered with a national or international breed registry. Owners must provide documentation.
- A dog that is unable to breed or has any medical issue, temporary or otherwise, that would render a spay/neuter procedure medically unsafe for the pet, for example, a large-breed dog that may suffer hip dysplasia if altered before maturing. In any of these instances, specific certification from the dog’s vet must be presented.
- Any pet in a shelter, humane society or a similar organization; however, the pet must be fixed before released for adoption.
There are currently around 3,000 dogs in Long Beach that have unaltered pet licenses, which costs $95 as opposed to $20 for altered dogs. At the March 10 meeting, Councilmember Stacy Mungo brought forth a friendly amendment to the MSN Ordinance that grandfathers in responsible pet owners who possess non-medically related unaltered-dog licenses until that license expires or the dog passes away. This would address the $187,000 in lost revenue from the more costly intact license as well as to acknowledge pet owners who showed responsibility in getting unaltered licenses. Any animals brought into the home after Oct. 1 would have to be fixed, as would any intact dog found roaming by ACS. The amendment was accepted by Vice Mayor Lowenthal.
The full text of both ordinances can be read here.
Shelter presentation
The previous year’s shelter euthanasia numbers have decreased—4,054 in 2014, which is 1,100 less than 2013 and almost half of what it was seven years ago. This indicates the significant work done by animal advocates and ACS staff and the responsiveness of residents to provided education and resources, but proponents of MSN believe that the number is 4,054 too many.
“While I believe that we must do what we can to continue to educate, there comes a time when we have to stand up and do what is remaining, and this is what is remaining—the balance that we cannot capture with education,” Lowenthal said.
During the March 10 meeting, ACS shelter manager Ted Stevens gave a PowerPoint presentation detailing the ordinances and addressed some concerns. Benefits include public safety—altered dogs are less likely to bite, advantages for pet health far outweighs the risks, and spayed and neutered animals can have a longer lifespan than intact ones have. Stevens cited almost 14 percent for male dogs and almost 30 percent for female. To respond to concerns from Councilmember Austin and residents concerned that pet owners would give up their dogs to shelters if they were forced to alter them, Stevens quoted material from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) that stated that owners instead gave up their dogs to shelters because of behaviors that unaltered dogs exhibit including roaming, heat cycles and aggression. Spaying and neutering, the AVMA stated, has no effect on a pet’s intelligence and improves behavior as well.
Stevens said that the cost of implementation would comprise $5,000 for public education, $30,000 for additional vouchers and $21,000 for a part-time license inspector who would work with enforcement. He noted the potential for lost revenue, which would have included the $187,500 from the defunct unaltered licenses that Councilmember Mungo had addressed with the friendly amendment. Stevens said that shortfalls would be made up through annual license-fee increases of $4 through $10, depending on the license. Cat licenses would remain at $10.
Regarding the exemptions, Stevens said that a registered or certified dog doesn’t need to be participating in a show or competition to be exempt and that there would be a 90-day grace period to give owners time to come into compliance.
“It’s not a cure-all but another tool in our tool belt to help with fighting the pet-overpopulation problem,” Stevens said.
Councilmember Austin sympathized with proponents and expressed approval of the Pet Shop Ordinance. However, he felt that because ACS is under the umbrella of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine, which has undergone a number of cuts, the ordinance would be too expensive even with the friendly amendment and license-fee increase.
“The study session that we had last week paints a very dim picture of the future,” he said.
Austin also said that the word mandatory is intrusive and felt that the ordinance would put a financial burden on low-income families. Stevens responded that vouchers for low-cost spay neuter would reduce the expense and that a low-cost clinic was about to be installed by Friends of Long Beach Animals volunteers. Furthermore, Fix Long Beach, another Long Beach volunteer organization, offers free spay/neuter procedures to low-income residents through mobile clinics.
Public comment
Emotions ran high at both meetings during public comment. The March 10 meeting brought a throng of supporters, most bearing signs that read “Keep Long Beach litter free,” with a smaller group holding placards saying “Voluntary, not mandatory—MSN.” The group in support of the MSN ordinance consisted of animal rescuers, ACS staff and citizens from the community who were concerned about the number of strays roaming the city and fill the shelters, whether through backyard breeding or otherwise. Rescuers and advocates spoke of the frustration they felt at their rescues being overwhelmed and the exhaustion and fatigue experienced in rescue and advocacy. One speaker, who said she wasn’t affiliated with any animal-advocacy organization, emotionally pled for the council’s approval of the ordinance.
“I regularly find non-spayed, non-neutered, haggard because they’ve been bred too often, recently pregnant, still-nursing dogs on the street,” she said. “I find them so often that I have to carry a leash and treats with me so that I can help pull them out of traffic.” The speaker said that finding no-kill shelters to help is often impossible because they’re usually full, so she ultimately calls ACS.
“I know that that will probably be a death sentence for that dog, especially if it’s a little tan Chihuahua,” she said. Chihuahuas, along with pit bulls and mixes of these breeds, are the types of dogs most frequently sent to shelters and euthanized.
MSN opponents who spoke at the meeting owned purebred dogs, were licensed breeders and American Kennel Club (AKC) members, or both. They cited the expense and difficulty it took to obtain breeding permits, which are provided through ACS and cost $515 in fees; expressed doubts of the ordinance’s effectiveness and concern over its cost; and saw more work for the already overextended shelter staff.
“I have one of the 3,000 intact-licensed dogs in the city of Long Beach. I also have two spayed dogs,” said Judith McMahon, one of the residents who had contacted the City Council with a packet with materials expressing opposition to MSN. “We all believe in voluntary spay/neuter, and we’re willing to help you do that.”
McMahon said that the city had the support of the dog community and that she and her colleagues have been looking into grants for raising money to improve the voluntary spay/neuter program, which she praised. She urged the council to vote the proposal down. “However, if you’re reluctant to do that, I suggest that you create a group to study this issue in full and let the stakeholders be involved—the people who know animals,” she said.
Judy Crumpton read a letter from Melanie Sobel, the general manager of Santa Cruz’s animal shelter, that Crumpton had e-mailed with related statistics from that shelter to the mayor and council. The letter laid out its success with MSN over the years, even in the face of the recession, general population growth and the addition of an underserved area to its service area. Part of the letter addressed the AKC’s misrepresentation of Santa Cruz’s success: “The AKC states that the shelter’s euthanasia rates have been essentially flat since 1995. As the attached statistics demonstrate, this is incorrect. Both our animal intake and euthanasia rates have steadily decreased since 1994, the year our spay/neuter ordinance was enacted.”
“The only way that we are going to put a dent in overpopulation is prevention,” Crumpton said. “Can we please give it a try?”
Connie Koehler, president of the Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier Club of Southern California and the AKC legislative liaison for the Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier Club of America disagreed with Crumpton, calling the ordinance bad public policy for the community. “Based on the extensive research my team has done, we will show you the devilish details that Councilmember Austin referred to.”
Koehler said that the statistics that the AKC used came not from the Santa Cruz shelter but from the California Department of Public Health’s veterinary medical section and the Rabies Control annual activity report of 2013. She also cited a drop in licensing dogs in communities that implemented MSN and increased costs for shelter operation around the country.
Carrie DeYoung, AKC’s director of agility, also took issue with the Santa Cruz shelter’s statements. She stated that AKC had made no statements whatsoever about the shelter’s euthanasia and licensing rates. DeYoung, an owner of both show dogs and altered rescue dogs, stated that if she believed that MSN would improve the lives of dogs and owners, the group of people objecting wouldn’t have come to speak.
“The truth is that these laws decrease the opportunity for pet owners to find a healthy, well-bred pet in their community and they hurt responsible breeders who are doing things the right way,” she said.
DeYoung also said that the AKC would pull out of Long Beach for future shows.
“As you know, the AKC held its Eukanuba championship here, and we brought about $21 million to the city of Long Beach,” she said. “We’d like to consider coming back to Long Beach, but we can’t do this with this type of restriction.”
It was later learned that AKC had booked the convention center in Orlando for its next championship show before the ordinances had been brought to the table and in fact has been booked in Orlando for the past five years. According to a Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau officer, the AKC stated that they’d outgrown Long Beach’s facilities and were looking elsewhere. Furthermore, Jack Smith, president of the Long Beach Kennel Club (LBKC), noted that the shelter has always been responsive to his organization, the AKC and the other canine support groups; he stated that the LBKC has no plans of leaving anytime soon with their shows.
The principle behind the ordinance
Louise DuBois, an animal control professional since 1980 who began her career in Long Beach, called the ordinance a valuable tool for ACS. “I want to talk about our shelter and how proud we are of our euthanasia rate’s decrease,” she said. “We see our impounds going down, but it’s still a tool our officers need, and they need it badly. Take a walk through our kennels and see the Chihuahuas, and see the pit bulls. The majority come in intact.”
DuBois stressed the free and low-cost options for spay/neuter and inoculations that exist within the city and said that she wanted ACS to be visible and available to the people who want to comply but can’t afford it. But those who won’t do it are the challenge and the reason for the law.
“There are the people who do not want to spay or neuter their pets because they feel that it’s their right to have an unaltered pet,” she said. She gave as example a man she met on a call who was “so proud because his female pit bull just had 15 puppies.” The man had intentionally bred the dog and had made T-shirts of both his dog and her mate for his children to wear.
“I definitely tried to help him with education, but he needed enforcement. And the enforcement tool is mandatory spay/neuter,” DuBois said.
At the March 10 meeting, Stevens quoted an AVMA estimate of the number of dogs in Long Beach as 102,000. There are 35,000 of them licensed, including those with intact licenses.
“That’s one-third of the dogs that are registered, and 10 times the intact dogs are spayed or neutered,” Councilmember Austin said. “We should be giving ourselves a hand.”
But if you’re going to do the math, do all the math. The 67,000-some dogs that aren’t registered and continue to run around and breed under the radar, and not registered breeders, are the focus of the MSN ordinance. Long Beach has resources to help fix and inoculate dogs and cats whose owners can’t afford it: Fix Long Beach, Friends of Long Beach Animals and Long Beach Animal Care Services (see Pet Projects for the low-cost inoculation clinics) all can help.
The MSN ordinance has been voted in and will be in place in a few months. Whether it’s effective will be up to the stakeholders. The city’s pets can use all the help they can get.
“Love of animals is a universal impulse, a common ground on which all of us may meet. By loving and understanding animals, perhaps we humans shall come to understand each other.”
~ Dr. Louis J. Camuti, first veterinarian to devote his entire practice to cats
Virtually Pets
Shelter adoption is one way to lower euthanasia numbers, but there’s this personal thing there, too. You get at least one friend out of it, and at least one friend gets you. Here are a couple of likely candidates. Make sure that you enter through the shelter side at the P. D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village, 7700 E. Spring St. Drive into El Dorado Park and tell the person in the little booth that you’re going to Animal Care Services.
Sylar and Mary
Sylar, 5 years old, is a sweet seal-point Siamese neutered boy who was surrendered by his owner to the shelter. He’s a big fellow at 16 pounds and has an unlimited quantity of love to give.
Sylar has an unaltered sister, Mary, who’s also 5 and a hefty kitty at 25 pounds! She will be altered before leaving the shelter. What could please more than two Siamese? Ask for ID#A544057 for Sylar and ID# A544056 for Mary.
Chops
Not to bust your chops, but you gotta meet Chops! Chops is a brown-and-white 3-year-old male American Staffordshire with a Gorbachev splotch on his forehead. He’s on the small side, but he makes up for it in playfulness and goofiness! Ask for ID#A542055.
Pet Projects
Friends of Long Beach Animals Humane Education Program, Free, Ongoing
Friends of Long Beach Animals stands by its word when it says it actively supports teaching children kindness to and respect for animals. FOLBA has provided several copies of humane books to all of the libraries in the Long Beach Unified School District, all the Public Libraries in Long Beach and Signal Hill, as well as to Raising-a-Reader and to Mary Bethune Transitional Center (assisting homeless children who need reading improvement so they can attend regular LBUSD classes). This interactive humane education program is free to all schools in the Long Beach Unified School District, Girl and Boy Scout Troops, Long Beach Parks and Libraries and Community Groups. Basic elements of the program are as follows:
- Humane treatment of all living creatures
- Basic pet care
- Proper behavior around animals
- Responsibilities and rewards of pet ownership
- Handouts and study materials
- Follow-up activities
For information, contact: FRIENDS’ Office 562-988-7647 or Deborah Turner 562-985-3459
Monthly Mutt Mingles, Pussy & Pooch Pethouse and PawBar, 4818 E. 2nd Street, Long Beach, third Wednesday of every month; and 222 E. Broadway, third Thursday of every month, 6–8PM
Join P&P for their monthly mixer, and enjoy special treats, toasts, and plenty of in-store tail-wagging. Mutt Mingles are a great way for your dog to learn valuable social skills. It’s a chance for them to experience and interact in a social setting with food, drink and plenty of other distractions! It’s important for your dog to learn how to behave around other dogs and people so that they’ll be the stars of the dog park and the dog beach. The indoor facility provides for a very comfortable setting and fun atmosphere. Dogs may be off-leash if supervised closely by their owners. For their protection, we lock the front door so dogs are safe from the street traffic.
Wine & Whiskers, Sunday, April 12, District Wine, 144 Linden Ave., Long Beach, 1–4 PM
Help Stray Cat Alliance build a no-kill nation one stray at a time! Tickets are $35 on the website (click above link) and entitle the bearer to vegan appetizers, great wine, raffle prizes and the knowledge that there will be fewer unwanted kittens and more cared-for cats because of you.
Boutique for Paws, April 19, 11355 Mantinicus Ct., Cypress, noon–4
Long Beach Dog Walker Volunteers and Sparky and the Gang are proud to host a spring boutique in support of West Coast Animal Rescue/Sparky and the Gang! Free admission; enjoy shopping, prizes, raffles and fun. Click on our link to see the wonderful dogs we’ve helped. For more information or to become a vendor at this event, please e-mail [email protected] or [email protected].
Low-Cost Pet Vaccination Clinics, Saturday, May 2, Ramona Park, 3301 E. Spring St., Long Beach, 1:30–3 PM
Pet owners must be 18 years or older. All pets must be on leashes or in carriers. Only healthy and non-pregnant animals will be vaccinated. If you have a prior rabies vaccine certificate, license tag or license renewal notice for your pet, please bring it with you to the clinic. Vaccination and microchip services are provided for pets residing in any city. Licensing service is provided for residents within our jurisdiction: Long Beach, Signal Hill, Cerritos, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach. For more service information and pricing, please visit Southern California Veterinary Vaccine Clinics.