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The Pasadena City Council on Monday will consider an ordinance that would require dog and cat owners to spay or neuter their animals, or pay penalty fees. The ordinance would apply to all dogs and cats more than 6 months old. Exemptions would be made for services dogs, animals that are too sick for the surgery, and law enforcement dogs.
Last year the city considered banning pit bull dogs. The proposal was designed to curb the number of serious or fatal dog bite attacks and to reduce the overpopulation of unwanted animals that become strays and shelter animals. But Pasadena ran up against a state law that prohibits bans on specific breeds.
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The next step was to consider a pit bull-only spay and neuter ordinance, similar to the one passed by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors last October.
That ordinance requires all pit bull dog owners and pit bull mixes to be spayed or neutered.
“Thousands of pit bulls in our shelters are euthanized each year,” said John Walsh, spokesperson for the Riverside County animal control department. “It’s the number one breed in our shelters.”
Dr. Allan Drusys, chief veterinarian at the Riverside County Animal Control Department, said it's too early to tell if the ordinance had affected animal intake or euthanasia rates.
“There has been no effect on impounds certainly because that time frame would represent perhaps only one heat cycle of any dog in the county,” he said.
The results could be the same for Pasadena’s animal shelter, if the mandatory animal sterilization ordinance passes.
Elizabeth Campo, senior vice president of the Pasadena Humane Society, said it takes about five years for the shelter to experience trends.
For the past two years, the number one breed coming to the PHS has been Chihuahua; about 15 percent of the shelter dogs are some type of Chihuahua mix. Ten percent are pit bull mixes, six percent are Labrador mixes and shepherd mixes. But more recently, the shelter has seen a lot of poodle or “small white fluffies,” says Campo.
“Every time there is a trend in purchasing, in about five years we get the overflow and those that are not working out and then that becomes are most popular breed. That’s what we’re seeing with the Chihuahuas.”
But Chihuahuas aren’t difficult to adopt out. The Pasadena Humane Society sends them to shelters in Montana, the Dakotas, Idaho and the northeast because there’s demand in those places for them.
But there are plenty of pit bulls across the county, as are Labradors and Shepherds, which makes it harder to send unwanted pit bulls and other dogs to other shelters. The PHS has about 20 pit bull mixes at the shelter.
“They are bigger,” Campo said. “Unfortunately they don’t have a good reputation and sometimes insurance won’t allow pit bull and pit bull mixes in the home.”
Campo said they have seen the number of pit bulls decrease over the last five years. She thinks the PHS’s subsided spay-and-neuter for pit bulls in any of their services cities.
Cats and kittens are also hard to adopt out just because there are so many of them. The warm California weather means it's kitten season almost all year around. The Pasadena Humane Society shelter adopts or places 41 percent of its cats with rescue groups but 45 percent of them are euthanized, according to the city's research on the animals at the shelter. Cats are not required to be licensed in Pasadena so when the shelter picks up a stray, reconnecting them to an owners is difficult.
Under the proposed mandatory sterilization ordinance in Pasadena, the Humane Society will not actively seek violators but enforce the ordinance as part of the city’s mandatory pet licensing requirement. Last summer the PHS canvased the city reminding pet owners to license their animals. The sterilization ordinance may be enforced during a second round of canvassing later this fall, according to the city.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated when the city of Pasadena considered a ban on pit bulls. KPCC regrets the error.