Johnson City and MSN

I recently attended an HSUS “Lobbying 101” event in Knoxville where the topic of mandatory spaying and neutering was brought up repeatedly. At this meeting, conducted by the HSUS state director, Leighann McCollum, it was assumed without question that MSN was a great idea – a panacea to cure virtually all animal problems in our society. While she did not actually tell the 30 or so people present that they should try to work for MSN in Knoxville, this message seemed to be understood by everyone present judging by their murmurs of approval for the subject.

Here in northeast Tennessee, Washington County/Johnson City Animal Control Center Director Debbie Dobbs has already gone before the city commission to get permission to draft an ordinance which would require mandatory spaying and neutering in the city. Her draft proposal, based on the Buncombe County NC ordinance, will require all dogs and cats six months or older to be spayed or neutered unless the owner purchases an unaltered animal permit. Limited exemptions are noted for service and police dogs, and animals in poor health. The final proposal has not been submitted to Commissioners at this time.

What’s particularly worrisome is the fact that, despite the current animal control ordinance in effect in Johnson City which requires registration of cats and dogs (Johnson City municipal code 10-102 1-12) and kennel licenses (Johnson City municipal code 10-102.9), there is no licensing or registration of pets. The City Recorder confirmed there is no licensing or registration in the city. While this in itself is not a bad thing since many places don’t have pet licensing, the fact that Director Dobbs is proposing more unenforceable laws while current laws are not being enforced seems ridiculous.

Dobbs provided some figures to the city commissioners which show that in 2008 the shelter was able to adopt out 41 percent of the animals that were picked up or owner-surrendered (3329 animals out of 8152). Eight percent were reclaimed (685 animals). Fifty-one percent of animals entering the shelter were euthanized (4136).

The shelter takes in animals for both the city and the county. They received more calls for animal pick-up from county residents than from city residents (1450 to 1029) but far more city people turned animals in than county people (3394 to 2378). The town of Jonesborough accounted for 131 animals in the shelter.

If correct, the intake figure for 2008 is very high for a population the size of Washington County/Johnson City. It would also be helpful to have a further breakdown of the animal shelter’s figures for animals taken in and picked up. In most places the number of stray or feral cats is at least equal to the number of owned cats. While nationally, owned cats are spayed and neutered at a rate of more than 85 percent, less than 5 percent of feral cats are spayed or neutered. This makes them disproportionately responsible for most of the litters of kittens that are picked up or taken to animal shelters. Feral cats and kittens usually comprise a high percentage of the animals which are euthanized in shelters. We would like to find out if this is the case in Johnson City. It does no good to call for mandatory spaying and neutering if the problem is unowned stray cats. MSN only punishes responsible owners who don’t let their animals roam or breed indiscriminately.

Two e-mails have been sent to the Washington County/Johnson City Animal Control Center asking for more details about the animals that they pick up and take in. There has been no reply although they did reply to an earlier e-mail asking for a copy of the current animal control ordinance.

It is important to know more about the dogs that are turned in to the shelter. Owner retention is a serious problem. Many people turn young, adolescent dogs in to shelters because they don’t know what to do when a young dog starts showing some behavior problems — house training problems, too much barking, jumping on people, for example. There are some good ways to get trainers in the community involved to help owners teach their dogs to behave better. Offering some training classes at the shelter could help owners keep their dogs.

There are many ways to help market some of the adoptable cats and dogs to make them more appealing to the public. Good marketing can raise adoption numbers and lower the number of animals that are euthanized.

Mandatory spaying and neutering is not the solution that Director Dobbs thinks it is. It will not work in Johnson City just as it hasn’t worked anywhere else it’s been tried. Even in Asheville, which she has put forth as a success story, the figures prove her wrong. Asheville has not succeeded with MSN. In most places where MSN has been tried it not only hasn’t worked but it has resulted in increased costs to the city/county government and MORE animals euthanized.

MSN is not the solution for Johnson City or Washington County.
Carlotta Cooper - TN Pet Law