Sportsmen’s & Animal Owners’ Voting Alliance
Carlotta Cooper, Tennessee Director
address
address
August 22, 2010
Memphis Public Services & Neighborhood Committee Members
and Memphis City Council Members
125 N. Main
Room 514
Memphis, TN 38103
Dear Committee and Council Members:
I’m writing to you on behalf of the Sportsmen’s & Animal Owners’ Voting Alliance (SAOVA), a national organization that represents the interests of hunters, sportsmen and pet owners, in opposition to the publicized spay neuter ordinance that you are said to be considering for Memphis. We have numerous supporters in the Memphis area and we strongly believe that this ordinance would be harmful to all dogs and dog owners.
By imposing a 29-pound weight limit and requiring dogs weighing 30 pounds or more to be spayed and neutered, eight of the top 10 breeds registered by the American Kennel Club would have to be spayed and neutered in your city. These breeds include such family favorites and hunting dogs as Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers and Beagles.
Mandatory spay neuter laws have been tried in many places in the last couple of decades and they have failed everywhere they have been tried. One notable place they have failed has been Asheville, NC. Although Asheville was initially held up as an example of success, the city and Buncombe County no longer release their shelter intake numbers. The last numbers they reported several years ago showed that, after implementing mandatory spay neutering, they only took 15 fewer dogs into their shelters than the year before, when there was no MSN.
The fact is that when mandatory spay neutering is implemented people stop following ALL local dog ordinances because they are afraid they will be turned in for not having their dogs spayed or neutered. This means that dogs go unvaccinated and unlicensed. Unvaccinated dogs represent a public health risk. Cities lose money for needed animal control services.
If mandatory spay neutering is enforced, many people will surrender their dogs to the shelters or turn them loose because they simply cannot afford to have their dogs spayed and neutered. This means more dogs in shelters and more dogs euthanized. The number of dogs killed in Memphis would escalate. Is that really what you want in your city?
SAOVA suggests stronger enforcement of existing leash laws. We understand that animal control in Memphis may be understaffed but instituting mandatory spay neutering will only create an additional burden on your animal control staff if they must try to police the reproductive status of people’s pets.
We would also like to point out that mandatory spaying and neutering of dogs over 29 pounds is unfair to sportsmen who hunt with their dogs. Virtually all breeds of hunting dogs weigh over 29 pounds. There are many clubs for sportsmen in Shelby County, as well as individual hunters. They live in your districts. Sportsmen use dogs for hunting or retrieving fox, raccoons, birds, and waterfowl, to name a few. Hunting dogs from all over the United States compete each year in the National Bird Dog Championship just outside Memphis. These hunters support the state by purchasing hunting licenses and hunters spend billions of dollars annually on equipment. These hunters do NOT want to pay a $200 fee to keep their dogs intact. Hunters have protested attempts to impose mandatory spay neuter laws wherever they have been proposed throughout the state. There is currently no city or town in Tennessee with a mandatory spay neutering ordinance.
Trying to fund animal control by means of $200 fertile animal permits is a very shortsighted policy. There is a large amount of material that shows that spaying and neutering pets, particularly at a young age, can cause health problems to dogs. Owners should have the right, without prejudice, to keep their pets intact. Decisions to spay or neuter should be made by an owner in consultation with their veterinarian. These are health decisions for the pet.
Virtually every major animal organization now opposes mandatory spaying and neutering, including the following:
American Dog Owners’ Association:
Alley Cat Allies:
American College of Theriogenologists and The Society for Theriogenology:
International Association of Canine Professionals:
American Herding Breed Association:
National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors, Inc.
The American Veterinary Medical Association:
and
ASPCA
A $200 fertile animal permit also punishes good breeders. These are the people who belong to kennel clubs, offer dog training, and rescue and foster dogs. You need these people in your community. Instead of punishing them by trying to create an exorbitant permit fee you should be trying to work with them to find good solutions. They are the people with the most knowledge about dogs in your community. They are not the problem. They are your greatest resource.
We hope that you will reconsider and find a better solution for the animal control issues in Memphis. Voluntary spay neuter programs have been very successful in many areas. There are many grant programs and organizations that provide funding for communities in need. These programs have been proven to work much better than mandatory spay neuter programs.
If I can be of any assistance please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Sincerely,
Carlotta Cooper