Moody Amphitheater
What's Needed: a Working Spay/Neuteur Ordinance
RECEIVED Tue., June 19, 2007
Dear Editor,
Re: The big to-do over animal shelter location [“Proposed Animal Shelter Move Gets Community Howling,” News, June 15]: I guess my issue with this whole debate is this: A working spay/neuter ordinance would do so much more for lowering the intake and through that, the euthanization ratio, than any shelter location we could ever choose. We could locate the new shelter where the Capitol building currently resides, and it still wouldn't result in the same positive effect as a working spay/neuter ordinance.
More than 27 cities, counties, and states have already implemented a spay/neuter ordinance. Over a 10-year time span (www.kingcounty.gov/safety/AnimalServices/about/statistics.aspx) in King County (Seattle), Wash.'s spay/neuter ordinance resulted in a 40% drop in intake (keep in mind our numbers go up 10% to 15% each year), the number of healthy adoptable animals euthanized dropped from 3,700 to zero, and the number of dead animals removed from their streets dropped 80%. Buncombe County, N.C., saw a 14% drop in intake within the first year of their ordinance being implemented. Just three months ago Newsweek magazine reported that Albuquerque, N.M.'s spay/neuter ordinance dropped their intake by 50% in two years.
It is beyond me why the mayor, City Council, and Animal Advisory Commission chair and vice chair of the intellectual capital of Texas fail to grasp those simple statistics. Perhaps we are all a lot closer to Bubba's side of the family than we want to admit.
Re: The big to-do over animal shelter location [“Proposed Animal Shelter Move Gets Community Howling,” News, June 15]: I guess my issue with this whole debate is this: A working spay/neuter ordinance would do so much more for lowering the intake and through that, the euthanization ratio, than any shelter location we could ever choose. We could locate the new shelter where the Capitol building currently resides, and it still wouldn't result in the same positive effect as a working spay/neuter ordinance.
More than 27 cities, counties, and states have already implemented a spay/neuter ordinance. Over a 10-year time span (www.kingcounty.gov/safety/AnimalServices/about/statistics.aspx) in King County (Seattle), Wash.'s spay/neuter ordinance resulted in a 40% drop in intake (keep in mind our numbers go up 10% to 15% each year), the number of healthy adoptable animals euthanized dropped from 3,700 to zero, and the number of dead animals removed from their streets dropped 80%. Buncombe County, N.C., saw a 14% drop in intake within the first year of their ordinance being implemented. Just three months ago Newsweek magazine reported that Albuquerque, N.M.'s spay/neuter ordinance dropped their intake by 50% in two years.
It is beyond me why the mayor, City Council, and Animal Advisory Commission chair and vice chair of the intellectual capital of Texas fail to grasp those simple statistics. Perhaps we are all a lot closer to Bubba's side of the family than we want to admit.
Sincerely
Delwin D. Goss
Delwin D. Goss