AFFORDABLE SPAY/NEUTER BILL FOR CATS AND DOGS

This petition no longer automatically sends an email to your State law makers. I can't fix it either. You must look up your State law makers and copy/past the contents of the below letter. I'm sorry but this change.org petition is far from stable. I'm unable to fix it. I'll periodically check on it to see if it can be fixed.

TO FIND YOUR STATE LAW MAKERS GO TO THIS WEBSITE-

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/

~~IF YOU LIVE IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA, PLEASE GO HERE!

http://www.change.org/actions/view/florida_needs_statewide_low_cost_free_spayneuter_intervention_for_cats_and_dogs

YOU MAY CREATE YOUR OWN STATE SPECIFIC PETITION USING THIS PETITION AS A TEMPLATE-AND PLEASE DISTRIBUTE AS WIDE AND AS FAR AS POSSIBLE!

STATEWIDE LOW COST_FREE SPAY/NEUTER PETITION-THIS PETITION IS GENERIC AND CAN ACCOMMODATE ANY STATE IN THE NATION-SIGN IT-WILL AUTOMATICALLY EMAIL YOUR LAW MAKERS. LET'S GET IT DONE!!  PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO-I apologize the sound and video is a little off-I tried to fix it but can't. It's not offensive, but simply is a testimony how it feels to work at the dog pound for a day, and it's very heart breaking-it's real.

~Note: This is NOT a mandatory spay/neuter bill!~

(1)  PET OVERPOPULATION QUICK FACTS AT A GLANCE!

-2,000 dogs and 3,000 cats are born every hour in the United States compared to 415 humans hourly.

-15 million healthy, loving, friendly cats, dogs, kittens and puppies will face death as a form of population control in pounds at enormous cost to tax payers (across the nation, two (2) BILLION dollars a year will be spent to kill pets in pounds.)

-There are not enough homes for all the puppies and kittens born from pets whose owners simply did not spay and neuter them.

-One unspayed female dog, her mate and their offspring can produce up to 67,000 dogs in only 6 years.

-ONE unspayed female cat, her mate and all of their offspring can produce 370,092 in just 7 years. There literally millions of homeless cats in a single State alone.

FACT: Spay/neutering combats animal cruelty:

Low cost_free spay/neutering will also reduce animal cruelty issues. Recall in Miami later part 2009 there was recently a cat serial killer who skinned alive and mutilated 20 cats, and decorated the mutilated bodies with exposed organs in people's yards. Just recently in Meza, Arizona (10/09) there is another cat serial killer, torturing and stabbing over a dozen cats.  Most of those cats were homeless though some were pets. Point is, homeless animals have NOBODY to protect them and are at the mercy of every wacko, psycho, thug, and sadist who enjoys torturing and killing small defenseless animals.  The less homeless animals, there will be less opportunity for these thugs to torture and kill cats and dogs. I see animal cruelty issues all over the nation: I'm reading reports of cats being shot with hunting arrows. Burned alive cats and dogs. Kittens thrown out of moving vehicles as a means to "get rid of them quickly".  Or drowning them. Or sealing them up in garbage bags so they will suffocate and throw them in the trash.  Per many SPCA workers they see such cases all the time.  Less than 5% of these incidences are actually reported-because animals CAN'T TALK. Countless thugs kick kittens like footballs because they think it's funny. They are there and come up to strangers because they are scared and hungry. So they kick them hard and think it's funny, and these kittens will die of internal bleeding and broken bones. A slow, painful death. These thugs will NOT HESITATE to also kick and beat up homeless people since they can do it to cats--and you can bet those kittens and cats were the FIRST VICTIMS. They get their cruelty training with the small animals.

Like I said, the less homeless animals, the better.

Less cats and dogs will be hit by moving vehicles due to homelessness; spay and neutering also curbs wandering (cats and dogs look for a mate following scents and get hit by automobiles.)

Even animal control is cruel-it's sad to kill perfectly adoptable loving kittens, puppies, cats, and dogs just because there aren't enough homes for them.  It's cruel, and it's expensive: In every animal control compound-on the average-90% or more of all impounded will die (actually only 5% to 10% ever get adopted).

(2) SOLUTION:

Re: LOW COST SPAY/NEUTERING OF CATS AND DOGS ESSENTIAL FOR OUR ECONOMY & HEALTH OF STATE--It costs nationwide $2.5 billion dollars a year to kill (for the majority of cases) perfectly healthy, adoptable dogs, cats, puppies and kittens. For example, It costs Floridians about $100 million a year to run pounds; California spends a quarter of a billion dollars a year to kill animals in pounds.   Most people cannot afford the $275 to $350 per spay per cat, so they won't bother with it.  A pair of unaltered cats breed most prolifically.    Overall the expenses of dog pounds escalate every year; with a poor economy, more people are either abandoning their pets, or taking them to the pound-most will die.

~~~    Low cost spay/neutering is about saving public safety funds.
~~~    Low cost spay/neutering is about lowering animal euthanizing numbers.

A.    Low cost spay/neutering will allow pet owners to take responsibility for the health of their own pets and for the prevention of lost public safety funds from animal overpopulation by making low-cost sterilization available who voluntarily wish to spay/neuter their pets.

HOW IT WORKS: *This is ~NOT~ a mandatory spay/neuter bill.*  With each and every animal cruelty charge, or animal ordinance violation, there shall be a surcharge per charge-which shall be used to FUND low cost (even free in some instances) spay/neutering for those individuals who voluntarily choose to bring their cat or dog in to be spay/neutered!  It costs the State *NOTHING* but has everything to gain! What a deal!!  In addition to being humane, and saving money, it will help reduce the emotional trauma dog pound employees must face each day putting down hordes of puppies, kittens, dogs, and cats, only because there are NOT ENOUGH HOMES FOR THEM.  An additional idea for revenue is a voluntary check box with any kind of license plate renewal or state income tax form ($1.00 for low cost spay/neuterings-if one wishes to donate!-I know I would be most happy to check it!)
 
B. Low cost spay/neutering  will begin to save local governments millions of dollars every year.  Over 300,000 dogs and cats are euthanized in Florida (about 10 to 20 million every year nationwide), with each county paying $60 to $250 per animal, even with minimal care.  Each dog pound, run by the county, pays enormously to kill homeless and unwanted pets; about 90% on the average get euthanized.

C.    Low cost spay/neutering will increase public safety. Animal control is most often under local municipalities also funding education,  public safety department budgets, burdening taxpayers and taking money away from police and firefighters.  By having affordable spay/neutering, cuts the dog and cat overpopulation in half, we can put 500 (or more) new cops on the streets for each State!

One unneutered male dog or cat can impregnate dozens of females in a month, leading to thousands of unwanted animals.

Entire counties, trailer parks, apartment complexes, and other communities are increasingly getting besieged  by hordes of homeless cats (mostly), bringing to the community the dangers of disease(s) including rabies, toxoplasmosis (cats use even childrens' playgrounds and sand boxes as their toilet), and ringworm.

This is a very typical scenario: Budget cuts in each county, and more and more dogs, cats, puppies and kittens get killed; county land fills literally dump their bodies like trash by the ton-in each county.  Keep in mind dogs and cats do NOT have the option of using condoms, and animal have no hang ups about spay/neutering.  Fact is, dogs and cats are much healthier (prevents reproductive cancers and tumors), and HAPPIER, when spay/neutered (they don't go in heat and wander around getting hit by cars looking for a mate), and helps curb aggression and spraying tendencies: Spay/neutering should be affordable for those who choose to do this intervention.

SPAY/NEUTERING PREVENTS REPRODUCTIVE CANCERS! Did you know most cats six years and older get breast cancer-happens commonly with unspayed cats. SPAYED CATS RARELY GET BREAST TUMORS AND CANCERS.

http://pets.webmd.com/cats/infection-tumors-breast-cancer-cats

"Breast cancer is rare among spayed females, especially those neutered before their first heat cycle. Early spaying reduces the risk factors sevenfold.  Breast tumors occur frequently in unspayed cats. Eighty percent are malignant (adenocarcinoma). The rest are benign adenomas. Breast cancer is the third most common cancer in cats. Most affected cats are unspayed females over 6 years old."

Dogs also suffer breast cancers; male cats and dogs also suffer reproductive cancers which neutering prevents drastically.

EVALUATIONS: ACCURATE RECORD KEEPING ESSENTIAL DUE TO THE EXPENSE OF ANIMAL CONTROL IN EACH COUNTY:

(1) Animal control is a ~huge~ expense to each individual county (often exceeding over a million dollars a year per individual county, sometimes as high as $10 million a year in some larger counties [individually], to operate) must also fund education and law enforcement often requiring Federal funds to balance school and law enforcement budgets.

(2) Dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens, often suffer enormously being impounded,  experience fear (they know when they are going to die),  and even pain when euthanized. Destroyed as a means of population control, each pet at least deserves to be recorded as a statistic. (Most counties provide only bare basics in care and kept in a cage.) Each County should keep an accounting of number of animals impounded (dogs, cats, and other), adopted out, and how many destroyed, and be made easily accessed via Internet/electronic media (virtually all counties do have an Internet site for their County).  Reason: Accurate, easily accessible record keeping made available to the public, is essential to gauge success in programs, and the public has a right to know as this involves their tax monies a great deal, and may further motivate citizens to spay/neuter their pet seeing how expensive animal control is, and the sheer numbers destroyed every year.

Animal control officers suffer enormous stress and emotional trauma destroying perfectly healthy, affectionate pets as a means of population control.

(3) These three factors are essential to monitor the success of spay/neuter programs which is the only humane means of keeping animal overpopulation in check.

Destroying huge quantities of pets is also cruel to any animal control officer. Most Animal Control employees say,  "You never get used to it. It doesn't work that way."

Respectfully submitted