As a long-time Santa Maria animal shelter volunteer, I found it interesting that no regular volunteers at any kill facilities spoke in opposition to a mandatory spay/neuter law.
That's because to fully appreciate the intake, you have to live it. It's not enough to visit a shelter, or spend a day. If every person in that hearing room on Tuesday - including board members - worked for 30 eight-hour days at the Santa Maria shelter, there would be no opposition.
It's easy to say in the abstract, I have rights, or government intrudes too much on our lives, or I'm a responsible owner, when you don't have to experience those eyes, hundreds of eyes, latching onto every human who walks past the kennel, begging with hope and desperation, take me out, all day long. Back and forth, over and over.
They didn't ask to come into this world, and now they have to live in a cage for months or die. Where do you put the next one? Double up the kennels? Will they fight? Who lives? Who dies?
And make no mistake. Not a day goes by that more don't come. Seven days a week, 365 days a year. They come in the front door and they come in the truck. After hours, they come in the overnight cage.
The only thing that will slow it is mandatory spaying and neutering. If you care about animals, please call or e-mail your county supervisor and tell them they are hearing from breeders from all over the state that oppose this humane law and they really need to hear from their constituents.
Joy Jones
Santa Maria
May 16, 2008
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