None of those problems will be solved by mandatory spay/neuter. If your home
is foreclosed and you must live in rental housing, but cannot find rental property
that allows pets, it is not going to matter whether those pets are spayed or
castrated or not. If you've lost your job and cannot afford to keep one or more or
all of your pets; or a new baby turns out to be allergic to pets; or the landlord decides to use your pets as an excuse to raise your rent to an unaffordable level; or you just
have personal or family problems that make keeping pets humanely all but impossible,
spaying or castrating them isn't going to make any difference. Those pets are
still going to be turned-into shelters (or abandonned on the street).
What we need in Volusia County are several other proven approaches to
reducing euthanasia numbers in shelters dramatically, as follows:
1. Maddie's Fund will work with coalitions of private and public agencies in
cities and counties to develop effective, humane, no-kill programs for
shelters, in which the only animals put to sleep are those who are too old, too
sick, or too bad-tempered to be adoptable. Maddie's Fund gives very substantial
grants to cities to make this happen and has had considerable success in
2. Provision of voluntary low-cost spay/castrate and pet care/obedience programs in
many localities throughout the county. These can even be traveling programs,
such as mobile spay/castrate units and pet care/obedience classes conducted
in schools or community centers each night of the week in a different location.
3. Shelter outreach with local rescue groups and with shelters in other parts of
the state and country that are so underutilized, they actually import dogs.
4. Adoptathons held on weekends in shopping malls or other public places.
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