Remember that PETA actually stands for “People Euthanizing Thousands of Animals.”
But here’s the petition on the White House website:
Every year in the United States, an estimated 6 to 8 million lost, abandoned, or unwanted dogs and cats enter animal shelters and nearly half of these animals—many of them healthy, young, and adoptable—must be euthanized because there are too many animals and not enough good homes.
This tragedy occurs because people don’t spay and neuter their animals and because greedy breeders continue to churn out more puppies. Because all dogs and cats are precious and because no more animals need to be bred when so many others go without hope of being adopted, PETA is calling for a mandatory spay-and-neuter law until all dogs and cats in the United States have a home to call their own.
Sign the petition calling for a mandatory spay-and-neuter law to help end the animal overpopulation crisis.
See any problems with the facts on this petition.
Well, they overestimate the number of pets killed in the United States by shelters– by quite a lot.
Now, I don’t think that feral cats should even be counted as pets, and I vehemently opposed to TNR. From a wildlife management persepective, it These cats should be treated as invasive species and every single one of them that cannot be socialized to people euthanized. If we did that, it would definitely pare back the numbes of “pets” being killed in shelters. That’s sounds extreme, but that’s the policy we had for arctic foxes on the Aleutians and that Texas has for feral pigs.
That’s a very different question from euthanizing adoptable pets, which is something that should be regarded as a scandal. The demand for pet dogs and cats continues to rise every year, and all that is needed to take care of the bulk of this problem is some adjustments in how these pets are marketed. It’s an issue, but it’s hardly a crisis.
However, if you look at the the bottom line of such a policy, it is very simple: Let’s end dog and cat ownership in one generation!
To implement such a policy nationwide– where there are 70-80 million dogs and 80 million or more pet cats– you would have to hire something like a national animal police to keep everyone in line.
Never mind that the AMVA is opposed to compulsory sterilization for companion animals. And it is the AMVA that is the governing body over the people who would actually be performing the sterlizations.
Never mind that the president has never stated support for this policy, and it is likely unconstitutional. The commerce clause has been made elastic over the years, but I doubt it can be bent to fit this craziness.
PETA is proposing an extreme solution to a problem that can be solved, a problem that is closer to being solved now than it was twenty years ago.
The solution is for another problem that PETA has: That people actually own dogs and cats. And that dogs and cats exist as domestic animals.
These laws are designed to stop people from breeding dogs and cats, so that people will adopt every animal they own. And those animals will be spayed and neutered. And within a generation, the domestic dog and cat will disappear.
PETA wouldn’t tell you this of course. But this is the logical end of mandatory spay and neuter nonsense. Keep in mind that even if we keep PETA inflated figures for the number of dogs and cats euthanized, these animals represent an extreme minority of the dogs and cats living in the United States every year. And if we look at the number of dogs and cats that are actually being euthanized, and correctly discount all the adult feral cats, which will never be pets by any stretch of the imagination, the number becomes quite paltry indeed.
Wow… PeTA is at it again.
I don’t use the word “hate” often, but I really do hate the PeTA org.
Cout me as one signature you’ll never see on any petition PeTA related.
Yes do it first otherwise Republicans will spay and neuter us.
Only if you are poor or don’t attend church at least twice per week.
I see you’re getting two new very animate playthings.
I have needs
Although PETA is anti-‘exploitation,’ which includes pets, I don’t think the goal with this petition is to end pet ownership. There will always be dogs and cats available from oops litters, whether these litters come from people who do not care to keep their animals from reproducing, or who cannot afford to spay/neuter. The purpose of petitions like this, and restrictive legislation, is to end the ON PURPOSE breeding of pets.
Someone once posted a screed from an anti-breeder to the Pet Law list, and it was…interesting. It was a bizarre diatribe about how creepy and disgusting it is to ‘watch dogs have sex.’ It was very indicative of someone who has no experience with animals as other than altered ‘pets.’
PETA had for a while on their web site, a t-shirt which said, “Breeders Are Mean People.”
It should read “Accidental breeders are Mean people”
This from euthanasia central. PeTA no slouch when it comes to euthanizing dogs and cats and their reasoning is that they have to kill them because they can’t find homes for them. They don’t even try, like the HSUS they have an agenda and if the animals suffer what do they care.
Too bad someone in the White House bought their line of crap. The air must be really bad in DC these days.
BTW, the bumper sticker should apply to all politicians
Well, I approve of mandatory spay and neuter as long as there is like a license for breeders to breed. Spaying and neutering ALL dogs and cats is absolutely ridiculous, where would we get our dogs and cats when the shelters are empty? Asia, Europe, etc.? And then what would happen? It would cost an outrageous amount of money to breed dogs and I’m sure no one would be able to afford one, because you have to quarantine the dog, and then due to breeding ethics you only breed them when they are one year old, and then they only breed for a few years and only once in every year, then there is dog food, vaccinations, microchips, etc. ….Seriously? Its not practical.
What? Licensed breeding?
Then we need to license humans as well.
Yes, let’s make regulations around the breeding of animals and owning pets more draconian and restrictive than any laws or standards regarding reproducing and caring for human children. That makes TOTAL sense!
There is no call for increasing the restrictions on animal breeding, since they amount of animals even ENTERING the shelter system has dropped literally 85% since the 1980s through nothing more than public education.
Please tell me why, when the situation for our pets has gotten vastly better in this country over the past 30 years, why there should be a call for harsher laws regarding animal breeding. It’s completely illogical.
Mandatory spay/neuter does not work, and has not worked to reduce shelter populations anywhere it’s been tried, because it doesn’t address the reasons why people do not alter their pets. Namely, money. An average spay for a medium dog around here costs $300 (and this is a very low income area.) That is six months worth of car insurance here. If you get caught driving without insurance they will take away your license and impound your car on a first offense. Which do you think a family living hand to mouth will choose? Keeping their vehicle, or spaying their pet? This has been proven over and over again in surveys of pet owners. It’s all about money and access to services.
The people who push mandatory spay/neuter don’t listen, because these laws are not about helping people take better care of their pets, or keeping animals out of shelters. They are about making legal breeding impossible, and punishing poor people who have the audacity to want pets, even though they are poor.
if the only dogs one can get are from “oops” litters, any attempt to improve health in dogs is eliminated. If the only pets are from “licensed” breeders, you by definition require large scale (ie” puppy farms” because very few hobby breeders or small scale breeders will be able to meet the requirements for such licensing or afford the fees. It’s just like the “family farm” — priced & regulated into insignificance. PETA and HSUS have people in charge who have STATED their goal of NO PETS of any kind, no domestic animals of any kind. They have already seen laws passed in various states that are probably unconstitutional but which haven’t been challenged yet (challenges take lots of time &$). Yes, we should try and ensure adoptable dogs & cats find homes — same as we should do so with kids. OOPS!!!! guess no one should have kids until there are no unadopted orphans, none in foster care……..
Peggy Richter.
If an owner is truly responsible, there will be extremely few unplanned litters. Most females that are spayed, are simply because the owners don’t want to deal with the female-in-season problem. That’s fine. But mandatory spay/neuter is not the answer; and it is not workable.
In the UK, relatively few dogs are neutered or spayed, and there are (compared to the US) very few stray dogs or accidental breedings– because a much higher percentage of owners take better care of their dogs. And as a result, dogs are seen accompanying their owners on public transportation, in parks, pubs and cafes, and are happily integrated into their humans’ lives. The same is true in many parts of Europe.
They don’t over-estimate. They state that less than half of the 6-8 million dogs and cats entering the shelter are killed. That is, between 2-4 million dogs and cats are euthanized. That seems to be the consistent number bandied about, anyways.
Also, pretty much anyone can create a petition on the White House petition site. You just have to be 13 and older and create an account.
A percentage of feral cats can be desensitized to people. They are a domesticated species, currently and primarily used in this country as companions. I see no reason to treat them any differently than a “tame” cat who is aggressive towards people but who is healthy and therefore deserving of reasonable attempts at placement.
I oppose mandatory castration for multiple reasons. One, it has little consideration of the socioeconomic status of individuals with intact animals. Two, it completely ignores the bevy of scientific data that removing sexual organs has a negative impact on animals, depending on age, breed, and health. Third, case studies show it rarely works in the way it was intended to.
But I am not so stupid to oppose such a position based solely on the organizational author of an online petition.
We don’t count feral pigs as domestics.
Feral pigs are considered an invasive species.
2 million is not half of 6 million.
Why would you call a feral cannot be tamed or socialized to a person a pet? That would be the majority of feral cats. It’s not really worth wasting resources on animals like this, when there clearly are adoptable animals in the pipeline.
For every owned cat, there is a least one feral cat– at least last time I checked. That means that only half the cats in this country are pets.
And those that are not pets are among the most ecologically devastating of all invasive species. Their only redeeming feature is that coyotes eat them, and coyotes do provide some ecological balance, especially when they behave more like wolves and hunt deer.
And that’s what they are. A feral cat is an invasive species, just like a feral hog or an arctic fox in the Aleutians, which have all been killed off. Or dogs in the Galapagos.
Just because they are cute and cuddly doesn’t change the facts.
Some numbers to bolster your position:
http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dbcs/pets/stats/Animal%20Trends%202010.pdf
Look how the number of dogs taken in steadily decreases, as does the number of dogs euthanized. And the number of cats goes up and down without substantial change. But the decrease in dogs is so dramatic, the overall number of pets taken in and euthanized still decreases over a 30 year period, despite the growing population of humans and our recent economic woes.
Undoubtedly, most of the cats were ferals. There are groups here that do TNR, but I agree that TNR is not a real solution.
My kitty is being spayed today! LOL
In all seriousness though. Mandatory spay and neuter is never going to happen and never will.
I think what really needs to happen is to see free spay and neuter offered at shelters. Maybe PeTA should take some of their millions and foot the bill of such an idea.
My cat’s spay today is going to cost me about $250. If she’s pregnant, it skyrockets up to $400. And that’s just for a 7lbs cat.