The following excerpts and information comes from "Save Our Strays -How We Can End Pet Overpopulation And Stop Killing Healthy Cats and Dogs"
Bob Christiansen, the book's author, was guest speaker at the Canadian Humane Society's Annual Convention in Vancouver several years ago.
His website is:saveourstrays.com
"In December 1990, California's San Mateo County passed the nation's first law that attempted to end pet overpopulation by enacting legislation requiring dog and cat owners to buy a breeding license or get their pets sterilized. -- The ordinance was initiated by the Peninsula Humane Society, the only animal shelter in the county."---
"In 1990 the year before the bill was passed San Mateo County impounded 4,986 dogs and euthanized 1281. In 1991, the year after the bill was passed, the county impounded 6,694 (a 34% increase) with a reported 1200 euthanized."
(This euthanasia number is highly suspicious. If, of the 6,694 dogs impounded, 2,232 were reclaimed and 1,385 were adopted, there are 1,877 dogs unaccounted for as exiting the shelter. If these dogs were euthanized, total euthanasias would exceed 3,000, more than double the average rate)*. Obviously, the only impact the bill had on the community was to increase impoundment and perhaps euthanasias."
*he is referring to a statistic table of San Mateo Entry/Exit Numbers from 1990 - 1996 on page 85 of his book.
Animal Rights Coalition presented a brief to a special committee of the District of North Vancouver Council three years ago against proposed bylaws for mandatory spay/neuterof dogs and cats and cat licensing. We had researched the results of these bylaws enforced by Edmonton and came up with similar statistics to those of Save Our Strays.
The solution to control pet overpoulation is to have readily available low cost spay and neuter programs along with public education.
Bob Christiansen also reports that wherever there is mandatory spay/neuter legislation the fees charged by veterinarians are usually much higher for this service than where there is no legislation.