LBReport.com

News

Council Votes 6-0 (First Reading, Second Required) Requiring LB Dog Owners To Spay/Neuter Their Dogs BUT With Grandfathering Provision (Added Per Mungo) Letting Unaltered Dogs Remain IF They're Currently Licensed And IF License Doesn't Lapse; Measure Would Raise Dog License Fees For Those With Altered Animals By 40%

Friends of LB Animals Supported; American Kennel Club Opposed...And Raised Prospect Of Possible Return Of Its Annual Dog Show To LB In Attempting To Influence City Policy


LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. Support independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.
(Updated, 9:15 a.m. from Mar. 11, 2015, 6:55 a.m.) -- At its March 10 meeting, the City Council voted 6-0 (Gonzales and Uranga absent, 4th dist. vacant) in the first of two votes needed to enact an ordinance requiring all dog owners to spay/neuter their animals by six months of age (medical exemption available) BUT (with an amendment by Councilwoman Stacy Mungo) effectively "grandfathers-in" roughly 3,000 unaltered dogs, allowing them to remain unaltered IF they're currently licensed and IF the owner doesn't let the license lapse or let the animal get loose (when it's picked up by LB Animal Care Services.) Dogs licensed after the ordinance effective date (Oct. 1, 2015) would be subject to the mandatory spay/neuter requirement.

The measure would also prohibit the sale of dogs, cats or rabbits in any pet shop or other commercial business unless they come from an animal shelter, humane society, rescue organization or are bred on the premises with a valid breeding permit. (Long Beach already has a mandatory spay/neuter law for cats.)

If enacted in a second vote at the next Council meeting -- when the Council could tweak it further -- the ordinance will increase the cost of dog licenses by 40% for those with altered dogs, raising the cost from $20 to $28 in most cases, $10 to $14 for seniors. For unaltered animals, the cost would go from $95 to $105. LB Animal Care management says the increase will offset a decrease in revenue from the differential between the current unaltered license charge of $95 versus altered charge of $20. plus "ongoing educational and marketing materials," increased Animal License Inspector staffing for enforcement and increased support for a voucher program.

Dog owners will be responsible for the costs for the surgery, although the City and some grassroots groups offer vouchers that reduce the out of pocket costs.

[Scroll down for further.


Vice Mayor Lowenthal (measure's initial author) made the motion; Councilwoman Mungo (measure's initial co-author) seconded it...and subsequently added the "grandfathering" provision. During Council colloquy, Councilwoman Stacy Mungo said her grandfathering provision for dogs currently licensed would reward those who had complied with City law and had licensed their pets but would still enable cost recovery for dogs licensed after Oct. 1, 2015. She noted that the grandfathering would apply to only within the current life cycle for currently licensed unaltered dogs and would effectively disappear as the dogs pass on.

Vice Mayor Lowenthal wasn't initially supportive of the Mungo amendment; Animal Care Services said the decision was a policy choice it would leave to the Council; Councilman Austin said he was friendly to Mungo's friendly amendment and if the maker of the main motion (Lowenthal) didn't accept it, he'd offer a substitute motion that would incorporate Mungo's measure. Lowenthal then agreed to Mungo's grandfathering amendment. .

To view the Council item in its entirety, click this link, the scroll agenda link at left to jump to agenda item 17. The discussion begins at 59:33 into the video and lasts for nearly two hours.)

To view the text of the ordinance [as presented, without the Mungo amendment, which will be added on next week's final vote], click here:

LB Animal Care Services chief Ted Stevens acknowledged the ordinance isn't a panacea, but said it is "another tool in our tool box." He said spay/neuter procedures bring both animal and public safety benefits, making the animal less inclined to bite and lengthening their lives. During Council colloquy, Mr. Stevens acknowledged that the city agency had put 4,054 animals to death last year, noting that it is now roughly half of what it had been only a few years earlier.

Public testimony was mainly in favor but sharply split. Supporters of the measure said the City and volunteer groups had tried voluntary measures for years, and said the measure is a step in the right direction to reduce the taxpayer-paid killings. Opponents of the ordinance supported voluntary measures and said data indicated that mandatory ordinances elsewhere had not been shown to reduce euthanasias.

During public testimony, a representative of the American Kennel Club testified that "As you know, the AKC held our Eukanuba championship here for quite a few years. We brought in about $21 million to the City of Long Beach. We'd like to consider coming back to Long Beach, but we can't do that with this type of restriction."

In response to the AKC testimony, Councilwoman Mungo said, "Those who addressed our office in advance about the concerns about not having the AKC show in Long Beach, we've alleviated that concern, we've talked with national, and the [LB] Convention and Visitors Bureau has made sure that we're not going to be precluded from that with this ordinance."

[UPDATE] Contacted the morning after (Mar. 11) the Council action, AKC's press spokesperson at its NYC HQ (Hillary Prim, Public Relations Director Hillary Prim) tells LBREPORT.com via email: "I can confirm that the passing of Long Beach’s mandatory spay/neuter ordinance would remove Long Beach from consideration as a future location for the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship." [end UPDATE]

Councilman Al Austin, who has expressed misgivings about the ordinance since its original introduction by Lowenthal and Mungo in November 2014, said mandatory measures give him pause; he doesn't support policies that aren't enforceable; the ordinance would be financially burdensome for low income and working class families; he thinks the policy is flawed...but said he would vote for the measure and did so.

The ordinance stops short of a package measures advocated by "Stayin' Alive Long Beach" which that group calls a "no kill solution." The "no kill" verbiage, coupled with the group's criticism of City Hall's record, created a rift among local animal advocates. The group vowed to highlight the issue during the 2014 election cycle, interviewed Mayoral candidates and gave its highest recommendation to Robert Garcia. Garcia, who didn't publicly endorse the group's package of recommendations, has continued to say that he believes the City can and should try to do better but has stopped short of supporting the full package of the group's recommendations. Mayor Garcia wasn't present at the Mar. 10 Council meeting (apparently on a cargo promotion trip to Europe with a Port of Long Beach delegation), effectively giving Vice Mayor Lowenthal (a co-author of the measure) a high visibility opportunity to preside. [The ordinance had been scheduled for an initial first vote on Mar. 3 but was put off, a city spokesperson told us last week, to make corrections for accuracy on spay/neuter time frames.]

During Council comments, Vice Mayor Lowenthal acknowledged the 4,000+ annual animal killings, noted the City has significantly reduced that number from previous years, called the mandatory spay/neuter measure an example of the City's ongoing compassionate treatment of animals...and took an implicit swipe at "Stayin' Alive Long Beach" by arguing that we "cannot just adopt our way out of this problem."

[Scroll down for further]

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


Advertisement

Enacting a LB ordinance requires two Council majority enacting votes, meaning the measure will be heard again on March 17, at which time the Council can approve it or tweak it.

[Disclosure: LBREPORT.com is a longtime supporter of Friends of Long Beach Animals, and vice versa.]



blog comments powered by Disqus

Recommend LBREPORT.com to your Facebook friends:


Follow LBReport.com with:

Twitter

Facebook

RSS

Return To Front Page

Contact us: mail@LBReport.com






Adoptable pet of the week:








Carter Wood Floors
Hardwood Floor Specialists
Call (562) 422-2800 or (714) 836-7050


Copyright © 2015 LBReport.com, LLC. All rights reserved. Terms of Use/Legal policy, click here. Privacy Policy, click here