Monday, August 08, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

BREEDING ORDINANCE: Reining Cats and Dogs

Opinions vary on proposed law to control animal population

Dr. Tony McCorkle spays a cat as part of Heaven Can Wait's Ground Zero program, which provides free spay and neuter services to low-income pet owners. Clark County is considering an ordinance that would require pet owners to spay or neuter their animals. Photo by John Locher. Pit bulls sit in cages at the Lied Animal Shelter. The breed accounts for 60 percent of all dogs at the shelter. Photo by John Locher.

On a scorching July afternoon, Judy Erickson approached a Trailer Vegas home on Lake Mead Boulevard to pick up a cat scheduled to be sterilized.

Erickson, a volunteer in Heaven Can Wait's Ground Zero program, which provides free spay and neuter services to low-income pet owners, knocked on the screen door at Trailer 113. She asked for the woman who had agreed to have her cat fixed. A man told her, without coming to the door, that she wasn't in and that no cat would be leaving his home today.

Another failed attempt to reduce animal overpopulation in Las Vegas.

"They have no concept of what we're trying to do," Erickson said.

Sometimes, people will change their minds about sterilization for no other reason than not wanting to get out of bed, Erickson said. Meanwhile, area shelters last year ended up killing 24,000 cats and dogs.

Harold Vosco, the organization's vice president, said he hopes half-baked excuses become a thing of the past if a breeding ordinance is passed by Clark County requiring owners to sterilize their pets.

The county's animal advisory board, which made the proposal, has put forth similar ordinances for years, only to see them stall before they reach the County Commission. The current proposal is being reviewed by the district attorney's office.

The Animal Foundation, which runs Lied Animal Shelter and has the shelter contracts for Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, isn't convinced the proposal is going anywhere, so it's drawing up its own proposal.

"We just weren't seeing enough progress, and it's a need that needs to be addressed immediately. We wanted to make things happen and expedite what we could," said Diane Orgill, executive director of the Lied Animal Shelter.

Mike Connell, a dog breeder who is on the county's animal advisory board, said past proposals have been held up by the county manager because animals are a low priority in government.

"Animals are probably at the bottom of the list for most politicians and bureaucrats," Connell said.

Both proposals have the same core provision: People without a breeding permit must spay and neuter their pets.

Both would rely on animal control for enforcement.

The proposal under review at the district attorney's office does away with one aspect of previous proposals: door-to-door enforcement, which requires animal control officers to knock on every door in the area.

Joe Boteilho, Clark County animal control manager, said such a requirement would be cost prohibitive because it requires a drastic increase in animal control officers.

Instead, he said, officers would enforce the ordinance through calls from citizens and unsterilized animals the county picks up.

"If we never have a problem with you, we're probably never going to talk to you," Boteilho said.

Animal People, a national newspaper which advocates for animal protection, analyzed national shelter statistics and found breeding laws have no effect on overpopulation or the number of animals killed in shelters.

"Breeding ordinances are a waste of time. It's one of these grand holy delusions," said Merritt Clifton, the newspaper's editor. "Neutering ordinances never affect the poorest sections of society, old people set in their ways and undocumented aliens who are simply afraid of contact with officials."

He said the ordinances rely on voluntary compliance; and if more than a small percentage of a population resists sterilization, the effects on the pet population will be minimal.

Dozens of cities around the country have tried breeding restrictions without success, Clifton said.

The Animal Foundation is reviewing what has and hasn't worked in other cities, said Mark Fierro, foundation spokesman.

Connell, who also is president of the Silver State Kennel Club, said professional breeders have no problem with breeding restrictions.

"We only breed to better the breed and because we want something to put in the show ring," said Connell, who breeds Akita and Shiba dogs.

Fierro defines genuine breeders as those who will breed a dog once or twice in the animal's lifetime, not a couple times a year. In addition, legitimate breeders will advertise in trade magazines, not in the local newspaper.

"We don't want to interrupt anything genuine breeders are doing. The flip side of this, just because you have a pit bull that can put out three litters a year, we've got news for you: You're not a breeder," Fierro said.

David Kingsley, a Las Vegas resident who advertises pit bull puppies in the newspaper, said he opposes any efforts to sterilize pets.

"To take out a dog's organs is, to me, butchering. If you don't want to breed your dog, keep it away from other dogs," he said.

Pit bulls are an important element of a breeding ordinance because they tend to be aggressive and difficult to adopt, animal officials said.

Consequently, they account for about 60 percent of all dogs in the Lied Animal Shelter. Despite that, and the attention pit bull attacks receive, neither the county nor Orgill support outlawing pit bulls.

"We are not looking at a ban. We're looking at an ordinance that would discourage the breeding of them," Orgill said. "We don't want to go into people's homes and take away animals that are being treated well."

North Las Vegas Animal Control Manager Dale Smock said he usually sees one or two incidents of animals attacking other animals each month. He said the attacking animal usually is a pit bull or a pit bull mix. The attacks often happen because people let their dogs roam without a leash.

"Some (people) do it intentionally, just to get the kick out of a dog attacking another animal," Smock said.

Roger Van Oordt, the city's animal control supervisor, said he doesn't think pit bulls contribute disproportionately to attacks.

But pit bull attacks "may be more apt to be reported because when they do get in a fight they clamp on and cause a lot more injury," Van Oordt said.

Orgill said the foundation's animal advisory committee has looked to other jurisdictions to see how they have handled dangerous dogs.

For example, Denver implemented an all-out ban on pit bulls. Animal control officers there walk door to door to determine whether residents own a pit bull. But some dog lovers started secretly transporting their pit bulls to sanctuaries across state lines.

Clifton said Denver's pit bull ban reduced the number of aggressive dogs in the city, and it should be tried in other cities.

"I think people know what needs to be done, and people just need to bite the bullet and get on with it," Clifton said.

Some oppose pit bull bans because they will lose a source of income, Clifton said. Pit bull puppies, for example, go for as much as $2,000 each, according to classified advertisements.

The Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is against breed-specific ordinances. Director Doug Duke said aggressive dogs like pit bulls are dangerous because of the people who care for them, not because the dogs are inherently aggressive.

Because many of the pit bulls the shelter receives come from abusive owners, he said, the organization has regulations in place for pit bull adoption: An adopter must be over 25, have lived in the Las Vegas area for more than a year and held a steady job for six months.

Those who favor a breeding ordinance in Las Vegas say it's crucial toward solving the problem of pet overpopulation. They say Las Vegas' situation, with its large number of pit bulls, makes breeding ordinances worth a try.

"I think we could go a long way with some breeding regulation," said David Henderson, a veterinarian at Sunrise Veterinary Clinic. "We could tell people the reason that we have this regulation is that we have a problem. And the first step to solving this problem is recognizing we have one."

Review-Journal writer Adrienne Packer contributed to this report.