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OC’s dead pets enter the food chain, part two
July 22nd, 2008, 3:00 am · 29 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
So yesterday we told you about the County of Orange’s $49,000 contract with West Coast Rendering, the firm that picks up some 23,000 animal carcasses (roadkill, euthanized dogs, cats, rabbits, etc.) a year and recycles them into protein that’s sold to “large aquacultural operations” in the Pacific Rim. (Read the original post here.)
The West Coast Rendering contract is too small to hit the Board of Supervisors’ radar, so The Watchdog had a gruesome time explaining the details to some supes and their assistants.
As she hyperventilated over maybe eating farm-raised fish that ate Fido and Fluffy, Supervisor Chris Norby helped ground her. “Well,” Norby says, “we have to do something with the bodies.”
Indeed.
One thing county supervisors could do to reduce the number of Fidos and Fluffys feeding the rendering vats is to pass a mandatory spay/neuter law, according to last month’s grand jury report. The report, “Is Orange County Going to the Dogs?” says quite unambiguously:
“The main reason that the County Shelter is full and many animals are euthanatized is that pet owners, in many cases, have allowed their animals to reproduce beyond the owner’s ability to take care of the offspring. The Grand Jury determined that there should be some form of mandatory spay/neuter ordinance for all Orange County cities and the unincorporated areas. This would reduce the animal population, save taxpayers money, and lower the number of pets being euthanized.”
Where did they find this pack of radicals to serve on the grand jury?!
- In 2006-2007, the county euthanized more than 13,000 animals at a cost of $322,478.
- That’s about $159 to kill each animal.
- A large percentage of animals were put down not because they were unadoptable - but because there was a lack of space at the shelter. Oh, the humanity.
- Spay/neuter works. The state of New Hampshire passed a spay/neuter law in 1994. Within two years, the number of shelter animals put down plunged 38 percent. Within eight years, it was down 82 percent. (Fact check: The grand jury said the New Hampshire law was mandatory; it is not.)
Dollars and sense
- If Orange County had a mandatory spay/neuter law, it could have saved about $21 million over eight years, the grand jury said (not to mention a substantial savings on that $49,000 rendering contract!).
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The savings on euthanasia alone could reach $290,000 a year if Orange County’s success approached New Hampshire’s.
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Proponents of a pending statewide spay/neuter bill say that, for every dollar spent on spay/neuter surgeries, taxpayers would save about $169 in animal control costs over the next decade.
“The most cost-effective and humane long-term method to reduce animal overpopulation is to spay and neuter pets,” the grand jury said.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors has until Sept. 2 to respond to the grand jury. Where are they on all this? More about that tomorrow.
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The South County Animal Shelter Coalition is a group of 5,000 people in Orange County who are fighting for reforms in the OC Shelter and for building more locally based shelters in a county that has only one shelter. Last month we prepared a response to the OC Grand Jury report and we delivered it to the Board of Supervisors. Anyone interested in a copy of this report may request one from me at socoasc@yahoo.com
Basically, our report recommends instituting aggressive (but not mandatory) spay and neuter programs as well as aggressive feral cat trap, neuter, and release programs. These steps have been successful elsewhere, and until OC tries these steps, it would be premature to mandate spay and neuter.
In theory we are not against mandatory spay and neuter laws, but we believe that less restrictive steps should be taken first. The OC shelter puts very little time, energy, or money into these types of programs right now, while our neighbors in SD and LA do and these have been much more successful in reducing the kill rates.
Can they be used for bio fuel?
wow, how can anybody argue with those facts.
The New Hampshire numbers speak for themselves. It is time to get this going in Orange County, too.
I am no math wiz but if you divide $322,478 (amount spent on putting animals down) by 13,000 (number of animals put down) = $24.80 Per animal. How did the OCR come up with $159 to kill each animal???
Just saying.. I am no math wiz… lol
I still think they should be dontated to the zoos so the cheetahs, lions and tigers practice there natural instincts
Let’s do it.
NotAmathWiz - Those are the figures in the grand jury report.
The $159 figure includes:
1. The cost to board an animal for five days
2. The cost of euthanization, and
3. The cost of disposal.
That $322,478 doesn’t include board/care and disposal costs.
The time has come to stopp all the needless killing. Sure, some of you can make jokes but most of you have loved a pet at one point in your life, and surely you know that that animal could have ended up just like these others… They’re the same, just not as lucky.
Let’s get this thing passed! 82% reduction in New Hampshire, wow, that’s amazing - a ray of hope to this overwhelming problem.
Time to end the inhumane treatment of these innocent animals once and for all. Unless you intend to breed little thoroughbred Fluffy it is only the fair and humane thing to do to have him/her spay/neutered. Just like a driver’s license, having a pet is a priviledge to be taken very seriously. Nobody should have the right just to let their animals roam uncared for to become the prey of mountain lions or a bloody carcass on a freeway but that is what happens every day.
We need to start focusing on the rights of the animals and not get so hung up on the rights of the “owners”. If you mistreat your animal it should be removed from your home just like child services would remove an abused or neglected child and you should be barred from having further animals until you can prove you are responsible enough to properly care for it. I bet we don’t likely do this with abused and neglected children either but something has to change, someone has to stand up for what is right and set examples.
I threw out all of my lipsticks and candles. I think it’s horrible that it has taken this long for the public to know about all of this. It’s like the hollocaust for animals.
….a dog or cat is property….bought…sold….discarded…abandon….given away…they are property….no one is gonna come and take my property…cut his little balls off…because…people find it disqusting….that the discards in the pound might be in their fish soup….
…they’ve been making…soap…make-up…this way for thousand’s of years….and a bunch of other comsumer items…i’m sure people use everyday…
This is so stupid! So what if animals become feed? Any vegitarian diet isn’t any better. What do you think they are spreading on the fields? Esp. the organic produce! That isn’t fragrant flowers. It is crap! Litterally!
In case you’re not aware of it, up to now Orange County is so behind in Animal Welfare its disgraceful. I am disgusted with having to pay taxes because of irresponsible pet owners when that money could be put to saving lives.
And this excuse about personal infringement shouldn’t be used for this issue. We are talking about living beings. If you are a responsible pet owner, your pet is already “fixed” so whats the big deal. This is about people who are not responsible, too poor or afraid it will cut into their profit of making money from breeding animals. . How about thinking about community instead of me, me, me.
New Hampshire does NOT have mandatory spay-neuter. What New Hampshire has is a low-cost spay neuter program that provides financial assistance for people who WANT surgery for their pets. It’s funded through dog license fees and has been very effective at reducing the numbers of unwanted pets in shelters. Spay/Neuter is a personal decision to be made by the pet owner, not by the legislature.
Lots of a-holes post on this blog. They know who they are……… But just in case they are not self aware, they are Notadogover, notamathwiz (probably the same person), wazup and sneakyd123 (ah, crap is not the actual animal sneakyd, just in case you were confused).. So we know who the morons are. You geeks need to get back to your WoW. You have better things to do than spam a blog. Oh yeah, its summer. Ten hours on the computer can tax your brain past it’s capacity. Go back to sleep, jerk-offs. And never have a pet. They deserve much better.
Animal shelters in NH that adopt out dogs and cats spay and neuter them before placement. This has nicely reduced the local mixbred breeding population.
What has also worked great in this state is taking a portion of the very low licensing fees and putting it in a subsidizing fund to help low income people alter the pets they want to alter. It’s not mandatory! This is the Live Free or Die state! But with the opportunity to allow all citizens to alter their pets *If They Want To* we have seen numbers in shelters drop so low the local shelters have become pet stores selling pet supplies and bringing in dogs and even cats from out of state for resale through the shelters at quite hefty fees.
As a rescuer and a breeder i can tell you that there is no mandatory spay neuter here - and yes I do both. I’ve watched the numbers of available pups and kittens drop dramatically here as the citizens got the opportunity to have help in affording high vet bills.
If you really want to reduce the shelter population I’d suggest reading through the book Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America by Nathan J. Winograd and learn how to do things that actually work.
Mandatory spay neuter is just going to make all the mills who will be selling dogs through pet stores thrilled and will also increase the cruel smuggling of unhealthy dogs up from Mexico. People will simply order more dogs over the internet too. Nothing there is going to help the shelter situation as people will conitnue to get pets they cannot afford, train, or handle and will continue to have life changes that mandate parting with a pet.
I think this casts doubt on that whole report, If the people who did the investigation were so sloppy that they got it wrong about New Hampshire’s law, what other inaccuracies are in there?
I have gone straight to the horse’s mouth with the mandatory/not mandatory question - I have calls in to the governor’s office in New Hampshire, as well as its health department. I’ll post their response as soon as I get it.
trust me, NH DOES NOT HAVE MANDATORY NEUTER/SPAY!!
Not even the shelters are mandated to sterilize before adoption - most do, but some do not
I repeat::
NH DOES NOT HAVE MANDATORY NEUTER/SPAY
Jan - from NH since 1977
It is possible that the report came from:
Solutions to Overpopulation of Pets (STOP) which is an organization founded by Peter Marsh an attorney from NH and a co-author to the NH State Pet-Over-Population Program.
I have little doubt that Mr. Marsh would deny the existence of any such report.
I can’t find STOP USA with Google. Do they have a web site? Do they exist?
The way to reduce the dog and cat populations and reduce the shelter kill rates is to offer accessible, affordable low cost s/n and start cat positive TNR Programs.
You do not need MSN. We do both in one county I work in, the kill rate is decreasing and the spring kitten flood is starting to slow. NO laws, no campaigns, no battles to fight, no noses out of joint but a reduction in the kill rate. MSN is a animal rights agenda based on the desire by some to eliminate dogs and cats totally from the world.
Don’t get duped by the PeTA and H$US gang they are not really animal friendly orgs.
The success of New Hampshire’s Neuter/Spay program is NOT that it is mandatory, because it is NOT. The success is due to the education and ASSISTANCE available to New Hampshire’s Pet Owners, who strive to do the right thing in neutering pets who are not part of a formal breeding program. Those pushing Mandatory Spay Neuter are once again spreading disinformation in their effort to force their views on others.
Thank You, Teri, for the correction.
Those of you who think the success in New Hampshire supports the concept of mandatory spay/neuter laws should note that the New Hampshire program is NOT mandatory. And that everywhere a mandatory spay/neuter law has been imposed, euthanasia rates went up for awhile (usually several years) and when they started to fall again, euthansia rates did not fall as fast as neighboring jurisdictions that did not have mandatory laws.
The organization being mentioned may be Spay USA (www.spayusa.org) not STOP USA. But in a search of the SPAY USA website, I can’t find any support for mandatory spay/neuter laws, escept for shelters, which is already the law in California.
Rubt Pearl say:How can anyone argue wiht these facts”.. well the fact is they are NOT facts. NH does not have MSN ( thanks for finally getting that straight) and $159 per animal killed includes costs such as salaries,building costs, maintenence and equipment that would be needed even if EVERY pet was “adopted”.
Ther are no records that I know of that state how amy animals killed are ALREADY spayed/castrated. My bet is that many of them are.
Many shelters are reimbursed by the state. Which gets more money? A killed animal or an “adopted one? Guess again.. KILLED animals get MORE reimbursment that ones that are given to rescue or placed in new homes. Now that is wrong!!
There are lies, damn lies and statistics ( thanks Mark Twain). The Grand Jury report is obviously listening to all three
If the county is so concerned about saving money, perhaps stopping the tens of millions of dollars every year from going to illegal aliens would do some good?
[...] OC’s dead pets enter the food chain, part two [...]