New ordinance is the pits

I blogged on this already, but now it's official. The KC Council passed a mandatory altering ordinance stating that all pit bull and pit bull mix dogs that reside in the City limits and are more than 8 weeks old must be spayed or neutered by December 1st. I don't think I have enough space or you have enough patience to read everything I think is wrong with this ordinance. I'll try a simple list and then I'll give my conclusions. The list: 1. The ordinance will be ignored. The kind of people who are the problem owners are not the kind of people who bother with little things like City ordinances. Remember the guy in Independence whose pit bulls attacked so many people? He said he let his dogs loose because wanted to "stir things up." Real model citizen. I doubt people like him will be rushing to the vet to have their dogs spayed or neutered. 2. Because the ordinance will be ignored, there will be an enforcement problem. At last count I think we have three animal control officers. Let's see. 317 square miles and 3 people. Yeah I'd say we're going to have an enforcement problem. 3. The ordinance will cause undue administrative problems. There is the question of what constitutes a pit bull or pit bull mix? According to the ordinance you can appeal a judgement that your dog is indeed a pit bull. Now you get a hearing, an appeal process and perhaps another hearing. It all costs money folks. We've done nothing but create another layer of bureaucracy that will do nothing towards solving the very real problem of thousands of cats and dogs being killed every year because of overpopulation. We can try and soften the language and call it "euthanized" but facts are facts. There's a reason animal rescue organizations call government run animal facilities "kill shelters". After a few days, if the dog or cat is not adopted they have to kill the animal in order to make room for the next batch. This happens daily. I've said this before and I'll publish it in a policy paper (look for those coming soon). Mandatory spay and neuter should apply to all cats and dogs. It's the responsible thing to do. It's the humane thing to do. It's the right thing to do.