Santa Barbara News

Good news,

Grass root organizing is working, to wit;

Today in Santa Barbara, residents from all over the County, for and
against the mandatory spay and neuter proposed ordinance spoke out.
And in the end, the ordinance that had been drafted was set aside.
Instead, an 11 person commission, which is to be evenly divided among
proponents and opponents will be established and with even handed
input, will work to come up with a solution.

Supervisors Carbajal and Wolf were not able to get any other aye
votes for their proposal to go ahead with the draft ordinance, which
contains mandatory spay and neuter, as the basis for a new law in
Santa Barbara. Supervisor Firestone indicated he believed the people
of Santa Barbara would not want them to go ahead with something that
was so intrusive and that took away people's rights. He noted that
Los Angeles was being sued for just that.

Supervisor Centeno was eloquent as he thanked all for attending,
said he had learned much, but said he could not see penalizing
responsible people because of actions of irresponsible people.
Supervisor Gray was in agreement. The commission to start over was
set up on a motion made by Centeno and seconded by Gray.

The hearing took most of the day. The Board was concerned about
whether the people presenting were their constituents or not and
almost all were from the County. Support was provided by CDOC, PetPAC
and POWER folks. But the day was carried by the Santa Barbara
residents.

Santa Barbara residents attended a planning meeting on Saturday
and worked hard to get their presentations into shape. Even though
the Chair, Supervisor Carbajal, cut speaking time from 3 minutes to
ninety seconds, the speakers were able to adapt and adjust their
messages and make their key points.

For the opposition there were several veterinarians who
pooh-poohed all the new health data saying it was not peer reviewed.
Since these health studies were in the Journal of the American
Veterinary Medical Association JAVMA one wonders who their peers are.
They also told the Board that dogs who are spayed and neutered are
healthier, live longer and have fewer medical problems. One of the
veterinarians (Dr. Faoro who initially offered CVMA as the AB1634
sponsor was their lead off speaker) proudly announced that she is
joining the Board of HSUS. One of their veterinarians announced she
was a member of AVAR, the veterinary association that is in opposition
to many AVMA practices as relying too much on just science.

Today's decision is a chance to start with a clean slate. It is
not "how can we make mandatory spay and neuter work" but rather "how
do we find and deal with irresponsible people who breed animals that
end up in the shelters". CDOC believes the residents of Santa Barbara
Country will work hard to find real solutions. Santa Barbara County
is home to four all-breed kennel clubs and members were present from
all of them.

For everyone who spent the day (and it was a full day) in Santa
Barbara, thank you for taking the time to share your views and support
the residents of Santa Barbara. And thank you to the Supervisors who
didn't want to punish responsible, caring dog people because the
shelters are crowded with dogs abandoned by those who don't care.