Comments (20) | Add a comment
Henderson adopts mandatory sterilization rules for cats and dogs
Tools
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
After a public debate about private parts on Tuesday, Henderson City Council members adopted a new ordinance requiring dogs and cats older than 4 months to be sterilized.
The vote came after more than an hour of discussion and public input.
Henderson residents will have 120 days to get their animals spayed or neutered.
The ordinance applies to pet owners and anyone providing "nourishment to a stray or feral cat or dog." It does not apply to licensed breeders and shelters or in cases where a veterinarian has declared an animal medically unfit for sterilization.
Dr. Gary Weddle, administrator for Henderson's animal shelter, said the goal is simple: Reduce the number of strays and other unwanted pets that wind up at local shelters and, in far too many cases, end up dead.
"You can't shelter your way out of this problem. You have to nip it in the bud," he said.
In adopting mandatory sterilization rules, Henderson joins Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Mesquite and unincorporated Clark County, all of which have enacted similar ordinances in the past two years.
Before Tuesday's vote, the council heard from a divided crowd of about 40 people.
Backers of the ordinance called it a necessary step to help curb crowding and euthanasia at shelters.
Those opposed said they object to being told what to do with their pets and worry what might happen to people who cannot afford to comply.
Violation of the ordinance is a misdemeanor, but Weddle said the city has no plans to aggressively enforce it. Instead, he described it as a "tool" to reduce irresponsible breeding.
As for the cost issue, he said the city would refer people to one of several low-cost spay or neuter clinics that operate in the valley.
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.
Trending topics:
Comments
Terms & Conditions
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The Review-Journal does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please use the Report Abuse button.
Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 24 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
I'd be all for spaying and neutering deadbeat dads and people that keep having kids while they live off government housing and welfare.
Why do people (especially MEN) tend to forget that their animals are animals and not human? A dog is a dog. He mates by instinct -- not for fun or sport. He doesn't "make love." People act like the quality of their pets' lives are ruined because of spaying and neutering. In actuality, if most of these clueless owners would get some education about their animals, they would learn that spaying and neutering is beneficial for the animal's health.
I hope they enforce the law. I love animals and it's heartbreaking to see so many people being careless and irresponsible with their pets. There are too many animals being put down. These laws should have been in place many years ago.
Please, no more homeless pets.
Walt.Hutchens... actually you're wrong more people go to the ER for dog attacks than gun shot wounds.
Talk to the parent of a kid who has been mauled by some creeps dog that's been tied to a pole for its whole life what irresponsible breeders do.
I love dogs, have two and have bred them. I don't have a license because the government can kiss my butt. They already get enough $$ from me.
My dogs have had two litters in 4 years. I screen the buyers better than any shelter would. The pups from our litters have been cared for and are healthier than any pup you'll get from a store. And we still have contact with several of them and their owners.
Most of the people who think that all dogs need to be spayed or neutered are the liberal, birkenstock, longerberger basket, gay marriage crowd. You know, like the idiots on the Whale Wars show. You know, the ones that are zealous to see more babies aborted every year. YIPEE!!!
I love watching the Whale Wars show to see those hippies fail at every single thing they try. They act like they've conquered the world when they drive up next to a ship and throw ziplock bags of feces.
Not celebrating the deaths of whales, but they haven't done one thing to prove that what the Japanese are doing is illegal.
They're just the typical, San Francisco, Boulder Colorado, UC Berkeley bozos. They provide good entertainment.
And by the way, they aren't going to have aggressive enforcement because they are talking out of both sides of their mouths like all other politicians do. They made the law... YIPPEE!!! That'll shut up the wacko crowd demanding it.
But they won't enforce it because even they know what the right thing is even though they're afraid to be seen doing it.
Wiplash,
Take a chill pill, way too much anger going on there. Note for you as well, your dogs don't care if they are fixed or not
'Neutered' is right that such an ordinance is constitutional: Our Constitution does NOT guarantee or require good or wise laws. The analogy to automobiles misses the point that autos can be (frequently ARE) lethal: human health and safety requires restrictions on ownership and use of automobile property. Ditto for guns and many medicines. Dogs are orders of magnitude safer, in fact they're a net benefit both to owners and society generally. Only rabies is a major human health/safety issue and requirements for rabies vaccination are both necessary and universal.
jaun.sanchez is correct that if officials there see dogs owned by Mexicans as a problem, it will be used against them. That's the meaning of 'tool' -- officials enforce such laws as they think necessary, which can indeed include simple prejudice.
criminals.suck does not need to worry about whether there will be dogs in our future. The real dangers are (a) the dogs will be bred 'underground' and sold through a black market, meaning that nobody will see who is doing the breeding or how, and (b) purebred dogs will be entirely lost since they must be bred openly.
"Violation of the ordinance is a misdemeanor, but Weddle said the city has no plans to aggressively enforce it. Instead, he described
it as a 'tool' to reduce irresponsible breeding."
Don't you wish that officials understood that laws ARE NOT properly considered 'tools'?
Use of a tool is discretionary: It is used when needed. When you allow the enforcement of a law to be a tool, what you get is selective enforcement which inevitably becomes enforcement against people the enforcers don't like: dog and cat breeders, declared 'hoarders,' and so on.
"... to reduce irresponsible breeding" tells you this is the plan. So, Mr. Weddle, tell us what exactly what breeding is 'irresponsible'? Will Henderson write regulations to clarify this? Big joke, right?
The greatest threat to our pets and indeed our nation, is the lack of understanding by the general public of basic constitutional concepts.
Grants of 'use it when you want it' power to government will be used by officials to pursue THEIR interests, which may be ours but more often will not be.
Both the good and the bad news is that ten years from now, far fewer people will be ignorant of this issue.
Come and try to butcher my dogs you Bob Barker indoctrinated Kalifornia abortion loving transplants! My dogs would die for me, and I sure as hell would die for them!
People that are against this ordinance are nothing but selfish, mindless, brainless, gutless, ballless and clueless idiots that they themselves should not be allowed to reproduce. It is not YOUR RIGHT to keep allowing these animals to breed profusely only to have their offspring wind up in the animal shelters to and put down because nobody wanted them. Millions and millions of these poor beautiful creatures are put down every year because of irresponsible pet owners like you morons. But by golly, let's not have the government be tellin you what ta do, because you is so smart!
There are alot of deadbeat dads whose kids burden the system are we going castrate/neuter them? Instead of figuring out how to create jobs they have time to put ordinances like this on the book...you cant even enforce the ordinances you have. This will make the bad breeding farms even worse.