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The law is aimed at eliminating the thousands of euthanizations conducted in Los Angeles’ animal shelters every year. “We will, sooner rather than later, become a no-kill city and this is the greatest step in that direction,” said Councilman Tony Cardenas said as he held a kitten at a City Hall news conference.

The ordinance does exempt animals that have competed in shows or sporting competitions, guide dogs, animals used by police agencies and those belonging to professional breeders.

The average pet owner, however, must have their dog or cat spayed or neutered by the time it reaches 4 months of age without a note from the vet.

Those who don’t comply with the ordinance will serve time. Community time that is. First-time offenders will receive information on subsidized sterilization services and be given an additional 60 days to bring a neuter note from the pet doc. Still fail to comply and they could fine you $100 and order you to serve eight hours of community service. Another offense could mean a $500 fine or 40 hours of community service.

Los Angeles animal shelters took in over 50,000 cats and dogs last year and euthanized approximately 15,000 at a cost of $2 million, according to city officials.

So when I got the email from my sister about “seizure-alert dogs” it definitely caught my attention. The case for having one of these dogs goes something like this:

Seizure-alert dogs, as implied by their name, are dogs that can sense and notify their human companions of an oncoming seizure. This alerting behavior has been reported to occur several seconds to 45 minutes or more before the onset of the seizure. The dog does this by exhibiting marked changes in behavior, including close eye contact, circling, pawing, barking etc.

Although the article goes on to dispute some of the beliefs held by others it doesn’t seem far fetched at all to me. I’ve known since childhood that dogs (pets in general) have senses far superior to ours that can be useful in many situations. Besides what is the downfall to having one of the dogs? Maybe my brother would have been busy petting his buddy and that simple act may have been enough to keep his mind engaged and away from the seizure zone.

If you’d like to read more about seizure alert dogs check out the article at epilepsy.com.

We wish everyone had a pet, and we wish every pet caretaker was responsible, which is why we added this depressing video to our Big City Pet site. We hope you understand we’re only trying to help prevent the situation from getting even worse.

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Some of the highlights:

• Many puppies sold in retail pet stores are purchased from puppy mills
• Up to 25 million animals become homeless every year
• Up to 27% of purebred dogs are homeless
• 9 million homeless animals die in the streets every year
• 16 million homeless animals are taken in by shelters where they’ll be euthanized
• It is estimated that 50% of the animals in shelters were taken there by their “caretakers”

Getting a pet is a major commitment that isn’t unlike having a child. Think hard about what kind of home and life you’ll be able to provide for the animal before you run out to buy a pet.

Many of the rescued pups are finding new homes thanks to the help from a lot of animal lovers. Gerti, for example, was lucky enough to be adopted by Barbara in Montgomery County MD where she’s certain to be as happy as her new “mom”.

We don’t have the ability to solve this problem completely, but the more pet lovers know, the better in the long run.
The short video below contains more information on this story and the problem.

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