Chicago's Proposed Mandatory Sterilization Ordinance Way Off Track!

Three Aldermen, Alderman Ed Burke, Alderman Virginia Rugai, and Alderman Eugene Schulter have proposed a mandatory Spay/Neuter ordinance for the city of Chicago.  As a responsible dog owner (and or rarely hobby-breeder) I am opposed to this legislation and extremely concerned about many facets of it.  

Contrary to popular belief, spaying and neutering dogs isn't harmless, especially when done before maturity!  It reduces vigor, stunts growth, and causes premature aging, obesity (lack of testosterone and estrogen), incontinence (sooner or later), especially, in females, and prostate cancer in males!

http://cairnsattheburrow.com/neutering.html

http://www.showdogsupersite.com/kenlclub/breedvet/neutr.html

  

Personally, I own Belgian Malinois out of Dutch Police dog stock.  My dogs have over 100 years of breeding for police work behind them, and have produced four working police dogs, two bomb dogs, and several drug dogs!  My property is enclosed within a rot Iron fence that requires a key to enter and exit and my dogs are always either secured on my private property, or on lead when off the premises. 

  

Dog owners should be held criminally accountable for their dogs’ actions when their dogs are allowed to escape their property and attack people, and I support stiff criminal penalties for such irresponsible dog owners! 

In San Francisco, California, Marjorie Knoller was convicted of second-degree murder, later reduced to involuntary manslaughter, after her two Presa Canarios mauled Diane Whipple to death in 2001!  Both dogs were put to sleep. 

 

With severe criminal charges being the consequence of irresponsible dog owners' dogs, escaping their property and, attacking people, dog owners would be more careful and responsible with their pets, and would not allow them to escape, or they would simply not own them. 

http://www.dogsbite.org/blog/2008/03/san-francisco-dog-mauling-case-back-in.html

Furthermore, although (dog) aggression decreases with sterilization, it increases exponentially when dogs are allowed to free-roam and form packs!  And even sterile dogs that are allowed to free roam, or that escape from their owners, will attack people (usually small children and people over 50) when they form a pack of two or more!

 

Also, the rise in pet homelessness and overpopulated animal shelters is not due to a lack of dogs being spayed, as there are no true feral dog populations in the City of Chicago, but due to the depressed economy, and millions of people loosing their homes to foreclosure and moving into apartments that don't allow pets!

http://www.foreclosuredataonline.com/blog/mortgage-foreclosure/pets-are-victims-of-the-mortgage-foreclosure-crisis-too/

  

Some people like Cockapoos, Labradoodles or just plain mutts and should have the right to own them if they choose too.  And, while I understand that Bob Barker is a well liked public persona, you should also know that he has been linked to several radical animal rights groups, like PETA, that don’t think anyone has a right to own domesticated animals nor eat any type of meat, and who have been linked to the arson near Mayor Daley’s summer home, and threats towards the mayor and his family!     

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/24/AR2008052401674.html

http://forums.ukcdogs.com/showthread.php?threadid=221326

 

Dog and pet owners in the City of Chicago contribute many millions of dollars to the local economy and government every year, in sales taxes generated when we buy dog/pet food and products!  Consequently, the more people who own dogs the more tax revenue is generated for the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois when these pet owners spend money on pet related products and food! 

  

I also believe that this proposed ordinance has more to do with desperation and some of the aldermen at city hall trying to come up with any means they can to plug the 420 million dollar budget deficit, than it has to do with public safety or overpopulation and euthanasia of unwanted and abandoned pets!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-city-budget-15aug15,0,5083166.

  

In these tough economic times, these aldermen/lawmakers should be trying to increase pet ownership, thereby increasing tax revenue, rather than starting down a path of fewer dogs in the city and fewer owners purchasing pet products!

  

Further, if this ordinance is passed, I will also be asking all pet organizations, and exhibitors to cancel and boycott the annual events at McCormick Place, as I feel that it is preposterous for any government agency (which benefits from tax revenue generated by the sale of pet products – the sales of which are based on the pet population) to mandate sterilization and continue to expect to earn tax revenue from the affected pet owners!     

  

Additionally, this ordinance is also disturbing because it infringes on private property rights, and the rights of homeowners to own and keep intact dogs if they see fit!  If it is enacted in Chicago, it could very well spread to other cities,  counties and states, and could very well grow to include all domesticated animals, over-restrictive pet count limists, etc.

 

The proposed mandatory sterilization ordinance is far too intrusive and invasive and infringes on both real property rights and private property rights; as our dogs are our own private property!  I am notifying my bank that if the mandatory sterilization law passes, I will sell my home (or walk away from it if it doesn't sell), and move out of the City of Chicago and to a more dog and dog owner friendly city, and leave my City of Chicago tax burden (along with the tax burdens and losses from other fleeing residents) for remaining residents to bare!

 

Not only am I opposed to this mandatory sterilization ordinance, but so are the majority of Veterinarians, and also the AKC.  Help get this proposed ordinance defeated!  Visit the AKC link below for contact information for the three aldermen and Fax them letting them know that you oppose this ordinance!

http://www.akc.org/news/index.cfm?article_id=3553

 

Also call and fax  your alderman and let him know that  you oppose this obtrusive ordinance.  If you don't know who your alderman is, and or need their contact information you can locate him or her by going to the link below.

http://www.chicityclerk.com/citycouncil/alderman/find.html