Call Dallas City Council before Wed in Support of Animal Ordinances, Please

June 22, 2008

SPCA calls for action - Dallas, it’s time to act!

Posted: 21 Jun 2008 10:42 PM CDT

Bob Barker says “the price is right” for mandatory spay/neuter

Posted: 21 Jun 2008 10:00 PM CDT

In a letter to Mayor Leppert and the Dallas City Council members last week, Bob Barker - host of the long-running TV show “The Price is Right” - urged the council to approve the ordinances proposed by the Animal Shelter Commission.

Mr. Barker is a passionate proponent of the benefits of spay/neuter programs, and even formed the DJ & T Foundation in honor of his late wife and mother in 1995 which spends millions of dollars a year helping to defray costs for spay/neuter clinics throughout the nation.

The Dallas City Hall Blog posted a link to Mr. Barker’s letter - which you can view here or on our Letters page, along with many other letters of support that have been sent to the Council recently.

You still have time to do something! Please email or call your City Council Member before next Wednesday’s vote, and urge them to approve these new ordinances - and if you can, please come to the Council meeting next Wednesday (June 25) to show your support.

Altered animals don’t create stray, unwanted animals

Posted: 21 Jun 2008 07:24 PM CDT

We hear the breeders stridently saying “why are we being penalized, we’re responsible!”. They can’t get into their heads that it’s not only just about them. But, let’s face it, they are producing goods (dogs and cats) for which there is more supply than demand (or we wouldn’t be killing healthy animals like we do). So, they are part of the problem and no amount of their saying they aren’t changes that fact.

I was on my way to work on Thursday when I came across the dog in these photos. What a lovely lab! I noticed she had on a collar AND tags, so I got out of my car and tried to lure her to me with dog treats. She would have none of it. My plan was to call her owners and return her. No such luck, she just barked at me and ran away.

So, this dog is on the streets, who knows why, perhaps she’s in heat and she’s out and about. I noticed she looked like she had had puppies in the past. Apparently, there’s a positive probability it will happen again. I hear the sound of my tax payer dollars being spent to “dispose” of her puppies.

But, here’s the kicker. If this dog were spayed, then the fact that she got out of her backyard, for what ever reason, means for sure she won’t come back pregnant. Altered dogs don’t get pregnant and they don’t impregnate. Altered dogs can’t create stray, unwanted animals.

Dallasites, stand up for your City. Stop letting irresponsible people, including the breeders, spend your money on killing unwanted animals. Call the Mayor and your Council Person and tell them you support the ordinances and you want them to vote YES on Wednesday.

Don’t wait, the vote is right around the corner.

It takes more than Faithfulness - we need Action!

Posted: 21 Jun 2008 06:04 PM CDT

The DAA would like to once more thank Joe Grisham and Janet Healey for their support for the proposed Animal Ordinances. Below you will see the banner they created as it appears hung on a downtown building.

If you are downtown, go check out the banner and imagine what a humane Dallas could achieve. The banner is hanging at 2036 Commerce, Dallas, Tx 75201. If you like the look of this banner, you can see more of Joe and Janet’s work by visiting their website at http://healeygrisham.com/

Even if you don’t have time to see the banner, it’s very important that you make time to show your support for the ordinance changes. The vote is just around the corner. If you haven’t called the Mayor and your Council Person, it’s not too late. But, you must do it on Monday or Tuesday or it will become too late.

Here’s the banner downtown, take action to help Dallas pass these important changes!

An Expert Pleas for Ordinance Support!!

Posted: 21 Jun 2008 02:02 PM CDT

As someone who has been actively involved in animal welfare for over 25 years and professionally as Executive Director of Operation Kindness Animal Shelter for 10 ½ years, I know firsthand—and all too well—the extent of the animal overpopulation problem.

I urge you to support the ordinance provisions regarding the breeding permit.

Here are just two examples of why this ordinance is so necessary:

(1) In February 1995, The Dallas Morning News ran a front-page story on the animal overpopulation problem. It was accompanied by a photo of a little 20-pound terrier mix and her eight 3-week-old puppies. There were at the old Oak Cliff Shelter and were going to be put to death that day. The look on the little dog’s face broke my heart (see below). I went to the shelter and got the little dog, whose name was Choicey, and all eight puppies to foster for Operation Kindness. The puppies were adopted when they were old enough, and I adopted Choicey. I later spoke to her former owner and learned that Choicey was just 3 years old and had had 30 puppies—30!—in her short lifetime. Her owner was just tired of all those

puppies and took them to the “pound” so “they’d find good homes.” Of course, if the paper hadn’t run her photo, and if I hadn’t seen it, all of them would have been put to death that day. That was more than 13 years ago. I still have Choicey, and the crisis of too many unwanted animals still continues. As you know, last year Dallas Animal Services put to death 27,000 dogs and cats.

(2) Last week, I had a conversation with a woman who works for my veterinarian. She has three adult dogs, including two unspayed females. Now she also has 12 puppies! Both females had litters within weeks of each other. When I chastised her for contributing to the pet overpopulation problem, she said, “But they weren’t planned!” THAT IS EXACTLY THE POINT! She didn’t PLAN these puppies, and now they will probably pay for her irresponsibility with their lives. Maybe they’ll be lucky and get adopted. But probably not. Most likely, they’ll be put to death like tens of thousands of others.

These are perfect examples of why people must be held accountable—why they must be made to take responsibility. They don’t just contribute to this crisis; they created it. We cannot keep killing other living beings because their owners were irresponsible, lazy, ignorant. It is unacceptable for the City of Dallas to have an 83% kill rate. We can and we must do better.

Jonnie England

Animal Shelter Commision - District 3

(This is the photo of Choicey and her puppies that ran in The Dallas Morning News on Feb. 28, 1995.)