JBAB1634

The California Healthy Pets Act statistics regarding spay and neuter rates in Santa Cruz County have been harshly criticized by opponents of the legislation, citing California Department of Health Services rabies statistics that appear to contradict AB1634’s statistical support.

 

However, the data used to generate the graphs that California Healthy Pets Act proponents are distributing was acquired from the Santa Cruz County Animal Services intake and euthanasia rates from before and after the mandatory spay and neuter law was passed in that county.

 

“Incoming animals have drastically dropped. There has been staff that has been here a long time who can remember boxes of cats and dogs showing up. Now it’s been a year and a half,” said Santa Cruz County Animal Services General Manager Katherine Vos, a 27-year veteran of the industry.

 

“Yes we are experiencing a reduction. You ask any other shelter in the state of California, who can hold a cat in their shelter for three months because they have the space to do so? This I can vouch for. When I walked into this organization in March, there were cats that were here from December. And I went, ‘Wow, that’s amazing. That’s unheard of in this business.’”

 

The confusion over statistics seems to be coming from dissemination of California Department of Health Services statistics that are kept to track the presence and spread of rabies. These statistics are not collected for any purpose other than monitoring rabies, said Lea Brooks from the California Department of Health Services.

 

“This is data that’s collected for rabies, the purposes of local rabies control and not all jurisdictions report,” she said. “This department does not collect information on spaying and neutering.”

 

Sponsor and Campaign Director for the California Healthy Pets Act, Judie Mancuso said, “My 23 year career is in information tech, and being an IT manager, it’s all about the data. There’s just no reason to do this if there’s no data to support it.”

 

While Santa Cruz County Animal Services was contacted at too late an hour to compile their data to verify the exact numbers represented in the California Healthy Pets Act graphs, Vos was unwavering in her assertion that the Santa Cruz mandatory spay and neuter law was responsible for a drastic decline in intake and euthanasia rates.

 

“I’ve had to put boxes and boxes of kittens and puppies to sleep. What’s incredible here in Santa Cruz, is our euthanasia list is one or two animals,” she said. “We just don’t euthanize all that much. What does that do to the psychological health of the staff? It’s extremely important to the psychological health and morale of our staff.”

 

With animal shelters making up the third largest reimbursable state mandate, costing the state $150 million per year in addition to the $260 million already spent on shelters and the reimbursed shelter costs rising at $30 million per year, successful implementation of the law could also mean fiscal savings of hundreds of millions of dollars in California.