“It’s raining cats in April and May” (MetroLake, April 21) addressed the tragic problem of homeless pets and the obdurate refusal of lawmakers to adopt measures to alleviate pet overpopulation.
Reckless breeding by pet owners and breeders (20 to 50 percent of shelter animals are purebred) results in hundreds of thousands of surplus pets being killed in Illinois shelters every year at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, plus a huge feral cat problem resulting from abandoned cats.
The state refuses to act. County officials couldn’t care less.
The bill introduced last year in Springfield to curb pet overpopulation was killed in the Senate Agriculture Committee. Reason: the chairman, Sen. Todd Sieben (R-Geneseo), said counties don’t like to have the state impose its will on them. That has never stopped them before.
David Bromwell, DVM, head of the Illinois Bureau of Animal Welfare, opposed the bill on the grounds that pets are property and owners should not be forced to spay/neuter their pets. But people’s property is taxed and regulated all the time.
The bill would not have forced spay/neuter of pets. It merely proposed the licensing of healthy unaltered cats, dogs, kittens and puppies at a higher fee than spayed/neutered animals.
Both the Illinois Veterinary Medical Association (which also opposed the bill) and Dr. Bromwell should be keenly aware of the health benefits that derive from spay/neuter, i.e., prevention of ovarian/uterine diseases and most mammary tumors in cats and dogs, and protection against prostate cancer and perianal tumors in dogs.
By refusing to address this problem, the state legislature and County Board are guilty of nonfeasance in office.
