Dogs are considered man’s best friend, and for good reason. What other animal rushes toward the door to greet his owner at the sound of jingling keys and the scent of a long day at work?
Sadly, however, thousands of dogs in Santa Maria don’t have owners to greet.
Santa Maria animal shelters house about half of the 10,000 homeless animals in Santa Barbara County. About 3,000 animals come from the streets of Santa Maria, according to Jill Tucker, executive director of the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society.
Tucker is part of a coalition of area activists collaborating to come up with effective ways to reduce the city’s stray animal population.
The problem—and the solution—revolves around spaying and neutering.
“I’d say about 90 percent of stray animals are non-altered males or females that go into heat and start looking for companionship,” explained Carlos Abitia, co-founder of C.A.R.E. 4 Paws in Santa Barbara County. “If they find a scent of a female in heat, nothing is going to stop them from trying to find her. They’ll break fences, boards, whatever, and then they’re on the street. What’s going to happen? They’re going to get hit by a car, they’re going to get themselves in some kind of trouble, and they can even hurt someone. That’s why I think neutering is a good option.”
According to Abitia, part of the problem lies in the mentalities of some pet owners who believe spaying or neutering is unethical—that it takes away an animal’s sense of purpose in life.
Abitia disagrees.
“A male that is neutered is not going to know the difference. He is not going to get depressed. That is more of a human emotion or thought,” he said. “He feels more content and does not have that urge to get out and find a female mate.”
As for the animals who successfully fulfill their urge to multiply the gene pool, it’s often their offspring who end up on the streets or in animal shelters, where there’s little space and not enough time to find someone to adopt them.
“I feel that people who think it’s OK to let their dogs have puppies really need to go to a shelter and watch them have to euthanize a perfectly healthy animal just because it doesn’t have a home,” Tucker said.
Efforts have been made to require mandatory spaying and neutering for dogs and cats throughout California, such as with SB 250 in 2009. Dr. Martin Vale, a veterinarian in Santa Maria, believes laws such as this would be useless, pointing out that the people who would follow the regulations would be the same people who are already taking proper care of their animals.
Other surgeries, such as a vasectomies, can prevent unwanted reproduction of domesticated animals. However, the wide consensus among activists is that neutering is beneficial in more ways than one. Vance stated that neutering and spaying can have health and psychological benefits.
“If you have them spayed fairly young, within the first year, you cut down the chance of cancer later in life from 85 to 90 percent. With males, you essentially eliminate prostate cancer later in life,” Vale said.
Neutering is also a common treatment for dogs who’ve developed prostate cancer, Vale explained.
Neutering or spaying a pet can also benefit the owner. According to Abitia, neutering is proven to help animals calm down. A “rambunctious” house pet will often settle more into the family after being altered.
Both Tucker and Abitia agree that the most important step to remedying the stray animal problem is to continue outreach programs designed to educate the community about responsible pet ownership. This includes catering to each demographic accordingly. It hasn’t been until recently—around 2010, according to Abitia—that local groups have been disseminating information in Spanish. C.A.R.E. 4 Paws plans to double the amount of educational brochures in the region around April of this year.
Abitia explained that there are many immigrants coming into the country who aren’t aware of pet ownership standards in America—such as regularly taking pets to a veterinarian and getting them vaccinations.
“We have to change the perceptions and educate people about the responsibility of owning an animal—or if they are even ready to own an animal,” he said.
Currently, projects are under way at both the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society and C.A.R.E. 4 Paws. Each organization is dedicated to better controlling the pet population.
The Humane Society has a new facility under construction on West Stowell Road. Last year, Tucker said, veterinarians performed about 2,460 surgeries at the current site on Black Road. She’s optimistic that the new 16,000-square-foot facility will have the capacity to allow for around 5,000 spay-neuter surgeries a year once it’s completed.
C.A.R.E. 4 Paws recently received a grant for a project called Spay Mobile. True to its name, it will be a spay/neuter clinic that travels throughout the county. Abitia said he plans to meet with county Animal Services in Lompoc and Santa Maria to target low-income neighborhoods with a high volume of stray animals. It’s scheduled to begin providing services sometime this year.
The Spay Mobile will include a surgical table, an anesthesia machine, cages inside, an ultrasonic cleaner, a vacuum system, its own power generator, and more cages outside under a tent for animals recovering after surgery.
Abitia said one of the reasons some pet owners don’t get their animals fixed is financial hardship. Some people simply can’t afford the service. He explained that he works with pet owners on a case-by-case basis when it comes to compensation.
“Sometimes people can’t afford it, but that is not an argument anymore because they can get the service for free if they are having difficulty,” he said.
He explained that there are four main parts to decreasing the number of stray animals in the city: “Education is the base in getting a hold of the problem. Next is spay and neuter, then retention. And the fourth is adoption. If we put all these together, then we are going to reduce animal overpopulation.”
Contact intern Jason Banania via Managing Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 15-22, 2012.