‘Animal Shelters Cannot Be Expanded Overnight’

Re “Pets Turned In by Owners Deserve Same Protection as Those Off the Streets,” Voices, May 11: Paula Kislak’s idealism implies that she has little experience with the realities of animal sheltering. The things she purports the supporters of former state Sen. Tom Hayden’s bill “wanted” (and which we all want) cannot miraculously be accomplished by a wave of the legislative wand.

Unwanted pets are dumped like living garbage and quickly forgotten. Many animals are turned in to shelters because of violent tendencies that make them a danger to human and animal safety. Animal shelters cannot be expanded overnight and are at the bottom of tax-supported funding priorities. The Hayden law created a tragic overcrowding crisis rather than a cure, and many unadoptable, old, sick and injured animals suffer a thousand deaths rather than a simple, humane injection.

I have never met anyone working in an animal shelter who enjoyed euthanasia. It takes a tragic emotional toll on those who must perform this act of mercy for those animals that were doomed by the mere fact that they were born into a world with too few homes and too little commitment. However, to force these animals to be jammed into confined kennels with stronger, more dominant and aggressive animals vying for the same space and food creates inhumane, and often cruel, conditions.

Nancy Burnet

Director, United Activists

for Animal Rights, Riverside

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Kislak alludes to the Hayden law, which extended holding periods for animals in public shelters, as the reason impound rates have declined in L.A. County. However, Hayden did not include the “spay and neuter opportunities” she mentioned, and no provision in his plan addressed owner accountability.

Credit for any population decline should go to state Sen. Edward Vincent (D-Inglewood) for his law requiring shelters to spay or neuter dogs and cats before placement. This law, coupled with higher licensing fees for unaltered animals, has played a role in reducing the number of surplus animals born each year that end up in public pounds.

Suzanne Holmes

Sherman Oaks