Houston does not need additional experts, more studies, or new committees to study dog and cat overpopulation. That has already been done. Mayor Bill White’s Animal Protection Task Force stated increasing adoptions, public education, and spaying and neutering dogs and cats are the top priorities to address this public health crisis. It’s time for Houston to put its money where its bark is.
Data indicate that massively increasing spaying and neutering of dogs and cats incrementally decreases the number of homeless animals entering the Houston shelter system. Last year a plan called Fix Houston was launched to open five new spay and neuter clinics in our city. Land for the clinics has been donated, generously and for many years to come, mainly by Weingarten Realty; PetSmart Charities largely funded the building and equipping of the five clinics. Many individuals, foundations and corporations have volunteered and helped to fund initial operations. More is needed.
Dr. Robert Armstrong, Chief of Animal Control for the City of Houston in the 1980s, joked, “it’s your job to protect animals from people, it’s my job to round ‘em up and get ‘em off the streets.” That said as thousands of homeless dogs and cats – the numbers were often not counted then – were wheeled into one of two City of Houston decompression chambers to be killed. (Decompression chambers were outlawed in Texas in 1988.) Today BARC can boast active adoption programs, a foster home system for those not quite ready for adoption, new equipment and facilities, and a professional animal care staff under the leadership of outgoing Chief Kent Robertson.
Animals at BARC have cleaner and improved housing, fresh food and water, adequate medical care, and even beds and toys. Thanks to dedicated volunteers at BARC dogs are walked and exercised daily; dogs and cats in the adoption program are socialized to become better family members. Twenty years later, improvements, yes, but tens of thousands of homeless dogs and cats are still destroyed each year in Houston (euthanasia is now performed by certified technicians utilizing an injection of sodium pentobarbital). Houston also faces new animal problems. Increased gang activity brings more vicious dogs and attacks to the city; Houston earned the label “dog bite capitol of the nation” this year. Years absent accessible spaying and neutering programs has lead to packs of dogs roaming inner-city streets and to feral cat populations being out of control.
“Reducing the need for animal sheltering and control in Houston could save taxpayers much of the $15 million in taxes and private donations spent each year to operate the five major local shelters,” says Houston City Controller Annise Parker. “Preventing homeless dogs and cats by spaying or neutering is not only kinder than destroying them; it’s much less expensive in the long run.” Reducing the number of animals born in Houston by spaying or neutering ultimately reduces the burden on all of us to fund animal care and control programs.
The City of Houston has the tools at its disposal to fund aggressive spaying and neutering programs. Even though there are more than a million owned dogs and cats in Houston, the City of Houston licenses around 70,000 dogs and cats each year. By comparison, the City of El Paso licensed 79,000 dogs and cats last year. Door-to-door canvassing in neighborhoods by BARC can license more dogs and cats. “Fix It Tickets,” where license and vaccination violation fines are waived when citizens opt for sterilizing their dogs and cats, increases sterilization rates. Creating high fee differentials where the cost to license fertile dogs and cats is greater than the cost of spaying or neutering is also a successful. (The license fee for fertile animals in Los Angeles is $100 each year. The City of Los Angeles also operates five spay and neuter clinics.) Houston can expand successful programs like Fix Houston, CAP’s Feral Cat Assistance Program, and the Spay Neuter Assistance Program with funds from enforcement and more public involvement.
In Houston the “A Team” has already been assembled, offering the city an option where every dog and cat can have a forever home. Private individuals, corporations, and foundations are helping. Mayor Bill White hired Kent Robertson, the first proactive leader to be in charge of BARC, who pointed Houston in the right direction. Let’s hope we stay on the right track in hiring the new BARC Chief and the Mayor continues to support spaying and neutering programs. Whether its sterilizing your own dogs and cats, volunteering to help animals, or donating to spaying and neutering programs, the entire community needs to join the effort, too.
As a great man once said (Mahatma Gandhi) “The greatness of a nation (in this case a city) can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Houston is a wonderful city, Mayor White has been a successful Mayor, and both can earn the term ‘great.’