Help Us Defeat the Proposed Chicago Mandatory Spay/Neuter Ordinance!
The Chicago City Council is considering an ordinance that will force all Chicago pet owners to spay or neuter their dogs or cats by the age of six months! A hearing concerning this proposed ordinance before the City of Chicago City Council committees may occur as early as March 12, 2009. The Alliance of Chicagoland Pet Owners, an advocacy group seeking to protect the rights of responsible pet owners and breeders in the greater Chicago area, needs your help to defeat this proposed ordinance. This ordinance will affect all Chicagoans, not just pet owners! Based upon the latest draft of this proposed ordinance (December 2008), this ordinance if passed:
- Takes away your right to make important medical decisions about your own pet, or to make those decisions jointly with your veterinarian;
- Mandates the spaying and neutering of all cats and dogs by the age of six months, unless you would be allowed a difficult-to-obtain exemption for your pet under one of the handful of exemption clauses;
- Exposes you to heavy fines of up to $100 for every month you are in violation should you choose not to spay or neuter your pet, even if you are a responsible pet owner who takes good care of your dog or cat;
- Requires you to pay a $100 tax if you ever decide to have a litter of puppies or kittens, and also requires you and everyone in your family to submit to a criminal background check and home inspections simply for this “privilege”;
- Will prevent people from finding locally raised dogs or cats from conscientious and caring local cat and dog breeders;
- Targets people who are on fixed incomes, poor people and working people. Many people simply can’t afford to comply with this ordinance. This will cause many pets to be abandoned, especially in today’s difficult economy when people can’t afford to heat their homes or put gas in their cars. This will mean more cats and dogs in the animal shelters, and more cats and dogs being euthanized in shelters, as has happened in every community where these laws have previously been passed;
- Results in higher taxes. The City’s Animal Control department is currently underfunded, as are other city departments. Should this ordinance pass, it will mean that animal control officers will have even less time to take care of actual problems concerning domestic animals than they did before;
- Exposes your dog to serious medical problems. Recent research has linked spaying and neutering to greatly increased incidence of many serious and often fatal diseases, including several forms of cancer such as osteosarcoma and hemangiosarcoma, disabling orthopedic disorders such as cruciate ligament knee injuries, and spay incontinence in females when it is done at an early age such as is required by the ordinance;
- Does nothing to solve the problem of roaming dogs, which either have no owner or the owner cannot be located. Existing leash laws, dangerous dog laws, and pet abandonment laws can help to solve this problem, but they are not being enforced;
- Does nothing to solve the problem of feral cats, which by definition have no owner. Enforcement of current pet abandonment laws, establishment of feral cat colonies, and low-cost spay/neuter clinics for feral cats in managed colonies have been proven successful in other areas to reduce the feral cat population;
- Exposes people and their pets to a greater risk of rabies. The evidence shows that these kinds of laws reduce compliance with rabies prevention measures. To attempt to shield their dogs from forced sterilization, many dog owners will choose not to have their pet vaccinated for rabies and licensed;
- Goes against the beliefs of the majority of Chicagoans. A Chicago Tribune poll conducted in summer 2008 showed two-to-one opposition to the ordinance;
- And, supports the political goals of radical animal rights groups that want to eliminate companion animals from our lives. The Animal Rights activists who are trying to pass this ordinance want to take away your right to own a dog or cat – and they will be one giant step closer to that goal with the passage of this ordinance!
Your help is needed now to stop the passage of this ordinance! Here’s what you can do:
If you live in the City of Chicago…
- Please write, fax, email, and call your aldermen if you live in the City of Chicago! Your contact with your alderman is essential to defeat of this ordinance – no one else can do this for you! To find contact information for your alderman, refer to the City of Chicago website: http://www.chicityclerk.com/citycouncil/alderman/find.html
- Please attend all city council hearing on this matter. You may get this information from the City of Chicago website, or contact us for updated information: AllianceofChgolandPetOwners@yahoo.com
If you live outside of the City of Chicago…
- Please contact all your friends, family, and fellow pet owners who live in the City of Chicago to tell them about this proposed ordinance and ask their help in opposing it. Even non-pet owners will be adversely affected by this ordinance through increased tax burden for animal control, reduced animal control services for homeless pets, and increased risk of diseases such as rabies which will occur with reduced pet veterinary visits should this ordinance pass!
- Please attend all city council hearing on this matter to show your concern as a non-resident. You may get this information from the City of Chicago website, or contact us for updated information: AllianceofChgolandPetOwners@yahoo.com
Please contact the Alliance of Chicagoland Pet Owners for additional information and for current Chicago legislative updates: AllianceofChgolandPetOwners@yahoo.com |
