Pet overpopulation in central Indiana has reached a critical point. Almost daily reports of dog bites, pit bull fighting, animals tortured and abused should be enough to raise public outcry. What is almost never reported is perhaps even more disturbing – hundreds of pets killed monthly in local shelters. Last year alone 4,833 cats were killed at Indianapolis Animal Care and Control, according to a local news report. The answer to stopping ALL of this is mandatory spay/Neuter of pets.

As a veterinary technician for over 28 years and co-founder of a Feral (wild) cat spay/neuter program, I have helped spay/neuter over 10,000 free-roaming cats in central Indiana through a technique called Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). Though I am comforted by having improved the quality of life of these cats and prevented many hundreds of thousands of unwanted kitten births, I am disheartened to realize that this is a mere fraction of the stray cat population of central Indiana and that TNR will never solve the over-population problem without mandatory spay/neuter of pets.

Opponents to mandatory spay/neuter have maintained they should be allowed to breed their animals without restriction. In cities/states where spay/neuter is mandatory, there are licenses/permits available for breeders to continue their activities with responsibility and accountability to their community.

A property owner who allows their buildings to fall apart and land to become overgrown or strewn with trash harms the community, and for that, they are ticketed and made to stop. Why then, do we allow pet owners to indiscriminately contribute to the burden of discarded and unwanted animals in the community, costing money, causing thousands of innocent lives to be destroyed and generally lowering the standard of living in the community?

Requiring that pet owners do not harm the community is good government and responsible citizenship. In a time when good government is very much on people’s mind, perhaps folks should also consider the cost to perform this grizzly service of “cleaning up” after the irresponsible pet owners. Impounding and destroying animals costs taxpayers money.

I challenge anyone who would object to such an ordinance to walk the aisles of IACC and watch terrified animals sit, shaking in their cages, waiting for their owners that never come. If they are “lucky”, they end up on the euthanasia table within a few days and their terror will end sooner. Unfortunately, many animals are held for months of what humans would consider imprisonment while awaiting the outcome of court cases involving abuse and neglect. The end result for many is still death. Can you imagine that for your pet? If that’s how we treat our “best friend”, it doesn’t speak well of us as a community.

Mandatory spay & neuter isn’t just a good idea, it is essential for solving the pet overpopulation and dangerous dog crises that only seem to worsen daily. It saves lives, saves money and makes our city a more humane place for all creatures who share it.