ARE CALIFORNIA FAMILIES PREPARED FOR
DISASTERS?
Los Angeles, November 2005
The
Animal Legislative Action Network
Because large parts of California lie on earthquake-causing faults, many families have disaster kits ready: water, canned goods, flashlights and batteries … but what about your dog? What about your cat?
When New Orleans flooded after Hurricane Katrina, families were evacuated without their pets. To date, only a small percentage has been reunited. What about an earthquake or a terrorist attack in California? What would be the chances of separation from the family pet? How would you ever be reunited? Had Louisiana mandated microchipping of dogs and cats as they do horses, tearful reunions would be a lot more common. Newspapers frequently run stories like the recent one telling of a New York family reunited with their beagle after two years because the dog had been microchipped. An American family’s cat was found in Europe because of a microchip.
But microchips accomplish more than happy reunions. Problem pets can be linked to irresponsible owners. Abandoning pets is a misdemeanor in California, and microchips can provide evidence that enables prosecution for this crime.
Puppies and kittens are in great demand. Sellers can profit substantially from the sale of these adorable little creatures. But, like children, puppies and kittens grow up. At a time when they are losing some of their most endearing characteristics, they are establishing more individual personalities that require training, exercise and understanding. This becomes too much of a burden for some families, who may choose to allow the animal to “wander off” (or may dump the animal where it can’t find its way home) or may conveniently drop the animal off at the “pound,” where it becomes a burden to taxpayers.
As California has become more urbanized, the cost of keeping the streets free of problem pets and destroying owner-relinquished animals has increased. California impoundment facilities had budgets totaling $100 million in 1991; today it is over $300 million and rising!
What started as an attempt by communities to protect public safety has become a revolving door, where sellers continue to profit from offering puppies and kittens for sale.
It does not have to be like this. As an example, the European Community mandates microchipping, which has contributed to a demonstrable culture of pet responsibility and virtually no need for public animal control agencies.
Ultimately the fate of such a rational proposal is in the hands of our elected officials, who are always claiming they will do something about our high taxes. By requiring sellers to microchip the animals they sell, thereby allowing the government to identify the owners of these animals, California can reduce taxes which presently are consumed by the animal control system, identify irresponsible pet owners, proactively improve public safety, distinguish responsible pet owners and breeders from irresponsible ones, ensure that licensing and vaccination requirements are met, prosecute the crime of pet abandonment, and reunite truly lost and missed pets with their families, should the unexpected become a reality.
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The
mission of the Animal Legislative Action Network is to end the suffering of
animals in the United States through the political