861 Passed - Now What!!??

[Diane Heller-Vaccaro]

What does this mean for the breeders in CA. I picked up my old TRQ last night and from then til now and probably for that, there are many dedicated breeders in that state, I even noticed at least one went by her maiden name back then. One person I know especially well has RTD titles on her dogs even though they are SCHIII. These are not fly-by-night breeders, they have dedicated the better part of their lives to this breed.

Will they have to move? Is animal control going to knock on their doors and insist that they spay/neuter their dogs or turn them over? How long before they are knocking on all our doors?

[fbkeays]

What SB 861 means is that any local government, ie cities and counties can determine what breeds are "problems" in their area and pass their own spay/neuter and breeding regulations for those "problem" breeds.
This means that some areas will just have the status quo and nothing changes to areas making their list and making every dog of those breeds after a certain age (SF has already made up their rules and it is 2 months) must be spayed or neutered. They can make up their own list of exceptions and what those exceptions are going to cost (ie tax) to keep your listed breed intact.
I haven't seen the complete regs that SF has done, but rumor has it that you will have to pay $100/year license fee to just keep your "pit bull" intact. You must get a breeding permit at $100 for the first litter in a year and $1000 for the second in a year. SF has already stated that they don't have the manpower to go knocking on doors and will only respond to neighbor complaints for enforcement.
The bottom line is if a breeder doesn't license their breeding stock and are on good terms with their neigbhors, then they will be able to stay under the radar, but their actions will be illegal. SF has put in place stiff $$$ penalities for non complience.

[Diane Heller-Vaccaro]

I'm kinda caught in the middle with my feelings. On one hand coming from a rescue background I know what it feels like to walk down that corridor and try to pull out the dog(s) that you have room for, I know what it means for those left behind. I know when I looked in each individual run there was almost always a pitbull looking back at me (and yes I do know what pitbulls look like infact I was called in to identify rare breeds such as the Tosa, Fila etc.) and I do agree that something must be done to control the overpopulation to see these dogs, young healthy puppies and know that most likely today was their last, was very sad. I couldn't even take them because even as young as 8 weeks old they were near impossible to find the right homes. I have noticed a slight decline in the number of Rottweilers in shelters over the past year or so. It almost seems to come in cycles sometimes not one Rottweiler and then other times 2-3 again very hard to find the right homes.

I feel if you are an ethical, responsible breeder than you must do what you need to do to stay under the radar, and if you are a responsible person that would also mean that your dogs don't magically get out of their yard/run, the are not nuisance barkers because of sheer boredom, etc. Your yard will not smell like a monkey cage, etc. Thankfully, most Rottweilers aren't barkers anyway.

[fbkeays]

This bill has nothing to do with controlling pet over population. It was added as a way to "sweeten" it so that it would pass. This bill is nothing more then PETA propaganda. SF regularly and routinely imports dogs from other parts of CA because to adopt out because there is a high demand in SF for shelter dogs. Essentially SF shelters are pet shops, selling undocumented purebreds and mixed breed dogs. If anyone says that SF shelters are full, they are lying through their teeth in order to get your sympthathy and donation to "save" those poor souls in the kennels.
Many shelters in CA import dogs from less populated areas in CA, from other states, Purto Rico, the Carribean Islands and Mexico. Some states in the East import from China. Shelters are becoming nothing more then pet shops. If these shelters would stop the importing practice, you would see just how over blown the pet over population crisis really is.
They don't care about pet over population. All this bill is is a way to further the PETA agenda of eliminating the ownership of dogs. First you get rid of the pits, and then go down the list until you have none left.

[Diane Heller-Vaccaro]

Francis,

You are 100% right I was speaking from my experience in Trenton, NJ where the dogs live in a dingy, dirty shelter in a neighborhood to dangerous for most to even attempt to adopt from. Nonetheless, it was just a clever way of getting through and they were successful, though we all tried very hard to stop them.