Recommendation to request a resolution making the month of February 2015 be officially deemed "Spay/Neuter Awareness Month" in an effort to reduce the amount of homeless animals and euthanasia in Long Beach, while promoting healthy pet practices and donations to organizations that provide spay and neuter services.
Item number 22 communications from vice mayor. Susan Lowenthal, Councilwoman Susie Price, Councilwoman Stacey Mango, Councilman de Andrew's recommendation to request a resolution making the month of February 2015 be officially deemed spay neuter awareness month. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to thank the co-sponsors and the author, initial author of this item as well. We want to bring awareness to the need for cat and dog owners in our city to spayed or neutered their pets in order to help our city dramatically reduce our pet overpopulation. Unfortunately, a tragic story unfolds again and again in our city on a daily basis, in our at our animal care services, as they pick up animals that have runaway been dumped or been dumped on the side of the road, starving or injured from being hit by a car or attacked by predators. A large majority of those unwanted or stray dogs cats are not spayed or neutered. Thousands have to be euthanized as a result. Pet overpopulation is a matter of moral, ethical and fiscal concern for all residents and leadership in Long Beach. It's not just a city bureaucratic problem, but a problem that touches every resident through increased costs for services. So we'd like the city to focus on bringing awareness to the issue and the good work of our community partners who provide low cost and free spay and neuter services to residents that qualify in hopes that our wonderful pet owners will contribute to their cause. Because this is really an investment with dividends for our conscience and our mission to improve the quality of life for our residents. And I think we all know that our city's focused quite a bit on animal care issues, spay and neuter, most recently, but really over the last several years we have and I think this would be a great way to demonstrate our heightened focus. This will also provide the opportunity to talk about the wonderful dogs and cats currently at Animal Care Services. All spayed or neutered, just waiting for adoption into a loving home. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. You know what I saw? You had a second. Do you want to pass? Councilmember Mongo. Thank you both. Very low and all great commentary during this important time. While we are considering the spay and neuter ordinance for the city, I feel that it's very important for us to acknowledge spay and neuter Awareness Month for those who have not yet spayed or neutered their pets to take this opportunity for voluntary spay and neuter . There are several voucher programs available that we are very proud of. And for more information, please call 5705555. Thank you. Next to have Council Andrus. Yes, thank you, Vice Mayor. You also want to thank Vice Mayor Blumenthal for asking me to sign on to this item. You know, recognizing February as a spate of neutered awareness month brings attention, you know, to the ongoing oncoming on going ongoing issues of pets, overpopulation in our city. You know, I know that this idea will encourage residents to do what they can to help our animals that are neglected. And thank you again, vice mayor. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mayor. And without any public comments, seeing none. Please cast your votes. Motion carries seven zero. Thank you. At. Quick couple announcements. One, as a matter of practice, as we're getting used to the system, I'm always going to call on the second door even if I'm not cued up and then I'll pass if you have no comment, because we've been doing it both ways and so I've been in motion. It'll be the second. Or if you don't want to comment, I'll just move on to the next person on the on the queue. Okay. I also just want to take this moment cause I didn't get a chance to do it earlier, and I don't want to forget towards the end. Arturo Sanchez is in the audience. Arturo is our new deputy city manager. And Arturo, please waive over there anything. You see him. And he hails from Oakland, California, and is now a Long Beach resident, him and his wife both. So let's give him a round of applause real quick here. And I just had a conversation with the Oakland mayor, you know, two weeks ago about Arturo. And she was very, very sad to lose him and considered him their superstar. So that's that's, you know, says a lot to think about what we can expect here in Long Beach. And so welcome, Arturo. And I didn't also not get a chance earlier to thank Andrew Quinn, who's in the audience. And Andrew actually did a majority of the writing of the Bloomberg grant. So even though a lot of people did the work and Mr. Modica kind of spearheaded that, I think Andrew was working, you know, days and days straight through weekends to get all of the text and verbiage of that grant in place. So thank you, Andrew. Let's give Andrew a round of applause for for that too. And with that, we'll go over to item number 16.