Recommendation to request City Manager and City Attorney to return in 90 days with a draft ordinance making it mandatory for dog owners to spay or neuter their pets unless they possess a medical exclusion or breeding permit from the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine, Animal Care Services Bureau; Request City Manager to include recommendations for supporting the successful introduction and implementation of the Mandatory Spay & Neuter Ordinance, including but not limited to public education, spay/neuter vouchers, mobile services and enforcement through administrative citations and license canvassing; and Request City Attorney to draft an ordinance making it unlawful to sell dogs, cats or rabbits in any pet shop, retail business, or other commercial establishment, unless they were (1) obtained from the city animal shelter, humane society, or nonprofit rescue organization or (2) bred on the premises possessing a breeding permit.
This first item is from the Office of Vice Mayor Susie Lowenthal, Councilwoman Susie Price and Third District Councilwoman Stacy Mongeau with three with a three part recommendation. The first is to request the city manager and city attorney to return within 90 days with a draft ordinance regarding mandatory spay neuter for dog owners. The second part has to do with a recommendation to have the city manager plan and make recommendations on a for implementation of a mandatory spay and neuter ordinance. And then finally request the city attorney to draft an ordinance making it unlawful for the owners to sell dogs, cats or rabbits in any pet shop unless specifically exempted. Okay. Thank you. With that, I turn this over to Vice Mayor Alonzo. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to go ahead and start by moving the item with a couple of changes right now. For now. One is. The requested item, the actions as is with the third action item, including an exemption for AKC certified show dogs. And then I can explain in my comments and then the last line of the recommended action where it says Bred on the premises possessing a breeding permit. We'd like to change that to bred in Long Beach. Possessing a breeding permit. So just change the premises to in Long Beach. Okay. Is that the full motion? Can I get a second? Okay. There's been a motion in a second by Councilman Mongo. Vice Mayor Lowenthal, thank you. And I wanted to thank my co-sponsors, council members, Price and Mango for joining on this item. Council members. As you know from the agenda item background, this issue is very close to my heart. And so it's been a work in progress with our animal care services staff and community partners going on seven years now. And during that time we've done a lot of good things together. We've increased low cost spay neuter options. Just as we heard from Fix Long Beach tonight, and I'm thankful that you are here in the audience, we've created a full time veterinarian position and encouraged mobile clinics. All of these elements and others have increased the number of animals adopted and reduce the number of animals euthanized in Long Beach. However, seven years later, we're finding out it's still not enough. We have a real problem in our city. Long Beach has a real problem with pet overpopulation. Despite the great work of our Animal Care Services Bureau, very responsible dog owners, and we have thousands of responsible dog owners and our extremely passionate community partners. Knowingly or unknowingly, pet owners are contributing to our overpopulation, and we're not going to adopt our way out of this problem. That's simply just not possible. We know that the vast majority of dogs picked up by animal care services are unaltered. We also know that backyard breeders have created puppy mill businesses that are cruel and inhumane, sometimes dumping the mother in one of our dog parks and choosing a few new female pups to take her place. We also know that cats in Long Beach must be spayed and neutered by law. Over 80% of owned cats are fixed, and that's provided by our animal care services. It's a fact that's provided by them. These are health and public safety concerns as well as taxpayer concerns. We have to focus on the faucet and not only the drain of this broken sink. I believe this motion is another measured step in our attempts to go from a reactive system to a proactive system. And for those of you who've been committed to this issue for years and years and years, you know that this council starting seven years ago, has been laying down a foundation, moving toward this step. Installment by installment. Because as we reduce the number of animals being impounded, we can focus more of our resources and volunteer hours on adoptions, public outreach and mobile clinics. Let me also share with you what the intent of this motion is not. It's not an attempt to punish responsible pet owners or prevent purebred breeders and dog show owners from carrying on their business. And I know we have representatives here from AKC. They have had their invitational here, I believe, for seven years. We welcome that business. We encourage that. We know that there are responsible owners that participate in that, and we'll hear from them a little later today. But this is not to punish any one of those very responsible pet owners, dog owners. I believe a friendly amendment will address any lingering concerns from show dog owners. But I would like to continue the larger focus. To be the. Focus to be on the larger problem, which is pet overpopulation. And so the amendment I had made earlier, I believe, addresses that concern about show dogs. And then I'll welcome any comments or questions from my colleagues and would appreciate your support. Thank you. Thank you. Well, what we're going to go ahead and do is take action is take public comment unless. Councilwoman, did you want to make a comment first, Gonzalez or do you wanna wait for public comment? Okay. So if you want to speak on the item, please come forward and line up. I need you, please, to line up on on the mike and everyone just please identify yourself for the record. And Mr. Clarke, can you get the stand up, please? Getting. And if you can line up on the stairway, that would be that would be very helpful, please. Good evening, everyone. My name is Judy Crumpton. I reside in the city of Long Beach and my address is on file. And I want to show you what we do want to achieve. And I am going to ask everyone in the audience who has a poster. And if you don't have a poster, just raise your hand. Just raise your posters for a second. All your hands. If you're in support of litter free Long Beach, this is our goal is to be litter free. Thank you so much. You can see the outpour from your humane community. There are many of us here. I want to give a very special thank you to once again, Mrs. Lowenthal. Dr. Lowenthal, Susie Price, Councilwoman Price, Councilwoman Mongo for bringing this together and bringing it forward. I thank each and every one of you for listening to my comments and allowing me to meet with you. We have such an outstanding, humane community here in Long Beach. We have a lot of spay neuter assistance in place. Mandatory spay neuter to me is the big fix. Once again, just as vice mayor said, we simply cannot adopt our way out of this tragedy. It's more than a problem. It's a tragedy. And our ordinance, as vice mayor stated, has been in place. The AKC wanted it. The AKC got it. It's a it's a decent enough ordinance, but it's really not strong enough to help us to make a significant difference in pet overpopulation. Our animal care services is very good, but they need a stronger tool. This is not a strong enough tool. Let's give them a tool to work with that will target the irresponsible pet owners and the backyard breeders. They're the main problem, and that's who we need to really focus on. And mandatory a. Mandatory law is not designed to be punitive. It can up Santa Cruz. I have talked to Melanie Sobel, who is the the manager of the Santa Cruz shelter. It's not just the Santa Cruz City itself. It's the outlying areas that are very problematic and they have a mandatory spay neuter ordinance in place. And it's very successful. People are concerned about the dumping. I get that. But we have so much assistance in place. This ordinance will get great education. We will educate our community about what we're doing. The enforcement will happen. And you're humane community is behind you on this. And as long as those are in place, this is just a recipe for success. Once again, once when one of our community members is sighted and that dog needs to be fixed, we will be behind them. The shelter has an outstanding spay neuter voucher program. We work very hard on it. Friends of Long Beach Animals, Pet Assistance Foundation, Fixx, Long Beach, Golden State, Humane Society. They're all the people that will be there to assist that individual with any calls for spay neuter. Melanie has reassured me about and it's just is not happening of animals. So there are other areas too. There's so much to say. Oh, and you know what? I would like to propose to anybody out in the audience. Audience, if you would please help us to sponsor a microchip program. Our city right now can't afford it. But if a corporate person wants to come along or an animal protection organization would like to sponsor the microchips, we can get these animals microchipped as well while they're being fixed. There's just so much to say. And I know my time. I hate seeing those lights. Come on. Well, actually, the light just turned on for you. It wasn't on. So I. Can slowly. I've got to wrap it up. Okay. And, you know, I want to say that our animal care services are in the trenches. They're the ones who have to deal with a community made problem. Pet overpopulation is made by the community, not our shelter. They're the ones dealing with it. We need to help them. We need to give them something powerful to work with and please support the pet shops. It's a great thing too. Let's just have adoptions out here and I still have a problem with number two. I'm very sorry. I'm still there. Still a little questionable. Where's that red light? It's coming on. Oh, no. Okay. Thank you so. Much. I love you. Thank you. Thank you. Next week with the. The City Council. Laureen Wilson, speaking on behalf of the American Kennel Club, is an exhibitor and breeder. Thank you very much, Mr. Lowenthal, for making the amendment to the proposal, because it certainly does address our concerns as an AKC show person. We cannot show spayed or neutered dogs. It's against the AKC rules of exhibition, and we are very responsible dog owners. In addition to that, we have dog clubs, purebred dog clubs that rescue dogs, if there are even any purebred dogs found in the shelters. So we are very responsible people. I would like to ask, though, how the enforcement officers intend to enforce a bitch that spay. It's obvious if a dog's neutered, but what are they going to do? Turn the bitches on their back and look for a scar. Just wondering how that enforcement would work with that. It is something to consider because we certainly don't want to feel harassed. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Very good. Cleric as he addressed the makers of the motion are certainly to be commended for bringing this forward. I'm going to suggest a friendly amendment. It was prompted by a rather revealing article in the L.A. Times reporting some national news relative to the number of orphaned young ones, if you will. So I'm going to suggest the easiest thing to do. The easiest thing to do and it's obviously a dramatic change is to drop the third strike law. And instead of having that after the second strike, if it goes to a third crime, you have neuter and spayed period. That will alleviate a great many of the problems. We are throwing millions upon millions of dollars, just like we're doing with our four legged friends after the problem. And it's not working. The DNC keeps pumping money into, you know, pop out again and we'll give it to, you know, give you the money that's not working. So let's eliminate the third strike, replace it with a spay and neuter on the offender and solve the problem. Thank you. Oh, you cute. Always so instructive. Next speaker, please. Hi. Good evening. My name is Daphne and I am an animal rights activists currently specializing in the care and stabilization of feral cat colonies. And I just wanted to bring to the table the, I guess, the human aspect of it. Any of us involved in rescue or people that are involved in shelter work. See, on a daily basis the just a flood, the flood of animals that are taken in and surrendered at animal care services. And it's it's it's blind to the rest of the population, doesn't know about it, doesn't worry about it. But to us, we see kittens, puppies, old animals, young animals, animals of all kinds that are only surrendered because they have nobody to their own owned. And so what I would like to say is that with this with this mandatory, mandatory spay and neuter ordinance. Sorry, I just put this together last minute, but. Well, let me just say this. I'd like to change the dialog from euthanasia to more murder. Euthanasia implies that there's an animal who is ill and is suffering. And what happens in our shelters is not typically euthanasia. Maybe 80% of the time, the animals that are in there and are killed are just killed to make room for more animals to come in and so on. And it's an endless cycle. And so with with the mandatory spay and neutering, if it was to go into effect, that would take that would free up so much kennel space and cattery space and leave more time for these animals to potentially be adopted. And the resources that are spent on this so called euthanasia would could be reallocated into more conscientious programs and bringing awareness to the community of what's happening in our shelter system. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Elizabeth Orrick. I'm the national manager of Puppy Mill Initiatives for Best Friends Animal Society, and we wholeheartedly support the proposal to draft a retail pet sales ordinance. The fact is pet mills, particularly puppy mills, are in business to supply pet stores because responsible breeders do not sell to pet stores. And you can find that provision in the code of ethics for virtually every one of the American Kennel Club Parent Breed clubs listed on the AKC website. Although commercial breeders who sell to pet stores may be regulated by the USDA, the federal animal care standards do not ensure quality, breeding or humane life for dogs. For instance, dogs are allowed to be confined to tiny wire bottom cages, only six inches bigger than the dog, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for their entire lives. Forced to breed every cycle without ever being taken out, even for a moment, to stand on solid ground or feel the sun on their backs. These are the dogs producing puppies for local pet stores. This kind of substandard breeding often results in unsuspecting buyers purchasing pets with physical, genetic and psychological problems that result in many of them being surrendered to overcrowded shelters when the emotional toll and the vet bills become more than the buyer can manage. So this is not just a humane issue. It's a consumer protection issue. Pet stores supplied by mills are not an asset to this community. And yet, while they may profit from the practice of buying puppies and kittens at a low price and then reselling them at a high price, typically without first spaying and neutering them, it is the taxpaying public who pays for animal control to house and kill unwanted animals in the community. And yet there is a more humane alternative, which is for those stores to stop supporting the puppy mill industry and transition to an adoption model. As thousands of pet stores across the country have already done very successfully. So this proposal would not preclude pet stores from staying in business. It would not impact responsible hobbie breeders who could continue to sell directly to the public. And of course, it wouldn't prevent anyone from adopting an animal. And as we've heard, there's no shortage of puppies, purebreds, kittens, and I would also guess rabbits currently looking for homes in the Long Beach area. A retail pet sales ordinance is a reasonable means of preventing an endless supply of poorly bred animals from being imported into the city so that consumers are protected and fewer animals will have to suffer in order to supply the retail pet trade and would relieve the burden on shelters and therefore the taxpayers. By getting animals out of those facilities and into retail settings where they have a greater chance of being adopted by the public. These ordinances have been a fair, positive and effective measure for the 72 communities that have enacted them 17 right here in California. And it would be a very good thing for Long Beach as well. So I thank you for considering this important reform and for setting a positive example for the rest of the country to follow. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Kate Karp, and my address is on record. First of all, I want to thank you council members, but I also want to thank everybody who had input and inspiration and impetus for this resolution, for this hopeful resolution, including Judy Crumpton, Friends of Long Beach Animals, Fix, Long Beach Animal Care Service, and every single rescue and trap spay neuter organization in Long Beach that pulls from the shelter and helps reduce animal overcrowding. And also the people who, because of the voucher program in Phenix, Long Beach, have become educated and have fixed their animals. I volunteer for friends of Long Beach Animals, which provides vouchers for low cost spay neuter for people who can't otherwise afford it. And I also volunteer with Fix Long Beach, which gives it away for free to the same population. And we meet an incredible lot of people who are grateful and lap up the education, the way their pets lap up the water we provide. But there's always a number who, for their own reasons, won't. And I don't want to turn this into a comedy production because some of them are absolutely ridiculous and this has to be addressed and it is being addressed. I've had people tell me that passing this law would cause pet owners to turn their dogs into the shelter. And that may be, but that'll be one dog that'll get fixed and possibly adopted out or not, sadly. But this is. Opposed to. Litters and litters that doubtless won't be as for as fortunate. And if that sounds like collateral damage, consider this spay. You would say reports that an underpaid female cat, her mate and all of their offspring produce producing two letters a year can total 11,606,077 cats in nine years and in six years one and spayed female dog and her offspring can reproduce 67,000 dogs. It's a shame that we have to legislate responsibility, but we just can't sit there and do nothing. My concerns about this, of course, can concern enforcement. I hope this will you will find the tools to enforce this law. And I'm wondering about tweaking the sales law. I'm glad that you excluded the adopt a shop type of stores. But will the dogs bred on premises in Long Beach? Will there be will the number of litters be controlled? And I also would want our unaltered cats, no unaltered cat laws enforced. And Suja, thanks for the thumbs up. Humane education in the schools would be great. Friends of Long Beach Animals has such a program and it works. I hope Long Beach is a model for the entire state. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Alison Levitt, and I'm speaking to oppose the proposal for mandatory spay neuter. I know this issue can become very emotional for the people involved, and I think that fixed Long. Beach is doing a fabulous job already. The numbers that they have put forward as far as the improvement rates speak for themselves. So I certainly encourage them to continue what they are working toward. I do think that mandatory spay neuter would not stop irresponsible pet owners. I think that the issue in question is enforcing the existing laws. If there is a breeding prohibition in the city, then the people who ignore that are just as likely to ignore spay neuter. The other element that's of concern to me is that spay neuter by four months of age in any animal, while it may be possible to do it, does not mean that it's a good idea to do it. There are numerous veterinary reports that it's actually. Harmful to the. Development of an animal. So I think that that is far too young for any surgery of that type. My other concern is that it's going to be costly to implement. There hasn't been a cost analysis done yet. But I, I firmly believe that. If the money spent on that were put instead toward expanding the microchip program or furthering the efforts of Fix Long Beach as far as their subsidies for low income pet owners, I think the results would be far more what the city wants to do rather than becoming top heavy with legislation that is either redundant, unenforceable or inappropriate . Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Mayor and City Council Members, thank you for considering this very important ordinance. My name is R Mighty May that spelled r m itii last name May and I am a practicing veterinarian. I've been in practice for over nine years. I graduated from UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 2005, and I've done thousands of Space Invaders over a number of years, including high volume spay neuter in mobile clinic settings. And it is a highly effective way to not only curb the pet overpopulation crisis, but also improve the health of individual animals. I can count on all ten fingers and toes and then have more counting to do to tell you. All the times I've seen female dogs who develop geometry, which is a life threatening infection of the uterus if it's not treated in time, which involves surgery to remove the ovaries and uterus as well as intensive IV fluid and antibiotic treatment, it will result in death. And I have seen that. I have also seen female dogs developing mammary cancer because they were not spayed by their first or second heat cycle. And 50% of the cases of mammary cancer in dogs are. Metastatic and malignant. So that's basically a death sentence for the dog. It also affects cats. Similarly, in the case of males, I've seen a neutered males who have developed testicular cancer. And I've also seen many cases of dogs who have been hit by cars and almost all the time it's because they're unaltered and they're seeking a female in heat. So they jumped the fence. They burst through the gate. Whatever they need to do to get to that animal they're going to do. And if it puts their life in jeopardy, that's what ends up happening. So it's been shown time and again that spaying and neutering not only protects these animals from pregnancy, which leads to , of course, unwanted animals like the ones pictured here. But it also protects the individual lives of those animals and their health. And I just want to remind you all that each of these animals in this picture and millions of others like them are individuals who matter. And I think we all need to keep that in mind. I have also an early age spay neuter and have not observed any adverse health effects from that. And I also want to make sure that feral cats are included in this conversation. They deserve attention and care as well. And we need to tackle this problem through trap neuter return. I've volunteered hundreds of hours of my time to spay and neuter feral cats, and it's a highly successful way to keep that under control. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. She's a tough act to follow, so I just want to be brief. I fully support having mandatory spay neuter ordinance and banning the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits for all the reasons stated by the other speakers. Thank you. Could you state your name. For the president? Can you just give your name for the record? It's Eric Deardorff. Thank you. Our next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Best Riley. I live at 375 Wisconsin Avenue, Long Beach, California, 90814. I came to just make a statement to you. I know you guys appreciate these beautiful show dogs. They're so magnificent. But I want to tell you about my type of dog. And it's not in your list. I do competitive herding. I have a border collie and I have an Australian shepherd currently. They're both fixed. I want to have some more dogs. My girl, I spent almost $50,000 on money for herding. Okay, I love it. It's my, my love. But when you talk about dogs, you're talking about something that I like. I want to breed my dogs. If I find an excellent breed, I'm not going to be a breeder. I'm 65 years old. My chances of doing, you know, becoming a great breeder is really off. But I want the right to breed my dogs if I have a great a great herder, I want the ability to breed those. And I understand I mean, I listen to these people. I understand their concerns. I love animals, too. My point is, I I'm I'm concerned that you're kind of cutting my people off because they're not pretty, but they really are pretty. If you ever saw them work, they're beautiful. So I just want you to look at this and see if you can make an exception for something like a herding dog. And I don't know about agility dogs. I was just thinking about people do that. But I know herding job dogs, it's inbred my border collies. Border collies have been hurting dogs all their life. They were born to herd. If you watched them herd, you understand that's what they want to do. That's what we're they were made to do. So I would like you to seriously consider making an exception to that. That's all. Thank you very much for your time. Okay. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, my name is Stephanie Run is I actually live in Lakewood, but I spend so much time in Long Beach I might as well be living here. I work here, I spend my money here. I come out to eat here. I like to play here. So I'm very and then I come out to all the events. But I've been involved in animal rescue for a number of years and follow animal issues very carefully. I have to tell you that this is such a wonderful step that Long Beach is looking at taking in alleviating the pressures of overpopulation for animals. And I come from Fresno, and if you want to know really, really, really bad situation as far as animal overpopulation. And there are rings, dogfighting rings and lots and lots of cases of documented animal cruelty. And in the past few years, my family's still there. But in the past few years, a number of animal organizations have risen up to try to take care of feral cats who take care of dogs that have been abandoned. And in introducing. The conversation of how to be a responsible pet owner or guardian and introducing the concept of spay and neuter, that already has had an incredible effect on the conversation in Fresno, where it was such a it was such a foreign concept before. So here we are at an apex where language really has the ability to be a model city and other cities are watching. I'll tell you, Fresno is watching, Lakewood's watching. Your surrounding cities are watching. And where you. Go is going to make it so much easier for us to make a difference in the rest of the state. So please, please, please continue the good work and please get these ordinances in writing. And gosh, you got so many people who are just pushing for this to go through. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Wendy Aragon. I'm a resident of Long Beach and Representative Pet Assistance Foundation. We were founded in 1955. To combat the tragic pet overpopulation. Problem, and we've been active in Long Beach ever since, referring people to low cost spay and neuter services, education and subsidizing those who cannot afford. To alter their pets. We want to commend Councilperson Sudhir Lowenthal for taking steps to draft. These two ordinances that are long overdue. Long Beach has taken initial. Steps through the 2006 passing of the Breeding or Breeding. Control Ordinance, but many of us in the animal welfare community. Realized that we needed to take further steps to reduce. Euthanasia rates of healthy, adoptable animals and alleviate the animal. Suffering that is the direct result of pet overpopulation. The second ordinance. Banning of the. Sale of rabbits, dogs and cats in pet stores is especially important. Because we all know that these businesses are exempt from requiring the spaying and neutering of animals. When they are sold. This, I believe, is due to the passage of. The law in Sacramento that required the animal welfare organizations to do spaying neutering. But the businesses were exempt. Do I believe again to the powerful pet store lobby? Those of us. Active in animal. Welfare know all. Too well the tragic impact of too many unwanted animals, the abandonment, the passing from one bad home to another, the endless stream of kittens often motherless during the kitten season, the endless parade of unwanted. Pit bulls in Chihuahua. As a small organization, we have to listen to every single day on our hotline. Will you please take my animal? I have to move. I've been evicted or I found a little kitten under the porch. I can't keep it. Can you take it? I don't want to take it to the pound because it may be euthanized. We hear this over and over, yet we have limited room and limited resources. This has a tremendous negative. Impact on those of us in this work because we can only do so much. We know that many of these animals for whom we cannot intervene will end up in desperate situations. Or perhaps if they're lucky. In the shelter as a euthanasia statistic. It's tragic to say that, but. That's what we have to endure every day. As we've stated before. Here many times, we need a synergistic, three pronged approach to this problem, which Long Beach has made great strides in addressing legislation, education and low cost sterilization. Thank you. I have to wrap up because a little bit later on. Thank you. In closing, we urge you to appeal to the better angels of your nature and deal with the elephant in the living room. The moral imperative. To deal with pet overpopulation in our city. By drafting. And ultimately passing these. To. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Luis Dubi and. I have been an animal control officer. I began my career with the city of Long Beach in 1980. And the. Majority of my career has. Been with the city. It's a great city, but mandatory spay and neuter. The time. Has come. We need this tool. Our officers are out in the city serving our citizens, addressing complaints. And we need this to. Address the issue of overpopulation. And the issue of people that don't want to spay and neuter their pets. Education and enforcement is our focus. We educate, we offer assistance. But when people do not want to comply, enforcement is necessary. This tool will. Be the enforcement we need. As far as. People say as they're worried about a mass abandonment of animals. We also need to address the quality of life that we give our pets. And if someone is going to abandon. Their animal or dump their animal. Because mandatory spay and neuter takes effect. They're not the right pet owner. One issue, too, I think is very important. Not only do are we talking about animals here, but we're talking about the. Citizens of the city and their safety and public safety. And it's a well-known statistic in my career, in my profession. Just for example, in our city. Between the months of July, August. September and October, we had a total of 196. Bites by dogs in our city. Out of that. 196 animals, 131 of. Them were unaltered. That's a pretty staggering statistic. The propensity for a dog to bite is lessened if the animal has been. Spayed or neutered. So helpless. So please take that into consideration with consideration when. You're addressing this ordinance. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Emily Brewer. And to be respectful of your time, I'll keep it brief with the millions of animals who are euthanized in shelters every year. I feel like we owe it to Rose, who we met earlier, to move forward with the mandatory spay and neuter ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. Good evening. My name is Vicky Yamashita. I'm a 25 year resident of Long Beach, and this mango is my representative. I just came down here because I saw a post on Facebook that said, an organization that I've only sent until tonight only been in contact with through Facebook. I needed some support. I've been a long time adopter of animals. I will. I vowed 20 years ago when a friend of mine educated me on the importance of spay neuter and pet overpopulation. The importance of not contributing to the supply chain of any breeders and I have since adopted about five dogs, having two or three at a time and taking them through to the end of with a high quality of life. So I'm deeply, personally committed to adopting, but on a daily basis, just my heart breaks and I'm overwhelmed with the stories I hear and just the staggering numbers. And I would love to see Long Beach be a model city. I'm so proud of the city that I moved to after coming to Cal State Long Beach in the seventies and would love to be able to be able to have bragging rights that Long Beach lead in efforts like this. In one week alone, I learned of three people who had infant puppies. One was found. Rescued and my friend is actually raising it. It's been quite difficult because it needs to be fed around the clock. Another one was thrown from a moving car and hit some people and fortunately it survived the fall and is being raised by somebody. I think they're called bottle babies when they have to be fed around the clock because they're so tiny and they've not been weaned. I don't know the circumstances of the third one, but three instances of puppies being used, thrown like litter and that is all a part of our pet overpopulation problem in the city of Long Beach . And I would love to see this ordinance passed. I would love to be able to see some of my friends who run adoption, um, excuse me, rescue agencies privately and work tirelessly. They would love to go out of business. They'd love to just be able to go get a real job sometime. So thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Alicia. Johnson and I volunteer for Pet Assistance Foundation and I started volunteering there a month ago. And you see the conditions that the animals are in and how they have no home because there's so many animals out there and why people are breeding and buying animals. The innocent animals that are just in shelters and have no home to go to are being put down. And if we make spaying and neutering mandatory, we can save so many innocent lives. Because, you know, if a human has a baby, we don't put them down because there's not a home to go to. And I just wanted to say, animals have the same feelings, too. Thank you. Thank you. Before before our next speaker, I'm going to close the speakers list here. Unless there's someone else that didn't get a chance to get in line, please get in line. I'm closing the speakers list. So after this gentleman here will be the last. We'll be the last speaker in the jacket, please. And you can, sir. You can if you'd like to sit. That's okay. I just want to, sir. So we'll close it after this. Gentleman, please. Good evening. My name's Larry Hansen. I'm a 25 plus year resident of Long Beach, also a small business owner, California Canine Services. I oppose this proposed mandatory spay neuter. However, I was delighted to hear that you were considering an amendment for the AKC show Dogs. And if you're going to go that route, I would hope that you would consider any national registry. There are some dogs that show work complete that are not AKC registered dogs, but are United Kennel Club, American Dog Breeders Association, APD are several different organizations, also North American Red. Association, which a lot of our police dogs come out of that program. Those dogs cannot compete as the breed they are unless they have both testicles. I also think and I can appreciate everything everybody is saying here, none of us in this room, I'm sure, want to see any animal injured, neglected, abused. However, I really think that we need to target the owners. You may also want to consider some sort of safe dog program a little different than the American Kennel Club's canine good citizen. There is a video that they watch, a test that they take, and then they do a little demonstration with their dog showing basic behaviors, but really trying to educate the owners to target educating the owners a little outreach program like that. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. And hello, my name is Lena Gaiser. I while I'm not a resident of. Long Beach on this issue about. Spaying and neutering dogs is really important to. Me. So I just I'm here to voice my support for the ordinance making banning the spaying and I mean ban. Making it mandatory to spay and neuter dogs. And. You know, because I feel that animals, while they are not human beings, they still deserve a lot more. Respect than they're being given at the moment. Being put to sleep by these numbers that have been discussed. And it's really sad. And I think that we we need to be doing more about it. So thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Anna Wong with Stray Cat Alliance as well as being a resident of Long Beach. And I want to commend the Council for bringing forth this ordinance for the pet shops. We enthusiastically support this and thank Julie Crumpton for her tireless work and moving forward for the Long Beach Animals. I would encourage all of you to consider strongly wherever you go with this mandatory spay and neuter that you please add on mandatory microchips. I run many, many community cat programs within our Long Beach area and contract cities. We microchip every single one of our feral cat and community cats that are released. This protects them when they end up back in the shelter from multiple trappings. It protects their lives. It protects their their livelihood. We are able to assess when a cat gets retract the health and condition of that cat in that colony. This also stands true for owned animals as well. It's a really great way to protect the animals of Long Beach. And I would encourage you, please, please, please consider the microchip issue. Thank you. Next speaker, please, sir. Final speaker. Thank you. My name is Jack Smith, and I'm the president of the Long Beach Kennel Club and also the great Western Terriers location that has conducted dog shows in the city of Long Beach since well before 1970s. I think we were the first Kennel Club to hold our shows in the Convention Center in 1973. I really, first of all, want to thank Councilman Councilwoman Lowenthal for the amendment. I came here to speak to the issues that she just amended. And so therefore, I really don't have a lot to say. But thank you. But I would like to say, because I've heard all these speakers and and I'd like to have a comment on it other than being the president of dog shows, because I enjoy the sport of dogs. I enjoy breeding dogs. I was also I'm also a retired captain of police for the Los Angeles Police Department. I was the chief of police for the city of El Cajon, and I was the assistant sheriff for the county of San Diego. So I've had a lot of experience and working with kennels. I've had a lot of experience in working with pounds. I used to manage one when I was in El Cajon. And everything that you've heard here tonight regarding the the heart break of going into the kennels and seeing the euthanasia scene, the the dogs that are abandoned , it's always been a heartbreak to me and been working with the council here. I have to say that when we put this ordinance together, the one that's existed now about nine years ago, the idea was to create a model ordinance that would allow the care of dogs that do need to be cared for, but at the same time allow the sport of dogs and the breeding the purebred dogs to continue to help to have them both. And what we realized was that while the AKC, I think, is probably one of the best registered registries in the country for purebred dogs, there are many others that don't offer the same advantages that the AKC does. And so in the ordinance you'll see that it talks about the fact that if we're going to. If we're going to allow dogs to be bred in the city of Long Beach, that the registry that they're registered with has to offer certain things, which includes rescue, it includes genetic testing, that includes training to be a responsible dog owner and things such as that, so that we have a combination of both that we have the AKC really working together with the people that are here today to try and create the best world we can for our dogs. And I think I think the council and I think these people that we look forward to working together with you in the future. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez. I have to think of Vice Mayor Lowenthal. I know it's been a long time coming. Also. Judy Crumpton. I see Kate, April, Claudia, all of you, the great work that you've been doing on this. I have to commend you because I know how passionate you you all are. We've had many discussions on this, but thank you, Vice Mayor Lowenthal, for really leading this effort. And just wanted to say my thanks and it's certainly needed. I know that in the First District we have such an amazing amount of dog owners that are responsible, but yet we have another handful that are not very responsible. And that I think that this ordinance would certainly do something to achieve, you know, under puppies, under populating, if that's even possible. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I wanted to thank everyone that came out to speak on this issue and the proposed ordinance. And I've taken copious notes with most of the comments that have been made. And I want to thank Jack and his wife for being here as well. Since Jack spoke last, I do want to ask I want to ask our staff to be sure. It's probably the last paragraph of the second to the last paragraph of our item, asking for staff to consult with other cities and other resources and putting this together. We aren't the first to do this. That's the beauty of it. That's the extreme beauty of being in this position is we're not the first. And so we can certainly learn from the cities that have been mentioned here earlier, learn from the best practices that Mr. Smith has highlighted. And I think there's an effort that can be made to bring all of those together so that we make a proposal that makes sense for our city. And all cities think that their unique we really are unique. So I, I firmly believe that I take comfort in it. And, and I think our staff knows that. And if I can judge based on everything that our animal care staff has done in these last seven years, moving toward good policy on the various items they've worked on, I know that they've looked at best practices elsewhere. So I'm confident and I, I know that you both will be open to working with our team as well. And I look to our staff to call on you for that advice, that expert advice on how to draft something that's responsible for us. There was an issue raised about enforcement. I know Councilmember Mongeau will address that. But just to staff, I would like Mr. Stevens or or our director of Parks, Recreation and Marine to highlight how our canvassers work at this moment. Could you do that for us? I'll let Mr. Stevens talk about that. Thank you. George. Yeah. So our canvasing program, our. Our staff will go into the neighborhoods. They'll they'll run reports for the animals that are either currently licensed or delinquent their licenses. So they'll basically canvass, walk neighborhoods and look for unlicensed, unregistered animals. They'll make contact, educate. It's not about enforcement, writing citations, grabbing money from people. It's about educating, getting people in compliance, rabies shots. And so this is just one more one more tool that we just we'll just add in there with, along with the rabies and licensing. It's just checking for spay and neuter so we don't look at it to be too difficult. Thank you. Mr. Stevens, I also wanted to ask you about the cost to implement. While the item does not highlight an impact or a fiscal impact, that there's no fiscal impact to developing the item. But certainly we're very realistic that there will be an impact to the cost for public outreach, additional low cost, spay neuter vouchers and enforcement. But we're hopeful that the city manager, as the item calls for, will also find revenue opportunities to pay for these increased services. There were so many things that we do today with animal care that seven, six years ago we didn't think we could afford we never thought we could afford a veterinarian, but we prioritized it and realized with a cost savings to the city. So I think when we look at that cost benefit analysis to be able to add resources to this additional effort, we will realize that there will be a lot of cost savings. And so in that report that comes back in the recommendation that comes back, we will look to staff to highlight those differences. What are the costs and then what are the savings? And then finally, I wanted to also mention there. Was. There was a resident that spoke about breeding for hurting animals. If I could get this correct. There you are. Thank you. And. I'd like staff to address how that can. That possibility already exists today. She can get a permit to do so. Correct, Mr. Stephens? Yes. Currently she could buy a breeding permit. And I understand that you indicated you don't want to be a breeder, but our definition of breeding isn't. I think what the commercial definition might be, it's not so much about breeding for sale, but for what you describe. You already have that ability to do that here, and so this does not prohibit you from doing that. I want you to rest assure and I know that there's a section of folks that might feel the same way. And I wanted you to be sure that that this did not impact your ability to do that. There was mention made of feral cats, and that is a very serious problem. And I want to thank the the constituent that came up and spoke about her work in that area unaltered. Feral cats do roam our neighborhoods in far greater number than stray dogs to. It is a bigger problem certainly and trap spay neuter and release programs. They do play a very important role in controlling this population. I do think it's worth noting some of the success that we've had. So that's the tragedy with the success that we've had, is that 80% of owned cats are spayed or neutered. And that's to the great work that you've done, great work that staff has done. So we have to celebrate that. We have a long way to go. But in combination with the volunteers that are helping, along with our staff, I think we are getting there. I will ask staff to consider if there is an opportunity to address the feral cat population through this effort. And if you don't have a response today, that's okay. But I would hope that you would consider that because it is a big problem and perhaps that will be our seventh or eighth installment in this overarching policy over these last several years. But we recognize it's an important issue. Mr. Stevens Did you want to address that at all tonight? Vice Mayor Yeah, I think Ted can address that. We do have a similar program. Yeah. Well, first of all, I would just mention that we already have mandatory spay neuter for cats, so we already have that. We have cat licensing and rabies for cats. We I know for at least the last couple of years that I've that I've been over animal care services. I have done everything I can to support TNR groups that are out there, some of them out there I see their today and I'm sure they would agree that I support a lot of them through assistance with spay neuter vouchers and things like that, helping to get animals fixed. We help have normal, everyday residents that contact me and want to tnr their own neighborhood. I help them with that. We and we've been doing this for probably a couple about two years now. I've been supporting a lot of these groups are helping these groups with their work. In addition, recently, earlier this year, we started a community cat shelter neuter return program, also addressing community cats and trying to limit the number of litters that are born in the community through to feral cats. So it's definitely something we've been working very diligently on for the last few years. Thank you. I appreciate that. Councilmember Mongo. I want to thank everyone here who has brought this issue up for years. I've known many of you since my time with L.A. County Animal Services several years ago, back when Long Beach and L.A. County partnered to grow the CANVASING program here in Long Beach. Spay verification is done through providing your certificate of spay when you license your animal. So as our wonderful director, Ted Stevens mentioned the verification, the canvassers that are in the field are canvasing for a license. And then upon getting your license, you would then provide the verification of the spay and neuter. So there will be no flipping dogs in public will be okay about that. I am passionate about many animal issues, but working hand in hand with our supervisors in our puppy mill ban in L.A. County is a step. But as we talked about, it's really the demand for animals that continues the import of puppy mill pets into our cities. And so what we hope will happen is that our local certified AKC breeders will be a resource, and our cute little puppies like Rose, who is here today, will come from our shelters into our pet shops . So I look forward to hearing about the partnership between pet shops in the city. I think that this is also an opportunity to lower the cost of inventory for those businesses because they'll be partnering with us and we'll also be lowering the costs of our shelter for providing care and euthanasia. Those animals will get to be in the pet shops loved by the pet shop administrators, and additionally, I'm supportive of another friendly amendment. I know we talked about the earlier friendly amendment, but of competitive herding and other types of animals specifically. The word breeding permit is often confusing to consumers. And so whether we call it another classification, so that if your animal is deemed to be a champion in herding or any of the other animal areas, that they would have that later option to breed, working that end would be encouraged. So thank you to Jack and to Judy and to all of you that I see at the dog park regularly. Thank you for your continued commitment to our fixing animals and our trap neuter release. Those are all components of getting to where we've all said we were going, which is one of the friendliest cities in America for animals. Councilmember Austin. Thank you. And before I start, I want to salute all of the the caregivers and the volunteers, the folks who are working so hard to deal with our overpopulation of our animals. You guys all have great hearts, and I appreciate you being here. I. This is policy work. And so I'm going to to ask a few critical questions, if you may ask. And, you know, it was interesting in the the write up for for this particular agenda item. It said dogs, cats and rabbits. And I haven't heard anything about rabbits here this evening. I have a question, a few questions for staff. When was the last ordinance around done toward this this matter? I know that there was an audit is done a few years ago that increased fees for for dogs and unaltered dogs and cats. When was that ordinance done? Then increasingly this was for increasing the fees for unaltered animals. We have not increased the fees since I've been there and I started in January of 2012. Okay. I believe it was 2009. What about Councilmember Lowenthal? I believe you were signature to that particular item. Right. And I'm curious to know what sort of performance between since 2009 have we experienced in terms of dog registration and the the the reduction in terms of unaltered pets? Is there any data to show performance over that period of time? Councilmember, if you're asking what our data is in terms of unregistered. Well, let me let me. Record on all three dogs registered. What sort of data do we have to show progress, if any, to reducing overpopulation of animals in the city of Long Beach since that ordinance was was enacted? Good. We have seen I know since the cat an ordinance ordinances were passed the cat licensing and mandatory spay neuter for cats has passed. We have seen a significant decline every year in our cat in pounds and our cat euthanasia. And I know our dog euthanasia is in dog in pounds have been were pretty steady for several years. But just recently since the voucher program was started, we've seen a steady decline in dog euthanasia, in dog in pounds. And since fixed Long Beach has started the actual which was in June of last year I believe Korea we've seen significant declines in pounds and euthanasia of dogs but especially the pounds dogs. It was pretty significant when I ran the numbers after fixed Long Beach started for the year after they started compared to the previous year, it was a significant drop in euthanasia and in pounds. Okay, so how many households currently have registered dogs in the city of Long Beach? Number of households that currently have registered dogs is kind of fluctuates, but it's around 30,000. Okay. And they can have multiple dogs and they could have multiple dogs. Yeah. So that's that's unique. When we ran it, we did it by unique addresses. So that's not the number of licenses. That was the number of households that house not licenses. Yeah, licenses is a little bit more it's closer. To like. 36,000 or 38,000. Well, totally more. Almost 40,000 somewhere in there, 35 to 40000. And so it's so there's 35 with 40,000 households with licenses, right? Some of them are expired, but yes. So how many total households do we have with with dogs? With dogs. The estimate, based on federal statistic models, we would estimate that there's roughly 62,000 households with dogs. And about a population of about 100,000 dogs would be that's an estimate based on models from the Department of Finance. And of that 100,000 dogs, how many are registered? Current licenses, I believe, is a little over 30,000. There are about 10,000 expired licenses. So somewhere in there. So one third of our the dogs in the city of Long Beach are registered. Yes, that's correct. And what are we doing to enforce registration right now other than the CANVASING program? The CANVASING program is our main method of enforcement. Okay. How many? Uno. Uno. Two dogs are registered in the city today. Current licenses are about 3000. Okay, I'm in listening to this. I mean, this is this is compelling. And all of the public testimony that has come before us, I believe, is extremely compelling. And I support. Voluntary spay and neuter neutering of our dogs and cats. I think we have an enforcement problem, and that's really where I'm having a heartburn with with this this protest that this proposed ordinance. With all due respect, I know Councilmember Lowenthal has worked and is very passionate about this. And, I mean, I commend us for bringing this forward for conversation. But if we're talking about 100,000 dogs and we have a third of them are actually registered. We have an enforcement issue in terms of registering our pets. If we're going to move towards a mandatory spay and neuter program here in the city. What what? I'm not too confident that we have the resources to to enforce that. And I would love for you to tell me otherwise. Well, I can say that our CANVASING program is still relatively new. It's only been a few years in existence since 2010. We've increased by over 10,000 licenses overall in the city. And so it's we haven't actually a higher compliance rate than most cities as far as licensing goes up very much, very high. And now it's not as high as obviously we'd like it to be, but we are higher than most cities in the state. And I would say that this is going to be every year we add more and more licenses to our database and more and more we get higher compliance rates every year. And this is I don't think anyone believes that this is going to make a difference overnight, but we feel like that over time the enforcement will come, more and more people will be educated, more and more people will come into compliance. And this is this is a long term thing as we've increased our licenses over the years, will increase compliance. Well, in a lot of respect, I mean, I think that's what we're doing now. I mean, I think we're moving in the right direction with the current policy. And, you know, I may be in the minority here, but, you know, I want to be consistent. If we're going to push forward with policy, it needs to be enforceable policy. The thank you. In. I'm curious to know how many pet stores currently are selling puppies in the city of Long Beach. To my knowledge, one. Okay. So we're putting together a policy that that is restricting the sale of pets in the city of Long Beach, which will impact at least one one store. And that's good. I support that that component of this this ordinance, a proposed ordinance. And I've done a little bit of research and research about many poultry, spay and neuter policies in other cities. And I've noticed that that several cities have not produced the desired results because of the lack of enforceability and. And in many respects, it has created a situation where where pet owners have actually promoted irresponsibility, where pet owners are not taking their pets to the vet. Pet owners are not registering their pets. And they are they're essentially going underground in response to local policy that that that concerns me. And I don't want to see the progress that the city of Long Beach has made over the last several years in reducing pet overpopulation turned around as a result of that. And so I have some real, real concerns here. I think, Councilmember Longo, you you offered I think you began to offer a friendly amendment which recognizes the other types of dogs other than AKC dogs. There are there are other dogs that that are bred for agility and competition and agility, fly balls, obedience training, working dogs, herding police work. We don't even touch that. Does that mean that we're going to fix our police dogs, arson detection and customs dogs? I think this issue is a lot more broader than than what is before us here today. And I would love to have a lot more time, a little more more time to massage this this issue, if possible . Again, I know that I'm not speaking in in favor or I'm not championing the issue the way that many of the people who came before us to speak see this. But again, this is policy work. Councilmember Lowenthal, you mentioned another point that I want to raise is the impact to the budget. This is an unknown, complete unknown. We don't know how much this is going to cost at all. You know, and to really do this right, I think we're going to have to really commit real resources to doing this, a robust CANVASING program so that our Animal Services Department actually has teeth. Again, one third of the pets in the city are registered. That's a real problem. So I'll reserve my comments and thank you for dodging me. Okay. Jump. Councilmember Price. Thank you. I first of all, I want to thank Vice Mayor Lowenthal for bringing this forward. I know this is something that she's worked diligently on for years, and I am learning a lot about the process through hearing the public speak tonight. And I think a lot of good questions have been raised. I did want to ask staff just a few questions before we go further with this, and that is. Why is staff. In favor of this proposed ordinance or would they be. Councilman. I believe it would help us in the long run to reduce the number of euthanised pets. Councilman Austin raises a good point about fiscal impact. And as I indicated just last week, I don't think it's prudent for us to adopt any agreements or legislation when staff is telling us outright that they don't know what the fiscal impact is going to be. My understanding of this item is that staff is going to do a fiscal impact study before we as a body direct you to go out and do anything. Is that accurate? That's that's accurate, councilwoman. In terms of our current policies, we talked a lot about breeding and the limitations on breeding. Could you please describe for me what our current breeding license policy or requirements what they are? Yeah. I'll try to keep it brief, but. Basically someone who. Can apply to get a breeder's permit. There is a background check done on them to make sure they haven't violated any any laws like animal cruelty and things like that. They they would pay for the permit. And then, like I said, it is in the batch. There's a lot of restrictions. The the breeding animals, they have to show paperwork showing that they're not related, like in, you know, incest type situations. They have to show that the animal's healthy. There's age restrictions. I believe it's 2 to 7 years old. They can only have one litter per year. So they have to be said that be microchipped. So there's just a there's a lot of restrictions on what they can and can't do as far as breeding their animal. I've received several emails in regards to this item, mostly in support, but a couple of the comments that I've heard and we heard from some of the members of the public tonight was about them wanting to breed. Is there anything that prevents someone who wants to breed for for applying for a license, for example. Currently, right now, no. Okay. And how would that change, if at all. Depending on what you guys would approve? Depends what exclusions are approved, if they're, you know, AKC certified or competition animals. Animals like that. But I think you just you're every day random animal. I don't I don't know what kind of exclusions we would come up for that, but we could look into it. Now, in terms of some of the direction you've received this evening as a result of what council members have stated in public, do you feel like you have enough in terms of coming back with a recommendation on what exclusions might apply? I believe we do. Councilwoman. We talked a lot about enforcement and I think Councilman Austin makes some good points. What are the short term and perhaps even long term plans that you have as a department in terms of enforcement and education in regards to this particular policy? Well, you've seen some of the posters that some of my volunteers and I have already kind of started working on the campaign. Obviously, those posters currently don't talk about being mandatory, so that would change the posters. But I think we could look at some educational outreach to the schools. We could look at social media. We can look at print media, you know, do as much outreach as we can, busses. And most of it is going to be I think we're going to look at our enforcement is mostly going to start with probably animals coming to the shelter. Those are just people that we interact with every day and educating them. And I believe that we want to be more towards the education part of it and compliance and not a heavy handed type of citation compliance. I don't think that's what we're looking for. We're looking for educational compliance. And I would say, personally speaking, I think that would be the right place to have the focus in terms of this kind of policy. Currently, what if an animal is adopted? Are they do you do any spaying and neutering before the animal is relinquished? Yes. State law requires that animals that are adopted are spayed or neutered. And that's. And microchipped. Any any animal that leaves the shelter in. Long Beach has to be microchipped. Okay. And that's what I did not know. Okay. Spayed or neutered as well. Correct. Animals that are adopted have to be spayed or neutered. Animals that are redeemed by their owners currently do not have to be spayed or neutered. But they do have to be microchipped. They do have to be microchipped, yes. In terms of enforcement of illegal breeding. I'm assuming that happens now. What can you tell us a little bit about how you enforce illegal breeding allegations or complaints? Well, currently now it's it's mostly complaint driven. And one of the problems with it is there has to be a litter of puppies before we can actually enforce it. So the babies are already born at that point will issue the citation. We will require that the animals are given to a nonprofit rescue organization or were relinquished to the shelter. We do not allow them to buy a breeding permit after the fact and then sell the puppies. To answer your. Question, it did. Thank you. Thank you. I have no from a question. No more questions. Okay. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. I do want to make another statement about how we as council members receive comments. I know that so many of you have come here today, and we appreciate your time and your comment. I'd also like you to know that while these discussions go on and in advance of the meeting, each of us as council members on our iPads have access to anyone who submitted their comments in advance. Those show up on our agendas and we're able to look at the specific dialog and verbage. So oftentimes if you are choosing between coming personally to council or making a comment in advance online, I would strongly recommend you consider making the comment in advance because it's a part of our record that we can continue to reference during the dialog. So consider that in the future and in reading some of these. I also wanted to ask a quick question. Director Stevens, would you be able to tell us what our return to owner number of animals were released in our prior year for dogs? Yes. It's roughly 26%. 26%. And what was our live animal release last year? 75% for dogs. What was our live animal count? I'm trying to count the number. Of dog or the number of the number of our tails. If I had the number of pounds. Was roughly 4200. So 26% of that. Okay. So under this ordinance, would you believe that autos would be required to spay and neuter despite where they lived, whether it was Long Beach or an adjacent city or a contract city? It would. We would only enforce it on Long Beach residents and some of them in Long Beach. Or Animals Court in Long Beach. I should be. I believe that we are in. And if I could make. Sure we're all in on that right. Now. Okay. As an L.A. County animal shelter, we required all animals released from our shelters to be if it was impounded in the city, if it is impounded in an unincorporated area or a city that has a mandatory spay neuter ordinance, we would require that pet owner to spay and neuter other animal unless they had an age exemption or a medical exemption or an AKC or breeder exemption. So I just wanted to put that into your thought process for writing the ordinance. I also wanted to make some comments. Well, we have a few pet stores. We have a few pet stores, but only one that currently sells dogs. Is that correct? Yes, we do have one pet store that takes cats from our shelter, which would be legal in the new ordinance. And they do adopt cats. From pet. Shelter. And are there any other pet stores that don't sell dogs or cats, but they may sell hamsters, rabbits and all the others? I don't know of any that sell rabbits. I know there are some that have rabbits from rescue groups, so they would be okay. And there are a lot of pet stores that do adoptions. Absolutely. Through rescue groups. Absolutely. And so under this ordinance, the sale of those animals would be spayed or neutered. An example would be a current pet shop that is not actually a pet shop, but as a pet store would be PetSmart. And PetSmart currently brings in animals from all different types of rescues. And under this ordinance, would those animals be required to be spayed or neutered before sale? Yes, the rescue groups are required to spay and neuter before they adopt them. Perfect. When we talk about lack of enforceability, I just want to say and once again commend the city of Long Beach, because our enforcement rate is so much better than it was six years ago and significantly better than a majority of the cities. Also with the number of pets that are unregistered as a comparison to other cities. A lot of it has to do with each city's ability to contract for services with the County of Los Angeles. Because the County of Los Angeles is canvasing unit is scheduled years in advance. And so even cities who know they have low compliance, they do not have the resources and they have not been put on the schedule in enough time in advance to increase their compliance rate. And so having that in-house is a remarkable program, and I commend you. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a few follow up items. I know that Councilmember Austin raised some good issues regarding cost and outreach and enforcement and what responsible pet owners will do. And I think the last item were the theme last themed item was probably equity. On the cost piece, we the item is asking for staff to come back with what the costs would be, but just on canvassers alone. The activity that the canvassers do pay for them. They pay for themselves. And it's distasteful to say it, of course, but that is the reality of it. We have enough in order to be able to do that. Their canvasing work results in being able to pay for greater activity. When and I'm not sure if it was heard earlier, but I did address the constituent that came forward about the hurting dogs and and other types of dogs that people would like to breed. I think staff has been instructed to look at that when they come back with their recommendations. And I know the staff is clear that they are going to look at that and make a recommendation that's appropriate for our city. So that is not excluded. But we are giving staff the latitude and the flexibility to be able to do that. I've heard from some comments. Councilmember Mongo indicated that we do get lots of emails as well. And so in addition to everyone that's come today, there are quite a few individuals who aren't able to make it and we value their their comment and input just as much. And we also have to think through policy for those who aren't able to comment at all or make their make their opinions known. But a couple of times we've heard that this may drive people to drive responsible pet owners to go underground. If one is a responsible pet owner, I don't think you go underground. It just that those two don't quite comport in the same sentence. And so. What I do believe will happen is those that don't abide by ethics or whatever guides you toward pet responsibility. They will try to find other ways to avoid enforcement. That's a human behavior. I don't know that we can legislate our way out of that, but we do the best that we can. And so I don't want to leave that out there hanging that somehow responsible pet owners will go underground. I don't believe that to be the case with outreach. I know Mr. Stevens addressed outreach as well as Mr. Chapman did. We are asking staff to come back with a pretty robust outreach effort. We know that outreach has worked for us in these last several years. That's why Mr. Stevens is able to report the numbers and the decline that he has mentioned. A lot of it is outreach. People do want to be good pet owners. I, I believe that that they do want to be and need to know how they can be and need to have the resources to do so. On the equity issue, I just wanted to mention that this item actually does address equity. We made manage we made it mandatory to spay and neuter cats. And now to bring plus you now to now to bring dogs into that same requirement is an equity issue. It is mandatory to spay spay and neuter cats right now. And so to leave that as unaddressed with dogs, I think is an unequal treatment in our public policy. And so I'm confident that that is equitable. And with that council members, I ask you to support this item. This isn't something that's come overnight. We've been working on it for nearly a decade, leading our way to this point, proving with every step that we have taken, every installment that we have made toward good animal care policy, that this is the next step for Long Beach. You have heard our animal enforcement officer who's here on her off time indicate that this would help tremendously. We need to support our staff. We need to support our residents and we need to support our volunteers. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think this has been one of the most interesting nights since my tenure on the city council. We've had a music video. We've had some very interesting quotes that I don't think I'll ever hear again coming from some of this public testimony. I got to rescues Rocky and Kizzee very proud of those dogs. So I wanted to shout them out at home. And and so I want to. Vice Mayor Lowenthal mentioned something just a moment ago. She mentioned the person who came to testify on her off time. And I thought that was that was really compelling for me. I mean, people who work in our shelters, they don't do it because they want to euthanize animals. They do it because they love animals. That's why they work in our shelters. So that said, I mean, I had a I was able to work with L.A. County shelter workers for a number of years when I represented them in L.A. County. And I just would you know, I would just say that long be should strive to be, you know, the leader in the state on this issue. That said, I mean, I do think this was a lot of discussion. I think the public's been educated to to a great degree tonight on the intricacies of breeding and herding and so on and so forth. So I think this discussion has been reasonable. I think our vice mayor has taken and wrangled a lot of the comments and formed that into a motion that I will be able to support tonight. And I think that I am interested in seeing the finer details in this ordinance. I think it does stop short of an issue that, in my opinion, we should be talking about, which is really like a real definition of responsible owners. I think if if we cut a deal and someone gets a permit under a rule that one pet, you know, one pet is spayed and the other one is not neutered . I mean, one is not neutered. Another one is spayed. They can't meet. Right. And so they built a plan for their pet around that and then we change it on them. I think that's what I don't want. We can't I don't want to call them irresponsible. I think irresponsible is the people who have the aggressive dog who they can't keep control of, who gets out and attacks the old lady in the neighborhood. And I think that's an issue. I've had a conversation with our staff about figuring out like how we identify and track dogs that constantly get out. They're not always they're not always pit bulls either. I've been beat on the ankles by Chihuahuas too many times, and I am upset about this. So what I'm saying is I think we need to like this stopped short of a discussion that a lot of people are concerned about, these dogs that just constantly get out. If we want to create this culture of responsibility, we got to be able to call out irresponsible pet owners. And I don't think this I don't I think we just got to be careful who we're calling irresponsible. I just think we should say that. That said, a lot of discussion. I call for the question. Okay. There there are two other speakers. The question has been called in by 1/2. Anybody wants to second the call for the question by Councilmember Austin and Andrews and they're going to go to a vote. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, and I do appreciate the debate and comments. And I had to ask the questions that were were in my mind just for a point of information. I, I worked with the veterinarians in the city of Los Angeles when this issue was hot and heavy a few years ago. And it wasn't pleasant. And many of the veterinarians questioned the mandatory spay neuter policies as well. And so I'm not coming to this as completely ignorant. You know, I've kind of walked this through this policy once before. And again, I'm not sure that the policy is necessarily performing the way they envisioned it in the city of Los Angeles either. And so to say that we are leading the state on this issue is is a little misleading because we're kind of behind the curve. Secondly, I wanted to just make sure you knew that last last year when at the end of the budget cycle, when I had a surplus of resources from my district office budget , I allocated it to animal care services for for spay neuter programs and I think actually benefited from that. So thank you very much for your work in my district and Councilmember Lowenthal. I do. I'm going to vote in support of this because I recognize that we will this this issue will come back before us and we will be able to massage some of the finer details of this. And with that, I'm going to also support and ask that you really and this council really look at putting forth a robust canvasing and outreach program. And you mentioned that. But I want it to be more than words. I want to serious resources to be committed to it. I think there's an opportunity to to to move forward on some of the even ideals that Mayor Garcia has talked about in terms of bringing interns into the city to to to help us with that. And so I would ask that we look at doing that as well and to the equity issue. I think cats and dogs are like apples and oranges. When you talk about mandatory spay neuter, they're different kind of animals altogether. You can't control you can't put a cat behind a gate and and keep it contained whereas a dog you can. And so and Councilmember Richardson, I do appreciate your your comments regarding those responsible pet owners or or redefining what a responsible pet owner is tonight. I think it's very important to understand that that, yes, they are pet owners who have said, you know what, I have a girl dog, I have a boy dog, and one of them is going to be fixed so that we don't have a problem here. And so and I'm one of them, by the way. So I do think we need to take that into consideration. And families, responsible pet owners and families throughout the city of Long Beach who are in those situations as well. So thank you very much. Okay. And finally, Councilmember Andrew. Yes, I want to thank you, first of all, Mr. Richardson, for calling for the question. But when I finish, I first of all, I really want to thank Vice Mayor Souljah for all the hard work and effort. You know, what I'm hearing is that we're making progress in this item, too, and I will keep the progress moving along. You know, I do not want to use this as an endorsement because making people hide the fact that they own animals. You know, I have the homeless people with pets in my community. I have community members that do not have much, but they do love their pets. You know, I do not want to support more enforcement as people in my community cannot afford, you know, more penalties. What I need and what I'm hearing in this item is asking for it is for the education of our community and how to better care for their pets. And I want to thank you for bringing this item to voice, and I thank you and I will support it. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Yes. Just briefly, Councilmember Andrew's raised an issue that I know staff is going to consider and look at. But just so we can have it on the record, if if affordability is an issue, we have always found a way to remove that as a barrier. And I think in this policy, we have an opportunity to do the same. For instance, if there is a citation, but then I don't have a better analogy. I was going to call it a fix it ticket, but it's a fix it ticket, right? So if there's a citation that's in place, but then the owner makes good on using a voucher to spay and neuter that animal, then the citation should go away. And I know that our staff has a compassionate approach to this policy. So I want to thank you for raising that. Thank you. We're going to we're going to go ahead go to a vote. I just wanted to thank listen, I know that. Everyone here, myself included, as a as an animal lover, cares about animals. I know that. What the work to fix Long Beach and friends of Long Beach animals and all the rescue groups from the cat rescue to all of the work that's being done. Everyone here cares about animals. And thank you all for being out here, regardless of what what side you fell on the issue. I think what's before us is responsible and it does address the issues that we have with those members of our community that are breeding their pets responsibly . But but what I don't want to get lost on is there's two pieces, I think the the ordinance in related that's related to eliminating the use of pet shops and then purchasing animals that have been, you know, breed it in these large puppy mills in factories is as significant. It's something that we've been watching happen in other cities, and I think that's a really good piece of this as well. And so there's been a motion already on the floor and a second. So, Mr. Quirk, if we'll do a vote, please. Motion carries eight votes. Yes. Great. Thank you all very much. And before we go to the next item, since I know there's a lot of interest, the the item will be back to the city council within about 90 days and that will actually be the law that will be before the council. So the law will be written, the law will come before the council and the council will then vote on that law or before a law similar to that. Okay, thank you all. Item number nine. Item nine is a report from the Office of Councilmember Al Austin and Councilmember Roberto Rango with a recommendation to ask the city attorney to draft a resolution commemorating National Family Caregivers Month. Let's. I want to make sure that we give time for the next item. So. Can I have everyone? We're still in a council meeting. If I can have everyone have the conversations outside and really appreciate it. Sorry. We have another item. Thank you so much. Mr. Clarke, let's just hold on 1/2. Mayor, if Councilmember Richardson could announce. Yeah, we will. We're going we're going to do it right now. Okay. I'm. We are. Let's have the conversations outside, please, because we have to move on to our next item. All of these items are important. Okay. Mr.. Mr. Clarke, can you read the item one more time? Thank you very. It's a report from the office of Councilman Al Austin and Councilmember Roberta Ranga with a recommendation to request the city attorney to draft a resolution to commemorate National Family Caregivers Month in recognition of the importance of in-home care provider workforce.