This was a guest editorial written for the Tampa Tribune back in 1992. Alas—it’s even more relevant today than it was then. The title of the editorial, by the way, was proposed by the newspaper editor, not by the author, and with 35,000 boxers registered with the AKC in 1999 and rescue facilities filled to overflowing, we certainly can’t claim that purebreds aren’t part of the pet overpopulation now....if we ever could.

Purebreeds aren’t part of overpopulation problem

BY VIRGINIA ZURFLIEH

My husband and I have bred and shown dogs in the Tampa Bay area for over 20 years. We belong to a local all-breed kennel club and the national parent club for our breed (boxers), both of which have education committees whose job it is to keep members aware of national and local legislation that affects dogs and dog owners.

As one of the thousands of people in the United States whose hobby is the sport of dogs, I would like to respond to an Oct. 19 letter to the Tribune, in which the letter writer urges the mandatory spaying and neutering of all companion animals in Hillsborough County, including those of show breeders, as a solution to the pet overpopulation problem here.

Apparently, some county residents who are appalled by the destruction of over 35,000 companion animals per year in Hillsborough County animal shelters have concluded that no one, for any reason, should be permitted to produce more puppies or kittens until there is no longer a single unwanted animal left at the pound. To my mind, that is like forbidding responsible and caring human parents to have any more children until every "crack baby" currently being supported by county taxpayers has been placed in a loving and permanent home.

In both cases, such laws would be a gross invasion of privacy, would be totally unenforceable (thereby engendering even more contempt for the law than already exists today), and would do nothing to solve the problem of either unwanted animals or unwanted children, because the fact is that show breeders of purebred dogs and cats are not the enemy in the war against pet overpopulation in our county or nationwide.

The responsibility for the problem lies, for the most part, with the irresponsible pet owners who allow their animals to roam free and procreate with consideration either for their neighbors or for the inevitably wretched lives and deaths of the resultant puppies and kittens. And those are the sort of people who will simply ignore a mandatory spay neuter law, just as they ignore the leash-and-license laws that already exist.

Furthermore, the reason there are so many different and distinct breeds of dogs is that there are so many different kinds of people who cannot conceive of life without a canine companion, but must be sure that the adorable puppy they have adopted will grow to weigh no more than 20 pounds (condo and apartment dwellers), or has been bred to have a tolerant and easygoing temperament (parents of young children), or has inherited an alert and protective disposition (women living alone), or is a breed noted for its "easy-care" coat. And although mixed breeds can and do make wonderful pets, they are not suitable for people who need or want predictable size, appearance and temperament in a companion animal. Are the majority of Hillsborough residents willing to allow county government to decide for them what type of dog they may own, or to see their taxes raised by several million dollars to pay for the additional animal services staff and equipment it will take to try to enforce a mandatory spay-neuter law, when programs like children’s services, indigent health care, road maintenance and drainage are not adequately funded?

In an ideal world, we would have enough money to cure all of society’s ills. In financially strapped Hillsborough County, the best we can do to help solve the pet overpopulation problem is to urge our county commissioners to see that existing leash-and-license laws are strictly enforced and to insist that all pound animals be spayed or neutered before they leave county animal shelters so that they don’t add to the problem that put them there in the first place.

If our county government cannot afford to implement those two very basic methods of animal control here, then it certainly cannot afford to employ methods that would cost a great deal more, have not proved effective anywhere else, and would be totally unacceptable to the responsible pet owners and breeders of Hillsborough County.