House Bill 1185 would require animals adopted from shelters and other rescue facilities to be sterilized, either before adoption, or after, through a deposit and certification system.
There are exemptions for cases in which the spay or neuter surgery would endanger the health or life of the animal. The bill’s provisions would not apply to pet owners who are reclaiming their unaltered dogs or cats from a shelter.
  
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The Montrose Animal Shelter already requires pets adopted from it to be sterilized, Animal Services Supervisor Mike Duncan said Thursday.
“We proposed to our city council about two years ago that the city increase our fees and include sterilization as part of that fee,” he said. “Every animal adopted is sterilized. Fortunately, this time, we’re ahead of the game.”
The shelter allows those who adopt pets to take the animal to whatever veterinarian they prefer.
The bill, if passed, allows for cats and dogs to be sterilized before adoption, or alternately, people can leave a deposit and have the procedure done after taking ownership of an animal. They have to provide proof of surgery within 60 days of the adoption and if they do not, the deposit will be forfeited to the Colorado Pet Overpopulation Fund.
Duncan said the bill was a good idea and could benefit other jurisdictions. “I think it’s a good bill and it will have a favorable impact on the rest of the state,” he said.
He did worry that smaller agencies might not have the funding to sterilize animals and said such facilities might have to look at increasing the fees charged for adoption.
But for Montrose, fears that increased fees would discourage adoptions did not bear out. “We wondered when we proposed that (increase),” Duncan said. “But the veterinarians have been very cooperative. They offer us reduced rates. They pitched in as well. We have not seen a decline. We’ve had an increase in adoption rates.”
The mandatory spay-or-neuter provisions in the animal shelter’s rules work better than other options tried, he added. “We used to offer a rebate to people that adopted from us. We didn’t have near the success rate with spay/neuter as we do with (having) it mandatory.”
The Montrose Animal Protection Agency also encourages the spaying and neutering of pets. A representative could not be immediately reached for comment on the pending legislation.
Duncan also said the enforcement elements of HB 1185 could prove “tricky.”
“It will put the burden on the agencies, whether municipal, county or private, to try to follow up on that. I would imagine there would have to be an ordinance passed that would parallel so that it could be enforced.”
One provision in the bill gives the adopting agency power to “reclaim the animal from the prospective owner.”
Duncan said it would be difficult for most agencies to do that just because a new pet owner did not follow through with getting the cat or dog sterilized. At the Montrose shelter, the adoption contract explicitly states adoptions are final, he said.
“That not only protects us; it protects the owner.”
Duncan added that on the whole, spaying and neutering was critical to reducing the numbers of unwanted pets. Fewer such animals, he said, ultimately leads to less euthanasia at the shelter.
The Montrose Animal Shelter had to euthanize 1,026 animals in 2006 — 784 of which were feral cats and 234 of which were dogs. In 2007, it euthanized 932 cats and 211 dogs.
Duncan said the facility is now tracking the reasons for euthanasia (feral, space issues, illnesses, etc.) and these statistics are forthcoming.
The facility began participating in a relocation program last year that ships cats and dogs from Montrose to facilities sin need of adoptable animals.
It recently contracted with the Pet Wagon in Boulder, which has agreed to take 15 dogs per month.
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