Editor’s note: Animal Control may maintain that there are issues with dogs in Cypress, but so-called “dog issues” are always resultant of people issues.   Since there has been no elaboration on what those issues are, we are left to surmise that they could be anything from free-roaming dogs to gangs or drugs.   Whatever the real problems in Cypress are, you can bet they aren’t as the result of a breed of dog and so a breed-specific mandatory spay/neuter law isn’t going to fix whatever is really wrong.   [And while, according to the article excerpted below, San Bernardino County may consider the impounding of 1,700   “pit bulls” (80% of which were killed) a success story, other animal advocates, including us, do not consider the deaths of so many innocent animals a success by any stretch of the imagination.]

Ironically, even the person pushing for the mandatory spay/neuter ordinance in Cypress admits it won’t work telling The OC Register,

“I’m in favor of it, but people like that don’t abide by it,” she said of the spay-and-neuter proposal. “Once the dogs are taken from them, (owners) just get another one. It takes (authorities) forever to declare a dog as vicious.”

While she doesn’t know it, she also just made a wonderful case against breed-specific legislation of any kind because the same people who initially broke the law by allowing their dogs to free-roam, etc., typically won’t abide by additional legislation.

And though it’s unclear which breeds may be named in the possible mandatory spay/neuter ordinance, you can bet it’s going to include “pit bulls” (though again, “pit bull” is not a breed).   Please write the Cypress Mayor and City Council here and politely inform them that breed-specific legislation in any form is ineffective, unenforceable, and unconstitutional.

From The Orange County Register:

Responding to citizen complaints about pit bulls in one Cypress neighborhood, the city is considering a first-of-its-kind law, mandating spaying and neutering for specific dog breeds. If passed, the law would be the first of its kind in the county, according to OC Animal Control officials.  

Several people have voiced their concerns to the City Council over the last two meetings, prompting the council to order staff to pursue the spay-and-neuter requirement. The council did not say which breeds should be targeted in the proposed law.

San Bernardino County passed a similar ordinance earlier this year. According to county documents, that county’s animal control impounded more than 1,700 pit bulls and euthanized 80 percent of them. The law there is designed to keep the pit bull population low.

OC Animal Control Director Ryan Drabek said there have been issues involving dogs in Cypress. He declined to elaborate, saying the incidents were still under investigation…

Read this article in its entirety here.