The fur flies over spaying proposal - A state bill to require dog and cat owners to neuter their pets rouses emotions on both sides.

SACRAMENTO — A retired game show host is vying with a famous canine film star this week over a proposal to require Californians to spay or neuter their pets, a bill that has sparked emotional debate and created the largest volume of public response of any measure in the state Legislature this year.

According to its author, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), the California Healthy Pets Act has generated debate on a level that exceeds even what he saw earlier this year on his now-shelved "Death With Dignity" assisted suicide bill.

The proposal aims to reduce the number of unclaimed cats and dogs put to death each year in California -- currently around 454,000 -- by imposing a substantial fine on pet owners unless they get their animals spayed or neutered.

The Senate Local Government Committee, which takes up the proposal Wednesday, has received nearly 20,000 letters, faxes and other communications from animal control experts and thousands of pet owners, with slightly more of them supporting the bill, said Elvia Diaz, a staffer for the panel who said she had never seen so much response to a piece of legislation.

Both sides have enlisted cultural icons for their campaigns: TV's Bob Barker made the rounds at the Capitol on Monday in favor of the bill, while opponents say they have the canine film star who played Lassie, or at least the dog's owner, Bob Weatherwax, to speak against the measure. Weatherwax and the collie, the ninth in the Lassie lineage, plan a tour of the legislative hallways today.

"I'm not an expert. I give away refrigerators," joked Barker, the recently retired host of the game show "The Price Is Right" at a news conference Monday. But "there are just too many cats and dogs being born for all of them to have homes."

Raising the noise level to an unusual pitch for a piece of legislation, opponents, calling themselves PetPac, began running television commercials in Sacramento against the bill, featuring pet owners saying the legislation is "misguided and irresponsible."

Levine said he had received hate mail. Some animal breeders have threatened to move out of the state, and one of the largest dog shows in the country is considering a boycott of California if AB 1634 becomes law.

But Levine noted that the legislation would allow breeders to get permits exempting their animals from its requirements.