The first phone call came a couple of years ago. A man was on the line, recalled Ellen Lavinthal, president of the rescue group Animal Alliance, and he said, "I have a litter of kittens. I need to get rid of them."
She picked up the kittens and dropped off a voucher that would allow the owner to get the mother spayed at a low cost.
Six months later, the man called back.
"He said, 'I've got another litter. Are you going to come get them?' " Lavinthal did. And she dropped off another voucher.
Last spring, he called again. Another litter. Could she take them? "I said, 'Yes, but this time I'm going to take the mama cat, too. I'll give you $50.' "
Private rescuers exhaust their resources trying to collect and place animals. "We cannot do this all," said Lavinthal, who appeared before a Los Angeles City Council committee Monday.
In the meantime, public shelters in Southern California try desperately to get animals adopted and euthanize the tens of thousands they cannot.
Shelter officials and many activists maintain that the only way to stem the tide of unwanted animals is to require people to spay and neuter their pets.
They may get as close as they've ever come to a sweeping mandate when the council today takes up a proposed ordinance that would require pet owners to spay or neuter their dogs and cats at the age of 4 months or older.
If it passes -- and it has a good chance of doing so -- the measure would make Los Angeles the largest municipality in the country with a mandatory sterilization law.
There would be numerous exceptions: police dogs, service dogs, breeders, dogs and cats on the show circuit or even aspiring to the show circuit, and animals whose veterinarians deem the procedure to be medically risky.
Enforcement would be low-key. City officials prefer to talk about educating pet owners -- passing out so-called "fix-it" tickets for violations that allow plenty of time to get the animal sterilized. "I think that's better than cold turkey and throwing a heavy fine on them," said Councilman Richard Alarcon, the sponsor of the measure.
Alarcon and Ed Boks, general manager of LA Animal Services, say enforcement will be complaint-driven. So if your unaltered animal lives quietly -- kind of like, 'don't ask; don't flaunt it' -- it's unlikely that animal control will show up at your home.
But if a neighbor calls about a noisy or aggressive dog and it happens the animal has not been sterilized, the owner should expect to receive an official notice to comply.
