PUBLICATIONS Material on this page © The Animal Council 2006 - 2016
NOTE: No legal challenges to the San Mateo County Pet Overpopulation (POP) ordinance or versions later enacted by a
minority of cities were ever filed by any party. 9/30/2016
Perspectives on Legislative Approaches to Animal Control:
In October 1990, the San Mateo County, California "breeding moratorium" ordinance hit the news media with video of
euthanasia and barrels of dead animals. The first hearing before the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors was held
at Peninsula Humane Society on Tuesday, November 11, 1990. We were there as we were at every meeting of the Task
Force appointed the following year that struggled to produce a compromise to the original ordinance. The forced
consensus process prevented defeat of the ordinance. The much watered down and poorly understood ordinance has
been cited and copied over the years without understanding the background or the role of the ancillary programs, both
those recommended and those initially rejected but later implemented. Originally published in 1992 as a spiral-bound
book, this was initially distributed to over 250 selected individual policy makers, journalists and organization
representatives.
San Mateo Council Animal Control Ordinance with Summary and Critique
Summary and Critique
San Mateo County Original Pet Overpopulation Documents, December 1991 Corrected 1/13/07 (missing p 3-4)
Selected articles of Issues of Animal Welfare vs. Animal Rights
Selected Articles
The San Mateo County Community Animal Task Force Minority and Consensus Reports
Task Force Minority Report, I. Introduction
Task Force Minority Report, II. The Case Against Mandatory Neuter and Spay
Task Force Minority Report, III. Comments and Objections to Proposed Ordinance
Task Force Minority Report, IV. Comments and Objections to the Majority Report
Task Force Minority Report, V. The Minority Report Alternatives to the Proposed Ordinance
Task Force Minority Report, VI. Conclusion
Addenda: RATIONAL SOLUTIONS to the Population Control of Dogs and Cats. Hand & Partanen
Appendix: Recommendations
Technical Committee Proposals
Community Animal Control Task Force
Peninsula Humane Society Animal Count Fiscal Year '89-'90
Community Animal Task Force: Consensus Report, October 4, 1991
A Citizens' Evaluation Report on How the San Mateo Community Animal Task Force
was Conducted
October 15, 1991
Report Card on the San Mateo Pet Population Control Ordinance, 1992 NEW 6/30/07
This Report Card and supporting documents were prepared by individual Directors of The Animal Council for
presentation to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors as a comparative evaluation of the early phase of POP:
Report Card: Reducing Euthansia, Dog Licensing, Breeders Licensing, Cat Licensing, Human Population
Dogs & Cats Handled - San Mateo County Historic to 1992
Euthanasia & Adoptions - San Mateo County Prior Year Compared to 1992
San Mateo County Unincorporated Lands Map
San Mateo County Animal Control Statistics (original documents) 1989-1992
1994 The Animal Council opposition to CA A.B. 302 included distribution to California
legislators of source documents on the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1992 (P.
L. 102-346). This project was made possible by a matching grant from the Sy Howard Legislative Fund of the Cat
Fanciers' Association and included the following materials:
The Animal Council Cover Letter, January 6, 1994 to CA Assembly Committee on Local Government Chair
Department of Justice Letter, September 2, 1993 to The Honorable Al Gore, President of the Senate
Report to Congress on the Extent and Effects of Domestic and International Terrorism on Animal Enterprises,
Revised October 1993. 2.3 MB NEW 3/28/2012
San Mateo Pet Overpopulation Ordinance Evaluation, 1995
In 1995, The Animal Council published an analysis of the San Mateo County Pet Overpopulation Ordinance as enacted in
1991, implemented in 1992 and amended in 1995. This paper includes historic shelter data and responses to specific
questions from the County.
San Mateo County POP 1995
UNPUBLISHED SAN MATEO COUNTY DATA
San Mateo County responses to the same questions as above report for 1995 and 1996.
Note, county wide dog licensing FY 1998-99 was 36,023, down from 48,683 in the first
full year of POP implementation, 1992-93, a decline of 26%
San Mateo County 1992, 1993.
San Mateo County 1995, 1996
San Mateo County Incoming & Disposition, 1995; Animal Counts, 1995, 1996
San Mateo County responses to above questions, 1997, 1998, 1999
San Mateo County 97 98 99
Remembering Vicki Hearne, September 4, 2001
SPAY/NEUTER ON RELEASE Impacts shelter-owned and privately owned animals differently, and these should
be considered as entirely separate issues. The overall rationale for mandated s/n on release is to reduce the number of intact
animals of subsets at higher risk for unintended breeding. Shelter adoptions typically involve animals of lesser quality or
unknown origin that, even under strict contracts, are at greater risk for shelter re- entry than animals from most other sources.
Thus, "shelter sterilization" laws, both state and local, have been widely accepted. When applied to release to owners, whether
within or after holding periods, these laws are punitive so that the punitive impact must be balanced against the owner and
specific animal risk of re-offending related to its unaltered state and the due process and property interests of owners, both
residents and non-residents of a jurisdiction.
Cover letter for New Jersey Assemblymember Linda Greenstein's AB 3219, 2005
TAC's Comment Submission on NJ AB 3219, January 24, 2005
Assemblymember Greenstein has re-introduced on January 10, 2006 the same bill as AB 1827 (Senate companion
bill is 1026). http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Comment to Proposed rules, Chapter 91. DOG OR CAT
BREEDERS PROGRAM, February 17, 2012, issue of incenting and fostering systematic vigilantism in respect to
unlicensed activity. NEW 2/17/12