Imagine that you wake up one day to learn that the entire human population of West Virginia and Kentucky – every man, woman and child . . . 5.8 million of them – has been killed. That is about how many dogs & cats are killed in shelters in just one year for no reason other than that they are homeless. Right here in Berkeley County, the figure exceeds 1,100.

After decades of everyone associated with animal welfare engaging in a massive campaign to educate the public about the importance of spaying & neutering, the number of animals being killed in shelters nationwide is not decreasing. In our view, the voluntary spaying & neutering approach is a failure and it is time to make it law as several states have already done. We must move toward the day when killing animals is no longer used as a means of population control.

However, we disagree with the approaches these states have taken in treating violations, in essence, the same as a speeding ticket: if you violate the law, a penalty will be imposed. Our approach would allow people to avoid the penalty by presenting proof that the animal has been spayed or neutered and would also relax the rules of evidence in some instances to allow them to establish this by certification instead of having to bring a veterinarian to court to testify. The purpose is to get people to comply, not to collect fines.

In this interest, we have drafted a statutory scheme to be presented to the West Virginia Legislature in the 2007 session. Click here to review it.

When we present it, we would like to also present a list of people and organizations who endorse it. If, upon reviewing it, you wish to grant us permission to say that you have endorsed it (using only your name, organization (if any), title (if any) and city of residence), you may find the authorization form here.

We also have a print version of the form available for download if anyone wishes to gather further endorsements for us. Click here.

We urge you to pass the word along about this. We wish to gain the endorsements of local shelters, rescues, breeders, animal control officers, prosecutors, veterinarians, groomers, pet supply merchants and hundreds of ordinary citizens, businesses and agencies to demonstrate that there is wide public support for such a measure.