Spay Neuter

Our friend Dutch Salmon has allowed me to post this urgent op- ed piece from the Las Cruces Sun News here in its entirety. Take it away, Dutch.

Spay/Neuter Bill is Anti-Hunting Law

By

Dutch Salmon


A bill in the State Legislature relating to the spaying and neutering of pets would seem to be something we could all support. However, the current model contains enough mischief that it qualifies as a genuine menace, especially to those of us with hunting dogs.
House Bill 1106 (HB-1106), sponsored by Rep. Joni Gutierrez of Dona Ana County, has the dubious distinction of being authoritarian, wrong-headed, and discriminatory all in one package. It is authoritarian in that instead of seeking to help those who wish to spay or neuter their pets, it requires the neutering of virtually all pets statewide, regardless of the quality of the animals or the wishes of their owners. It then offers exemptions to the requirement to spay/neuter, exceptions both poorly reasoned and discriminatory.
For example, exempted from the spay/neuter requirement are “purebred” dogs registered with a national dog registry, like the AKC. This is nonsense. Congenital health problems are rife in many AKC breeds, due to excessive in-breeding and emphasis on show standards, and most working dog owners avoid these animals like the plague. Street-wise “Rover,” lacking “papers,” is often the smarter and healthier animal; all he needs is a home. Why force Rover’s owner to put his dog, and not one with “papers,” under the knife?
Also exempted are certain working dogs including stock dogs, police dogs, and, as an apparent sop to hunters, the dogs of registered outfitters. From the New Mexico Dept. of Game & Fish I learned there are a mere 280 registered outfitters in the state, a portion of whom have dogs. Yet there are about 106,000 licensed hunters in the state, plus an unknown number of unlicensed hunters who hunt animals where no license is required (e.g., jackrabbit and coyote hunting). Many of these hunters use dogs but their much more numerous animals do not come under the “working dog” exemption in this bill.
Thus if your Brittany spaniel is brilliant at finding and pointing quail, but unregistered, expect HB-1106 to force him under the knife, his progeny and talents lost forever once age takes him away. No exemption for him; it’s in the law!
HB-1106 was inspired, and takes language from, the animal rights (AR) agenda, not from people who know the history and worth of dogs where virtually all the strains and types began with a useful purpose.
Consider Steve Bodio of Magdalena whose book Querencia is one of the finest in the pantheon of New Mexico literature. He made several expensive and arduous trips to Kazakhstan, a remote southern province of Russia, to do another book, Eagle Dreams, on the tough local populace that still train golden eagles to take fox and hare and antelope. There he also discovered the Tazi, an eastern variation of the Saluki, dogs as swift and tough as the huge wild raptors and used on the same game. There was no canine equivalent to the Tazi in America, as they had come down through the millennia uncorrupted by registries or dogs shows but rather self-selected solely by work.
After several journeys and incredible red tape Steve was able to import three Tazi hounds and prepared to start a line of singular running dogs, equal to the task on New Mexico’s own super-swift and ubiquitous blacktail jackrabbit. These breeding programs are life-long quests to the devoted but Steve’s efforts will be truncated as soon as HB-1106 becomes law for his Tazis lack “papers” and do not come under the bill’s exemption of “working dogs.” The AR industry likes it that way.
Or consider my own current pride and joy, Angie. Under HB-1106 Angie would have never been born. Her mother, Phoebe, is a greyhound of the Cunningham strain, unregistered running dogs developed by a ranch family of that name in eastern New Mexico. Her sire, Snake, was a greyhound/Saluki cross. It is said that 7 jackrabbits eat as much grass as a sheep. Too many jackrabbits is not good, every predator tries to eat them, yet they are anything but scarce. By my experience they are nearly impossible to catch, even with a trio of hounds. But we try. As the Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gassett wrote: “The only natural response to a creature that lives its life attempting to avoid capture, is to chase it.”
Angie was a revelation for, on occasion, she could catch a jackrabbit by herself! I have a recipe for jackrabbit posole and between me and the dogs nothing goes to waste. Angie also stands on her hind legs each morning, looks me in the eye, and licks my face. For me, more than 30 years of sighthound breeding have come to fruition. But Angie is far from “exempt” under HB-1106 and due to go under the knife. If so, there will never, ever, be anything like her again.
What to do? First, we should take HB-1106 out behind the barn and pound it down a badger hole where it belongs. Next we should take the $1 million per year consigned to the bill and contribute it to spay/neuter clinics and shelters to help those who wish to sterilize do so, and make those dogs put up for adoption (they should indeed be sterilized) more affordable. I have adopted out countless strays myself, many being rescue greyhounds, and never had to put one down for the simple reason I don’t charge for the dog.
But act quickly. HB-1106 is due to come before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday February 21st. Rep. Gutierrez and the other committee members have numbers and email on line. All are well meaning individuals I’m sure and are open to public input. Indeed, I will concede that HB-1106 is no doubt well intended by most of its sponsors; it simply misses the mark.
There is a difference between animal welfare, which fosters concern and care for our animals, and animal rights, which fosters misunderstanding and coercion against any animal ownership or use. Angie is a wonder and, as a breeder, I take a measure of pride in her creation. She and her possible progeny still have a great future, but not if against her own protest and mine she is forced under the knife by State coercion and has her uterus yanked out like a bad tooth.