Megan Brennan is an 18 year old freshman at St. John’s University in New York City. She lives with her parents on Staten Island, one of the NYC boroughs. Megan’s older sister has a dog, a female West Highland Terrier named Didi, that Megan is crazy about. She likes it so much that she wanted one just like it. She and her sister thought it would be good if Megan got a male Westie so they could mate them and have puppies. This past Christmas, Megan’s mother bought a male Westie puppy and gave it to Megan as a gift.

In May, Megan was studying for exams and, since it was a nice day, she thought Angelo, as the puppy had been named, would enjoy spending some time outside. She tied him out on the porch and left him with a chewy while she went inside to study. When she checked on him awhile later, he was gone. He had slipped the collar over his head and gone exploring. She set out to find him but he was nowhere to be found. As it turned out a man had seen him in a local park and taken him to a shelter, the Center for Animal Care and Control. Megan checked at C.A.C.C. and found Angelo there, along with some shocking news.

A city law had been passed in November 2000 required that any dog turned in to a shelter could not leave the shelter until it had been spayed or neutered, even when it is returned to the owner. The law only allows two exceptions, for purebred show dogs and dogs too sick to undergo surgery. Megan argued that Angelo is her dog and she wanted him back the way he came in, but the shelter refused.

Marilyn Haggerty-Biohm is executive director of the shelter, and in her opinion, Angelo’s pedigree does not guarantee that he will sire healthy pups, and altering a dog is the best way to ensure its long-term health and happiness. In her words, “Those dogs that don’t have a proven success in the show ring, quite frankly, we don’t need their genes in the gene pool”, adding that “It’s better that he be neutered”.

Megan is an 18 year old kid getting ready for her freshman finals, not someone ready to take on the system. Reluctantly she agreed to have Angelo neutered, which she also had to pay for. And Haggerty-Biohm had a final thought, stating “People can’t believe the change in their pets after they have been altered”. Especially if they were planning to breed them.

 

O.K. You probably have a hunch about which we are leaning on this matter, but that is not important. We are more interested in what you think about this story. We hope to hear from quite a few of you with your thoughts, and we will post them.

 

• Should only show dogs be allowed to breed?
• Is spaying and neutering so important that the government should be able to force you to do it?
• Is a dog a person’s property, and should the government be able to destroy its value?
• Was Megan an irresponsible pet owner because Angelo got away?
• Should people who breed animals in order to sell the offspring be required to obtain a business license and pay taxes on the proceeds?

 

These are just a few starter questions. We want to hear what you think about this story and the issues it raises. We will post all intelligent responses in the letters section.

You can e-mail your opinion to us at critterchatter@mindspring.com.