The sad truth among about pets is that there are too many dogs and cats in this country. Millions are killed every year using lethal injections and gas chambers because no one wanted them. Caught as strays, turned in by owners that no longer want them, or taken from illegal puppy mills, only a small percentage are ever given homes. I made the mistake of looking at some pictures of animals put in a gas chamber recently, and it was awful. I won’t talk about it further, you can search and find the pictures online, but it’s not for the feint of heart.
It got me thinking though about how the problem could be fixed. Many shelters and organizations require that the animals get fixed already. But people continue to buy animals from puppy mills, casual breeders, and stores. Admittedly, our own dog came from a casual breeder, but he’s also fixed. Many people keep their dogs intact with the intent of breeding them or just don’t want to pay or are too lazy. The same goes for cats, though I’d guess most aren’t planning on mating them. The reality is that either by laziness or intent to breed, these dogs and cats contribute to the overpopulation problem because they go out and hump, whether you want them to or not.
So what can be done to reduce overpopulate? Much has already been done. Crackdowns on mills and requirements of fixing to register in a county are good steps, but it’s obviously solved the problem the same way preaching abstinence in Africa has solved the AIDs problem. The problem is that most people don’t see any incentive to get their pets fixed. Let’s give them one.
Instead of paying a fee to register your animal with the county, how about the county pay you a fee? A hypothetical budget of $200k a year goes to running an animal shelter. It can cost about $100 or so to fix a dog. Cats can be done for a fraction of that. The government will eat this cost and also give you a check for $100 for getting your animal fixed. They’ll also chip your animal in case it goes missing. At that price the county could fix 1000 animals a year with the same budget. But then that leaves no money for operating a shelter. The humane society is interested in taking over shelters in some areas. Some humane societies are no kill but others do put animals to sleep. But they have advantages that animal control does not. First, they operate with volunteers, which is much cheaper to run. Second, many have networks of foster parents, which can house animals with the facilities are over capacity. Third, they can raise money much faster than a county government can while still charging adoption fees.
This same county spends about $200k a year on taking in 2800 animals, some of which are adopted out and fees are collected, but $200k in taxpayer money is spent. So my solution leaves a deficit of 1800 animals a year. It’s true the first year will be tough, but by attacking the problem at the source that mathematical deficit can be reduced over time. First of all, the incentives to get animals fixed should in theory reduce the overpopulation problem reducing the number of strays running around. Second, the animals that are fixed under this policy are chipped. If they show up at a shelter then the owner must pay $100 to get them back. If you don’t pay then you don’t get your animal back and you lose the ability to own a pet in that county for a specified period of time. This prevents low income and lazy pet owners from taking on pets they’d just release anyway. Yes this system can be gamed, but a blog isn’t the place to dive into details about hypothetical situations.
In an ideal “economist” world, this could reduce the availability of animals to adopt, raising prices for the animals that do exist. The reduces the burden on the Humane Society in terms of animal volume and expenses. People caught trying to give away or sell animals that were breed could be charged penalties that would again go towards supporting the system I’ve talked about above.
I’m mostly writing down the ideas falling out of my head, but with polish I think a system like this could work. Obviously the system in place does not work so we should give something else a try. I’ll close with two things. If you haven’t gotten your pet fixed, please do it. And even if you think my idea is stupid, consider donating time, money, or resources to your local humane society.
 By The Weakonomist |
The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice. |
