Schwarzenegger's Fido Flip-Flop

Dear Dog Lady,

I recently read that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is cutting back funds for animal shelters, forcing the shelters to kill animals immediately. The guy must be more of a meathead than I thought. How could he do this?

Grace, Seattle, WA

Grace, there's been a stay of grace. Dog Lady is happy to report Schwarzenegger thought better of his bone-headed (or meat-headed) idea.

Hasta la vista, doggy. Such would have been the cry from California if the muscle-bound governor hadn't flip-flopped over his proposal to take money away from animal shelters.

So far, Schwarzenegger has surprised his critics by showing remarkable political savvy in his first year in office. Yet, the governor stumbled with a recent bid to save the Golden State $14 million a year in animal shelter costs by killing abandoned critters instead of rescuing them. The day after the governor's office announced the Draconian budget measure, they took it back under wilting pressure from pet hounds.

Schwarzenegger originally called for cutting the time allowed for adopting stray dogs and cats from six days to 72 hours. If a homeless dog or cat were not adopted after three days – even if the shelter is closed over a weekend – the animal would be killed. Other abandoned animals such as gerbils, hamsters, and pot-bellied pigs would be sent to the gas chamber immediately, with no 72-hour reprieve.

Dog Lady tries to stay above the political fray. Let’s just label her a resolute pet partisan. She eats meat occasionally and would wear a tasteful fur. She is neither a PETA radical, nor a weirdo hoarder with ill-kempt animals running all over a smelly house. But Dog Lady can't resist the opportunity to chide Gov. Schwarzenegger for his original instinct to dismantle California’s policy of sheltering dogs, cats, and other creatures great and small. What was Ah-nuld thinking?

Granted, the problem of abandoned dogs has become overwhelming. There are too many orphaned animals and not enough homes for them. Educating the public about humane "spay/neuter" responsibility makes more sense than slaughtering the innocents. Giving adoptable dogs a chance to make humans happy is an enlightened approach. A state policy of instantly killing animals is barbaric not only for the Left Coast, but for all society.

In California, San Francisco is the capital of Dog Lovers USA, with more dog parks than any other city in the nation. In Los Angeles, the seat of Arnold’s power and money, glitterati carry their dogs close to their hearts like fuzzy Oscars. The governor risked alienating these prosperous constituencies.

Until now, Schwarzenegger hasn’t come up against the wrath of the dog PAC. Politicians have learned over the years that unless they can spout support for animal issues, they should say nothing at all because animal activists can be fierce in their protest. The Humane Society and ASPCA are two animal lobbies that are extraordinarily well-funded by private contributions.

Dog Lady has been bombarded by emails about this. One missive includes a link to Schwarzenegger’s office -- http://www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov_homepage.jsp Here's the governor's quote from the site: “I just wanted to tell you that I reinstated the six day waiting period for the lost animals. Animals will be kept in the shelters for six days and so everything will stay exactly the same. We are not going to take anything away from the shelters."

Or else the governor will hear a familiar refrain from animal activists: "We'll be baaaack."

Posted by Dog Lady at June 25, 2004 08:18 PM