Bounding out the doors of the Animal Birth Control Clinic on Friday, Luke the Blue Lacy dog wasn’t letting a plastic head cone and the loss of a prized part of his anatomy slow him down.

Owner Elaine Harper, holding on to Luke’s choke collar for dear life as he sniffed and frolicked, said she got the young dog neutered this week for behavioral reasons, not because of the city of Waco’s year-old spay-neuter law.

“I didn’t know about it,” she said, with a wary eye on Luke. “I just thought getting him fixed might settle him down.”

Veterinarian Whitney Pagel performs a sterilization procedure on a dog at the Animal Birth Control Clinic in Waco on Friday.
Duane A. Laverty / Waco Tribune-Herald, file

Still, Harper said the city’s policy — get your dog or cat fixed or pay $35 a year for an “intact animal permit” — makes sense for reducing the population of strays.

“It seems if people don’t have rules, they’re like kids: They just go crazy,” she said.

But the city of Waco lacks data to show whether the controversial “spay or pay” ordinance is succeeding at reducing the population of unwanted animals. The ordinance took effect in January 2011 and has been officially enforced since June.

Only 77 intact animal permits have been issued since January 2011, according to the Humane Society of Central Texas.

The police department’s animal control division could not provide a breakdown of how many warnings and citations it has issued related to the ordinance.

Animal control officials said they only enforce the ordinance when encountering animals on calls for service or when owners are fined for stray animals.

“We’re a little lenient, but we still have to enforce it,” animal control supervisor Joel Sanchez said. “We give a written warning and tell them to make arrangements to have the animal spayed or neutered.”

He said he thinks the ordinance has helped with Waco’s stray and unwanted animal problem.

“I like to think we are (better off),” he said. “But without keeping specific statistics, it’s hard to say.”

Councilwoman Toni Herbert voted for the ordinance, but she said it may be time to revise it or at least improve the way the permit requirement is enforced and publicized. She said she even might support mandatory licensing for all pets.

“What we’re talking about is too nebulous,” she said. “People don’t understand why they should do it, and they can get away without doing it. . . . I’m actually surprised that 77 people have gotten permits.”

Carrie Kuehl, director of the Animal Birth Control Clinic, said the real goal of the ordinance was to encourage sterilization and reduce unwanted births, not to sell permits. She said the community seems to be heading in the right direction, with lower numbers at the animal shelter and more at the clinic.

The Animal Birth Control Clinic, which provides veterinary services at reduced cost or free to owners, depending on income, saw its sterilizations increase from 7,139 in 2010 to 8,087 in 2011.

Kuehl said the clinic has been in a growth mode for several years, so the increase can’t be clearly attributed to the ordinance. But she said that in early summer, clinic workers started seeing owners who mentioned the ordinance as a reason for neutering their pets.

“The ordintance has encouraged a demographic that was riding the fence on having their pet spayed or neutered,” she said.

Melissa Torres is among those influenced by the ordinance. She was at the clinic Friday getting vaccinations for her Rottweiler, Zoe; and her dachshund, Max. Both dogs got their operations last year after the ordinance was announced.

“That’s why we did it,” Torres said. “We’ve had some dogs before that we didn’t get fixed.”

Meanwhile, the Humane Society of Central Texas shelter on Circle Road has seen a three-year decline in impounded animals, though any correlation with the ordinance is hard to prove, interim director Gina Ford said.

The shelter took in about 12,000 animals in fiscal year 2009, 11,099 in 2010 and 9,869 in 2011, she said.

Ford supports the ordinance, but said it would be more effective if more people knew about it and knew they could face stiff penalties for not complying. She said the city needs to hire more animal control officers and advertise the ordinance.

“It’s just not getting enforced,” she said. “Money talks.”

Ford said the shelter, which runs on a contract from Waco and other cities, isn’t authorized to enforce the spay-or-pay ordinance, but provides information on it to residents who reclaim their animals.

Under city ordinance, an animal that has been picked up three times must be altered before it is returned to its owner, but such cases are rare, Ford said.

The city also refunds half its $50 impound fee if the owner of a reclaimed pet gets it neutered within 30 days.

Sanchez, the animal control supervisor, said his officers do follow up with owners of reclaimed animals to ensure that they either get the permit or the sterilization for the animal.

Need for more data

Malcolm Duncan Jr., Waco City Council’s liaison on animal issues, said he would like better data to gauge the success of the ordinance, including animal control statistics and possibly a survey of Animal Birth Control clients.

“I don’t have an idea of how effective it is, but it’s time to get some more information,” he said.

Duncan said the community appears to be gaining ground in reducing the unwanted animal population through sterilization, but he sees a need for more public awareness of the issue.

“There’s always a need for communication,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve been especially proactive about that.”

David Boehner, a Centex Kennel Club member who was among the ordinance’s vocal opponents, said it hasn’t been effective in targeting irresponsible pet owners.

“We tried to tell the council there is no way to enforce this,” he said. “There’s hardly going to be a way to measure it, and they didn’t add any additional enforcement or resources.”

Boehner, who raises and breeds wire-haired pointing Griffons at his home in Hidden Valley, said he hasn’t gotten an intact animal permit, but he doesn’t intend to let his dogs get loose.

“If my dogs get out and get caught, I realize I would be liable for them and would have to pay a fine,” he said.

Boehner said he has sold 25 puppies from his breeding dogs, none of them in Waco.

He requires buyers to pledge to sterilize their dogs unless they are meant for breeding or showing.

Boehner said he and other breeders who opposed the ordinance are in favor of efforts to get animals sterilized, but he thinks incentives would work better than mandates.

“We’ve got to encourage people to get their dogs spayed or neutered for free, whether that’s paid for by private or tax money,” he said. “We’ve got to educate people about the need to do this.”

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