Snowball’s eyes seem entirely too large for her fluffy white face. And, if you look closely at her photo on the Los Angeles Animal Services’ website, her belly seems too large for her fluffy white body as well.
This damsel-in-distress was in a family way when she arrived at the South Los Angeles Animal Care and Control Center on Jan. 5 and was assigned Animal ID No. A1832899. Snowball appears to be a poodle-Bichon mix, weighing 19 pounds, including those four or so gestating pups. She is about 7 years old and has dental disease to boot.
Her plight was discovered by activists who devotedly scour Southern California animal shelter websites, ready and eager to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome the animals who land there. Several volunteers contacted the shelter, offering to “pull” Snowball, as the rescue lingo goes.
But Snowball could not be released until she was spayed, they were told. All animals must be spayed or neutered before they’re released from the shelter, they were told. And so Snowball’s operation was slated for Thursday, Jan. 10, they were told.
‘Barbaric decision’
The reaction was one of abject horror.
“Reconsider the barbaric decision to abort the unborn puppies of this adult dog!” wrote Kimberley Sampson in one of apparently hundreds of emails flooding the inbox of Brenda F. Barnette, general manager of LA Animal Services, and shared with media outlets.
“People who put dogs in rings and/or cause the death or abuse their animals are charged with criminal offenses,” wrote Stacy Massey. “This termination is truly criminal. Dogs grieve, just like humans do, and if you think that ripping this mother’s litter from her womb is a logical choice, then please turn in your license since you should not be in operation.”
Massey created a “Save Snowball” Facebook group. Scores of people joined. Phone calls and emails poured into city offices.
Operation called off
The pressure campaign worked. Rather than undergoing the knife in the operating room, the dog was released to “a private partner who has the ability to provide 24/7 medical care for Snowball and her pups,” said Barnette, general manager of LA Animal Services, in an email. “In this case, we have agreed that Snowball needs quiet time until her pups are born and thriving.”
Hopefully, Barnette said, Snowball will give birth to healthy pups and will be able to care for them. “She will be given all of the medical care and nurture she needs,” Barnette said.
Neither Snowball nor her offspring will be available for adoption until at least eight weeks after the pups are born and have all be spayed or neutered, Barnette said.
Policy still in place
It seems like a happy ending, but Snowball’s plight highlights a much larger conundrum that animal shelters — which aspire to be “no-kill” — must grapple with: What to do with unwanted animals who wind up at the shelter, pregnant?
Is it wise to allow them to deliver, thus increasing the already too-large population of unwanted animals?
In July 2013, Barnette asked the Los Angeles Board of Animal Services Commissioners to eliminate the policy that all dogs — including those in late-term pregnancy — must be spayed before they are released.
“The spaying of late-term pregnant dogs results in puppies being born by the equivalent of a C-section,” Barnette wrote. “They are able to survive on their own, but these puppies are immediately put to death in our shelters.
“Some agencies restrict spaying pregnant dogs to those who have not reached the third trimester. Sterilization of pregnant dogs during the third trimester can create additional surgical risks for the dog.
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Barnette asked the commission to prohibit third-trimester spaying if a foster home is available. Such a move could actually help the shelters financially, she wrote: “Fostering puppies until they are eight weeks old, and returning them to Animal Services to be adopted out, represents additional revenue opportunities through adoptions to the public or through pet shops.”
There was opposition, however. Some said that would only add to animal over-population. Others were concerned about the wisest use of resources in the quest to become a no-kill city.
The Board of Animal Services Commissioners rejected the request.
It will get another airing, though, when Barnette resurrects the proposal to stop spaying dogs in their third trimester of pregnancy at the next commission meeting, at 10 a.m. Jan. 22 in City Hall Room 1060.
A legion of animal lovers plans to urge commissioners to do just that — with Snowball, and perhaps even her pups, as Exhibit A.
“A reasonable proposal would be to ask them to medically alert and release any pregnant dog — whether or not other medical conditions exist — at any stage of pregnancy to approved New Hope partners,” said Melissa Drobis, referencing the shelter rescue groups. “I suspect we will have one shot at getting their attention so must not blow it.”
