Animal control, but then again, its Kern county, far from a perfect world, it's an island on another planet...Amen. Owning an animal should be a privilege not a right. Compare it to owning an automobile or the consequences of child abuse. An animal is both a companion and property. We are both the owners’ and the guardians’ of these precious souls. That goes for all animals….but concentrating on Dogs and Cats; I offer the following ideas, opinions, solutions and roadblocks to those solutions. 1. Mandatory spay and neuter by the age of 6 months or before first heat. Expectations: • Professional, licensed breeders. • Show animals. • Certain breed types slow to mature; give them more time. 2. Mandatory licensing both of dogs and cats. Photo ID with license for reference to animal. No Exceptions: If you cannot afford to license, then you cannot afford to care for the animal. 3. Mandatory vaccinations, kept current each year. All of them not just rabies. No Exceptions: If you cannot afford to vaccinate, you cannot afford to care for the animal. 4. Mandatory micro chipping. No Exceptions: This would solve a lot of problems right here. • Links the animal to the owner for safe return. • Ties the owner to the legal / financial responsibility of the animal and its actions, i.e. animal bites someone or causes a traffic accident. • If a licensed / micro-chipped animal is picked up more than twice, the owner is fined or the animal is declared abandoned and put up for adoption at the owner’s expense. 5. Vets should be mandated reporters of animal abuse and animal hording. 6. Police officers should be mandated reporters of animal abuse and animal hording when they observe it in the field. They see more than most of us but probably don’t take much action in this area of enforcement or even report to animal control. 7. Vets should be required, under their state licensing, to donate XX amount of hours, supplies, medicine, vaccines, expense per year. This should only be extended to the elderly on a fixed income, service & companion animals to the physically or mentally disabled. I imagine this could be considered a tax deduction for the Vets. (OK, maybe not under the Obama administration.) 8. Limit of three (3) dogs and three (3) cats to one single-family residence. No Exceptions. No animal hording !! 9. Professional Breeders should be licensed, regulated and inspected. • Licensed by the city. • Regulated by the state. • Inspected by a Veterinarian, once a year to keep the license. 10. Pet stores selling dogs and cats: • Must have paper trail as to where they obtained the animals, to stop breeding mills and casual backyard breeders. Money would seem to be the biggest problem here, but even if the people had the money and or the city / county had the money to fund much of this, one of the problems would be the willingness of the general population of Kern County to cooperate. Our streets are littered with lost, abandoned, sick and frightened animals. It’s just too horribly obvious that the general population of Kern County has a high level of apathy and cruelty towards animals. They must be made to comply with laws and regulations, and there has to be enforcement. Consistent enforcement. It’s not really animal control, it’s “people” control, but those people, many of them, VOTE. And herein lies the biggest roadblock to solving these problems. The reluctance of politicians to pass and enforce these urgency needed laws and regulations, for fear of losing votes. The local politicians know the mentality and educational level of their constituents. For example, Councilman Couch bravely tried passing a resolution a couple of years ago, to declare English as our official language, and for Bakersfield not to be a sanctuary city for illegal aliens, etc. I’m sure most of the City Council, in their hearts, agreed with him and the resolution, but voted it down. Why? Voters. And so it goes with Animal control issues. Let me put it this way by quoting Thomas Paine. …..‘Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe. It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.’ ….. I feel, that all the money in the world won’t fix this problem, unless the law makers and local officials are willing to pass and enforce these much needed regulations. And while many animals are injured, suffer and die on the streets and in the Pounds, people are also injured and die, every year, in traffic accidents caused when they try to avoid a stray on the road. No one goes unaffected. NO ONE.