http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726 A recent letter writer to the Californian,&nbsp;stated that she did not think that anyone in this town cared about animals due to her experiences with our Animal Control dept. and the police.&nbsp; I have to agree with her.&nbsp; Have you ever had to call Animal Control?&nbsp; More often than not, you are told to call the police.&nbsp; But when you do call them, you get the same run around.&nbsp; You are shifted from one place to another and told to call one number or another.&nbsp; My guess is they hope to wear you down.&nbsp; They hope you'll just give up and go away.&nbsp; This is the only conclusion&nbsp;I can come to.&nbsp; Have you ever tried to call the SPCA for help or information?&nbsp; Or the Cat People?&nbsp; Good luck!&nbsp; If you can ever get someone on the phone it must be a cold day in h---, well you know where.&nbsp; So, it's not suprising that people think we care nothing about animals.&nbsp; Ever since we changed the status of the Animal Control dept., things have only gotten worse.&nbsp; Now they all just spend their time passing the buck or not answering the phone.&nbsp; Another letter writer stated that she even offered the SPCA $50.00 to take her &quot;kitty cat&quot; because she had developed health issues and could no longer keep her.&nbsp; Did they show compassion?&nbsp; No, only cruelty.&nbsp; The woman tried putting an ad in the paper.&nbsp; She called everybody she could think of.&nbsp; But no compassion, only cruelty.&nbsp; No, we don't really care for our creatures who have been put here for a reason.&nbsp; And that reason is not to suffer and die of neglect or abuse.&nbsp; We are all their caretakers.&nbsp; We are their voice. A recent letter writer to the Californian,&nbsp;stated that she did not think that anyone in this town cared about animals due to her experiences with our Animal Control dept. and the police.&nbsp; I have to agree with her.&nbsp; Have you ever had to call Animal Control?&nbsp; More often than not, you are told to call the police.&nbsp; But when you do call them, you get the same run around.&nbsp; You are shifted from one place to another and told to call one number or another.&nbsp; My guess is they hope to wear you down.&nbsp; They hope you'll just give up and go away.&nbsp; This is the only conclusion&nbsp;I can come to.&nbsp; Have you ever tried to call the SPCA for help or information?&nbsp; Or the Cat People?&nbsp; Good luck!&nbsp; If you can ever get someone on the phone it must be a cold day in h---, well you know where.&nbsp; So, it's not suprising that people think we care nothing about animals.&nbsp; Ever since we changed the status of the Animal Control dept., things have only gotten worse.&nbsp; Now they all just spend their time passing the buck or not answering the phone.&nbsp; Another letter writer stated that she even offered the SPCA $50.00 to take her &quot;kitty cat&quot; because she had developed health issues and could no longer keep her.&nbsp; Did they show compassion?&nbsp; No, only cruelty.&nbsp; The woman tried putting an ad in the paper.&nbsp; She called everybody she could think of.&nbsp; But no compassion, only cruelty.&nbsp; No, we don't really care for our creatures who have been put here for a reason.&nbsp; And that reason is not to suffer and die of neglect or abuse.&nbsp; We are all their caretakers.&nbsp; We are their voice. en-us <p>I sympathize with your frustration. Surely, you know that our public services are undermanned, under equipped, and under funded. Some depend on donations and unpaid volunteer help. All are overwhelmed with a surplus pet population brought about mostly from irresponsible pet ownership. They can only work with what they have. As a concerned individual, that's all I can do. Our household pet came to us as an abandoned stray cat. She is now spayed, fed, sheltered and loved. If I could adopt several more dogs or cats, I would do it. If I could buy acreage and adopt a dozen or so, I'd do it. Yet, this would not be enough. There would still be neglected and abandoned animals.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270461 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270461 <p>I sympathize with your frustration. Surely, you know that our public services are undermanned, under equipped, and under funded. Some depend on donations and unpaid volunteer help. All are overwhelmed with a surplus pet population brought about mostly from irresponsible pet ownership. They can only work with what they have. As a concerned individual, that's all I can do. Our household pet came to us as an abandoned stray cat. She is now spayed, fed, sheltered and loved. If I could adopt several more dogs or cats, I would do it. If I could buy acreage and adopt a dozen or so, I'd do it. Yet, this would not be enough. There would still be neglected and abandoned animals.</p> <p>If the SPCA took in every animal that had a sob story attached to it, they wouldn't have enough space to house them all. It's not cruelty; it's necessity if they want to maintain a healthy, no-kill shelter. I've also had no problem getting SPCA on the phone. As I recall, many of the local animal control problems started when the government severed official ties with the SPCA and tried doing animal control itself. This bespeaks to a poorly managed and structured animal control agencies at the government level, not issues with the SPCA or other private animal organizations in town. </p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270523 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270523 <p>If the SPCA took in every animal that had a sob story attached to it, they wouldn't have enough space to house them all. It's not cruelty; it's necessity if they want to maintain a healthy, no-kill shelter. I've also had no problem getting SPCA on the phone. As I recall, many of the local animal control problems started when the government severed official ties with the SPCA and tried doing animal control itself. This bespeaks to a poorly managed and structured animal control agencies at the government level, not issues with the SPCA or other private animal organizations in town. </p> <p>Maybe the owners should have considered that before taking in the animals in the first place. You have a plan for your children if you become too sick or injured to care for them (or get killed), why not for your pets? It's not society's problem to clean up after someone's poor planning. Behind every sob story, you'll find a lack of planning to some extent on the part of the owner (who now wants to be the former owner). MSN or not, these people would still be owners who suffered from poor planning and are now in a situation they didn't plan for and they want to dump their problems on society (e.g. the shelters). </p> <p>MSN is not the magic wand for this situation, nor is having more shelter space. Neither addresses the root issue of irresponsible pet ownership via lack of planning for all the needs of the animal over the lifetime of the animal. The real solution is education and training so people know exactly what sort of committment they are getting into when they take in an animal. Such an education program could also help them to plan in advance for such situations (e.g. show them how to put animals in wills and living wills) instead of running around like Chicken Little when the situation occurs, expecting the government to solve everything. </p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270555 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270555 <p>Maybe the owners should have considered that before taking in the animals in the first place. You have a plan for your children if you become too sick or injured to care for them (or get killed), why not for your pets? It's not society's problem to clean up after someone's poor planning. Behind every sob story, you'll find a lack of planning to some extent on the part of the owner (who now wants to be the former owner). MSN or not, these people would still be owners who suffered from poor planning and are now in a situation they didn't plan for and they want to dump their problems on society (e.g. the shelters). </p> <p>MSN is not the magic wand for this situation, nor is having more shelter space. Neither addresses the root issue of irresponsible pet ownership via lack of planning for all the needs of the animal over the lifetime of the animal. The real solution is education and training so people know exactly what sort of committment they are getting into when they take in an animal. Such an education program could also help them to plan in advance for such situations (e.g. show them how to put animals in wills and living wills) instead of running around like Chicken Little when the situation occurs, expecting the government to solve everything. </p> <p>How exactly would &quot;fix your pet&quot; translate into &quot;don't dump your pet when something came up that you didn't plan for&quot;. Explain that one to me, because it doesn't make sense. Fixing your current pet only affects the offspring capacity, not your care of or level of responsibility to that pet. </p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270562 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270562 <p>How exactly would &quot;fix your pet&quot; translate into &quot;don't dump your pet when something came up that you didn't plan for&quot;. Explain that one to me, because it doesn't make sense. Fixing your current pet only affects the offspring capacity, not your care of or level of responsibility to that pet. </p> <p>Exactly what does education have to do with it?&nbsp; Does it take education to know that animals need food?&nbsp; Water?&nbsp; A place to live?&nbsp; Does it really take educating someone for them to know it is wrong to kick a duck to death?&nbsp; I'm all for possibly educating the public as to where in this God forsaken mess they can go for help, but WHERE IS THAT??????????????&nbsp; If all we are going to do is argue about whose rights are more important then I'm done with this subject and Bakersfield is really as hopeless as some people say it is.&nbsp;</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270583 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270583 <p>Exactly what does education have to do with it?&nbsp; Does it take education to know that animals need food?&nbsp; Water?&nbsp; A place to live?&nbsp; Does it really take educating someone for them to know it is wrong to kick a duck to death?&nbsp; I'm all for possibly educating the public as to where in this God forsaken mess they can go for help, but WHERE IS THAT??????????????&nbsp; If all we are going to do is argue about whose rights are more important then I'm done with this subject and Bakersfield is really as hopeless as some people say it is.&nbsp;</p> <p>So Pup, let me get your logic... a fixed animal won't be making more animals to be neglected. Yet that logic does not address the point that there would still be people with pets obtained somewhere that are not handling them responsibly. And they'd still expect to be able to just dump their problems on society unless they are taught otherwise. MSN is not a magic wand that's going to fix this responsible pet ownership problem.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270725 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_270725 <p>So Pup, let me get your logic... a fixed animal won't be making more animals to be neglected. Yet that logic does not address the point that there would still be people with pets obtained somewhere that are not handling them responsibly. And they'd still expect to be able to just dump their problems on society unless they are taught otherwise. MSN is not a magic wand that's going to fix this responsible pet ownership problem.</p> <p>Pup,</p> <p>I was talking to a co-worker the other day about the issues above and he stated that his son lives in Carpenteria.&nbsp; He said that if a person lives there and is a member of the Humane Society, then they get their pets altered for $10 or $20.&nbsp; WOW is all I can say if this is true.&nbsp; How is it that a small community like that has it more together than us?&nbsp; I also have to praise the Humane Society.&nbsp; They were the only ones to offer me any help when I was trying to get my orphaned kittens (6 lost their feral mom to poisoning) altered.&nbsp; It still cost me over $500 to alter them but I'll be damned if I'll place these kittens in homes without being altered.&nbsp; You just can't trust the irresponsible nuts in this town.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_273128 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/georgieboy/29726/#c_273128 <p>Pup,</p> <p>I was talking to a co-worker the other day about the issues above and he stated that his son lives in Carpenteria.&nbsp; He said that if a person lives there and is a member of the Humane Society, then they get their pets altered for $10 or $20.&nbsp; WOW is all I can say if this is true.&nbsp; How is it that a small community like that has it more together than us?&nbsp; I also have to praise the Humane Society.&nbsp; They were the only ones to offer me any help when I was trying to get my orphaned kittens (6 lost their feral mom to poisoning) altered.&nbsp; It still cost me over $500 to alter them but I'll be damned if I'll place these kittens in homes without being altered.&nbsp; You just can't trust the irresponsible nuts in this town.</p>