Willow Glen Resident

News

Council expected to toughen its animal care ordinance

By Eli Segall

Pets, animals and livestock are cared for by residents across San Jose. However, not every owner is responsible. If a pet owner does not provide sufficient drinking water, nutritious food or a shaded habitat, there's not much the city can do.

This may soon change. The San Jose City Council on May 1 will vote on amending the city's animal ordinance. If approved, the changes will establish a minimum standard of care for all animals, including providing pets with food and water on a daily basis and maintaining regular medical care. Other proposed changes include allowing outdoor adoption sales by animal rescue groups and holding those who've been entrusted with the care of an animal--not just pet owners--responsible for misbehaved animals.

The council vote is the culmination of almost four years of work to locate and fill what one official described as glaring holes in the city's municipal code.

"These [safeguards] don't exist," said San Jose Animal Care and Services Division deputy director Jon Cicirelli. "It's not gold-plated dog bowls we're talking about."

Humane Society Silicon Valley worked with the city to amend the 85-page code. The Santa Clara-based animal care group sees the changes as both vital to the health of local animals and long overdue.

"The current codes date back to the 1960s and 1970s," said Humane Society president Christine Benninger. "Today, animals have to be almost near death before you can cite the owner for cruelty or remove an animal from its home."

Willow Glen resident Gloria Knapel, who walks her dog two to three times per day, was surpised to learn that city laws do not enforce a minimum standard of care.

"I can't believe it," Knapel said. "I look at my pets as an extension of my family."

The subject of animal regulation is always very emotional and very controversial, Cicirelli said. One of the proposed changes has sparked an uproar. Outdoor adoption sales, while supported by the Humane Society, has been widely criticized by animal rights group Dedicated Animal Rights Educators. The San Jose-based organization has circulated a petition denouncing the clause.

"It's cruelty to animals," said the group's executive director Kathleen Flynn. Her primary concern is animals can escape from their confines and bolt into traffic, or even attack someone. "When you place animals outside in a highly excitable environment, they become terrified."

Outdoor adoption sales have been banned in San Jose since 2001. At the time, rising concerns over animal bartering and maltreatment at flea markets prompted the city to issue a blanket ban on all outdoor pet transactions.

However, in reviewing the code the past four years, Cicirelli realized there was room for exceptions to the clause. Most animal rescue groups work out of a private residence and need suitable venues, such as parks or strip malls, to show adoptable pets to the public, Cicirelli said.

For Benninger, outdoor adoptions give animals who might otherwise be euthanized a home. The Humane Society has an animal save rate of 70 percent, meaning three out of 10 animals that enter its facilities are put down, often for lack of shelter space.

If the code is changed, San Jose would become the last city in Santa Clara County to allow outdoor adoption sales, Benninger noted.

"What all of us want to do is find homes for these guys," Benninger said.