Pet lovers barking over California budget proposal

LOS ANGELES — Pet advocates are fighting like cats and dogs to stop a deficit-slashing proposal from Gov. Jerry Brown that aims to save $23 million by ending reimbursements to animal shelters for the cost of keeping strays alive.

Brown wants to repeal parts of Hayden's Law that require the state to pay for such expenses as food, vet care and kitty litter and requires shelters to hold lost and stray animals for six days instead of three.

Pet advocates say the change will pitch the state back to the dark ages when a wandering dog caught Friday could be dead Monday.

"Animals should not have to die to clean up California's mess," former state Sen. Tom Hayden, who sponsored the bill, said in a video posted on YouTube.

Proposed budget cuts always bring out the fight in people who want to protect their pet causes. But when it comes to actual pets, the battle has become so personal for opponents of Brown's plan that they're even targeting the first pooch. A public Facebook page called Sutter's Friends, named after the governor's dog, offers information on how to help.

The animal shelter cuts are part of Brown's proposed $92.5 billion budget that would eliminate 50 mandates or reimbursable amendments that have been suspended for the last two years or more, said H.D. Palmer, deputy director of California's Department of Finance. The savings would put a $728.8 million dent in a $9.2 billion deficit.

Over the years, 377 cities, counties, towns or animal control districts have been reimbursed $86 million and the state still owes $76 million, state officials said. Los Angeles has sought the most: more than $10 million; Contra Costa County was No. 2 with claims over $6 million.

Thousands of pet owners and animal welfare groups across the country have lined up to fight the repeal, saying it would lead to countless deaths — not just canine and felines.

The law also requires shelters to hold rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, pot-bellied pigs, birds, lizards, snakes, tortoises and turtles for three days. Without the mandate, they could be killed immediately.

"It would also degrade shelter operations, as well as morale and ultimately the character of shelter workers, by altering the mandated focus of animal control agencies from lifesaving back to the failed catch-and-kill orientation of the bad old days," said Best Friends Animal Society co-founder Francis Battista.