Priceless Memories - Bob Barker [82]
People love their own cats and dogs, but when it comes to awareness, most people just have no conception of the animal cruelty problems that exist in this country. That is what I and many other passionately committed people in various organizations are working toward: increasing awareness. Increased awareness leads to increased activism, and increased activism leads to discussion and behavior changes and ultimately to new laws and more stringent enforcement of the laws already on the books.
While I have become involved in all kinds of animal rights causes, the spay/neuter issue is my main advocacy project. In memory of my wife Dorothy Jo and my mother Matilda (Tilly), who were both devoted animal lovers, I established the DJ&T Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that subsidizes low-cost spay/neuter clinics and voucher programs throughout the country. It was established in 1994, and since then, the DJ&T Foundation has contributed millions of dollars to fund clinics and programs which provide spay/neuter services. The DJ&T Foundation offers grants to organizations across the country that meet the foundation’s criteria.
If being on television all these years has helped to make it possible for me to reach people with an important message about animals, then by all means I am going to use that visibility and opportunity. When I received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Daytime Television, I closed my remarks by saying, “Have your pets spayed or neutered.” When I was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, I said I supposed that I was expected to say something profound and I would. I said, “Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.” At Drury University, I received an honorary doctorate, and I was privileged to give the commencement address. I closed that speech by advising the graduates to “help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.” Of course, I got a laugh. But better still, I made a point.
Activists across the country are working on new legislation in support of mandatory spay/neuter programs. Some states have already passed such laws, and others provide funding for people to get their pets spayed or neutered when they don’t have money for the surgery. Mandatory spaying or neutering is gaining more and more momentum, and where laws have been implemented, the results are very encouraging. In Santa Cruz County, here in California, for instance, a mandatory spay/neuter program was implemented. In ten years, while the human population in Santa Cruz County increased by 15 percent, the number of animals—cats and dogs—turned in at shelters decreased 60 percent. That is very impressive.
Spaying and neutering is so obviously the solution to the tragic overpopulation problem that one would just instinctively believe that we would not run into opposition. Everyone loves animals, right? But believe me, there are powerful lobbies, groups, and industries that have launched serious opposition to the animal rights causes in which I have become involved. If you trace the opposition through all the little channels, eventually you find it is always based on greed.
One group opposing the mandatory spay/neuter program is the breeders. There are legitimate breeders, and their business will not be impeded, but there are also all the backyard breeders and puppy mill operators, many of whom are not licensed and pay no taxes, and they are contributing to the tragic overpopulation problem. Some veterinarians oppose