By ANJELICA MARIN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma County animal activists offered mixed reactions Wednesday to the decision in Sacramento to withdraw legislation that would have required owners to sterilize their pets or pay a $500 fine.

The proposal, known as the California Healthy Pets Bill, would have mandated owners to spay and neuter their pets by the age of 6 months, but it also would have exempted owners with breeding permits.

Although the bill sought to decrease the number of unwanted animals, unintended factors generated heated opposition and it appeared headed for defeat in the Senate.

Canine Companions for Independence, a Santa Rosa-based organization that provides assistance dogs to the disabled, opposed the bill from the outset.

"We thought the permit issue was problematic," said Pat Callahan, the agency's national development director. "We have puppy breeders throughout California, so would we need one permit, or 50 permits?"

Callahan said Canine Companions provides more than 200 assistance dogs every year, and so the inability to breed and train puppies would have significantly damaged their services.

Others like Dori Villalon, who works with Sonoma County Animal Control, and deals with more than 8,000 abandoned animals each year, said a statewide bill could have reduced the number of abandoned animals.

"Until you work at a shelter, and see the enormity of the overpopulation problem, and have been in the euthanizing room, you don't know how big the problem really is."

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, who introduced the controversial bill in February, pulled the measure from consideration just before a final Senate vote. Instead, he opted to reintroduce it at a later date.

"If he would have put the bill up for a vote and it would have been voted down, it would be dead," said Alex Traverso, Levine's spokesman.

Levine, who received 10,000 letters in support, and almost just as many in opposition, plans to amend the bill and reintroduce it in January, Traverso said.

Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, who supported the bill, said Sonoma County is spending $1 million a year to destroy unwanted pets. On a statewide level, she said the amount $250 million.

Evans said she will consider two things before she supports the new bill in January.

"I'll be looking to see that it reduces the amount of unwanted dogs and cats, and that it allows dog breeders of assistance dogs to continue to breed."