First of all, I'm all for altering your pets. There's a serious pet overpopulation problem leading to thousands of healthy, adoptable dogs and cats being killed because there isn't enough room for them at the shelter. And I'm ok with licensing laws, where the pet has to be altered to get a license and if you don't have one you'll be fined. But recently in my area there was talk about a new law - and I don't know if it ever got passed, I couldn't find anything online - where you wouldn't be able to sell your pet (as in put an ad in the classifieds to sell your accidental kittens) unless they're altered.
I can understand wanting to make sure people don't buy the pets and never fix them and end up having litters. But come on - not everyone out there really cares about their pets and wants to spend money fixing them so they can sell them - this kind of law will lead to people dumping the babies by the side of the road so as not to have to pay to alter them before they can sell them. And that is not the way to go about trying to help animals and lower the population - it's cruel to the babies that will invariably be dumped and might possibly lead to an increase in feral animals. I say this law is a very bad idea.
EDIT: I found the article! And I was slightly wrong - it's not that the animal for sale must be altered, it's that you cannot sell or give away animals born to an unlicensed animal. Which leads to the same problem - people dumping the babies rather than paying to license their pet - which is more expensive for unaltered animals than for fixed ones.
I apologize for the misinformation I posted.
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Is this only for animals intended for sale or for pets to be given away as well?
If I remember correctly, you can't place any ad to get rid of a pet without it being altered. I could be wrong, it's been a while and like I said I couldn't find it online, but I believe that's the case, so you couldn't give them away either.
I can see where the law would make sense if the animals were being sold, but not if they were given away free. Owners of litters given away could not afford to have each of them fixed and probably would lead to an increase in animal abandonment.
When I got my dog, I had to sign a spay/neuter contract and then give them a $150 check. They sent the check back to me once I sent them the proof that I had my dog neutered.
It's tough to choose sides on this one since there are so many abandoned animals, so many in shelters, and so many strays that may be running around with diseases they could possibly spread to people.
Perhaps the thought behind the law is to encourage more pet owners to have their pets fixed so they aren't stuck paying for a whole litter to be fixed. Dog breeders wouldn't suffer so much since they usually sell the puppies anyway and they can always tack the cost of the spay/neuter to the sale price since the buyer would most likely have the procedure done anyway,
I guess I am on the fence on this one because I can see both sides.