Subject: AB 1634
To President Ron Faoro and the California Veterinary Medical
Association (CVMA) Board of Governors:

Dear Dr. Faoro and CVMA Governors:

I hope that CVMA will learn something from the mess you have created
by writing and sponsoring AB 1634. The leadership of your organization
which, supposedly, represents the interests of all veterinarians,
helped to write a controversial bill in secret, without any input from
rank and file CVMA membership, or any broad consultation with the
animal lovers and their organizations that would be adversely impacted
by the bill.  The bill proposes to deprive more than half of the
citizens of California of what they have come to believe, and have
every right to believe, is a basic civil and constitutional right:
that every citizen has the right to decide if they want to spay or
neuter their animals and, if so, when they would like to do it. CVMA
has jeopardized the reputation of the entire veterinary profession, by
supporting a piece of legislation which has enraged millions of animal
owners and promises to enrich one segment of the veterinary
profession. Now that the legislation you have helped to create has
been high-jacked by some of the most extreme elements in society, CVMA
remains absolutely silent, aloof from the problems and concerns of
"the huddled masses" and, seemingly, powerless or fearful to try to
"fix" anything. Meanwhile, thousands of rank-and-file veterinarians
and animal lovers are being forced to become involved in things that
we hate doing: writing letters to politicians, rallying support from
breed organizations, meeting with our elected representatives and
attending legislative hearings. I am attaching two of the letters I
have written, as they provide examples of the problems with the piece
of legislation of which you are so proud.

The tragedy of this whole fiasco is that "it is all for naught". The
evidence from past experiences with Mandatory Spay/Neuter Laws is that
they make the problems worse, rather than better. As an example, I
have copied (see below) some statistics from the web site of Save our
Dogs www.saveourdogs.net/population.html. There are plenty of other
studies out there that have come to the same conclusion. You should
have researched this whole issue more thoroughly, before you put the
collective heads of the veterinary profession "on the chopping block".

Sincerely,

Charles A. Hjerpe, DVM
Former CVMA member and
Emeritus professor of veterinary medicine, UC Davis