By John Dobberstein, Editor
The city of Broken Arrow is making changes to its animal ordinance but struck down a proposal requiring pet owners to spay or neuter their dogs and cats.
An amendment to the ordinance would have made it a “Class C” offense for someone to keep, harbor or maintain any dog or cat over 6 months old in the city limits that hadn’t been sterilized unless the owner obtained a written statement from a veterinarian stating the animal is medically unsuited to be sterilized.
Other exceptions would have been a temporary medical condition causing sterilization procedures to be unsafe or imprudent, or if the animal was being harbored, kept or possessed in the city temporarily.
A final amended animal control ordinance will likely be on the City Council’s Jan. 16 meeting for a final vote, but it won’t contain the sterilization measure.
Capt. Brandon Tener from the Broken Arrow Police Department said the intent of the mandatory sterilization was to lower the population in the Broken Arrow Animal Shelter.
For the last three quarters of 2023 the shelter was took in about 80 dogs per month, with an average population of 40, he said. The shelter only has 44 kennels, so when the population exceeded that employees have been forced to use quarantine kennels if available.
The city wrote 156 citations last year for owners having no proof of current rabies vaccination and 30 citations for dogs running at large.
“We’re doing what we have to do to take care of those animals. That is the goal of the animal shelter,” Tener says. “Animal control would not be knocking on doors to check the status of spay or neuter of animals owned in our city. If officers came in contact with a roaming or vicious animal being reported, they would then check the status of spay or neuter and either issue a warning to the owner or cite them for that.
“What this is really addressing is a very small percentage of our population, quite honestly. We have some repeat offenders that come with a litter of pups or kittens and say, ‘Hey, voluntary surrender,’” Tener said.
“That’s why we’re taking in 80 dogs a month — for reasons like that. That’s a lot of dogs in a month, and if we can curb that kind of activity and give folks a reason to take a little better care of their animals and be responsible like 99% of the citizens in the city are, then that’s going to be a win for the shelter.”
Tener said the shelter wasn’t planning to force owners returning to the shelter for a lost dog or cat to pursue sterilization, but officers would have the option to issue a citation, “and then hopefully that would encourage them to come in compliance with the ordinance,” Tener said. If someone showed up at the shelter with a litter of puppies or kittens, it’s likely shelter staff would have to ask about the mother of the puppies, but the owners could just state they found the dogs somewhere.
Broken Arrow Police Chief Brandon Berryhill noted that every animal surrendered or adopted out at the shelter is spayed or neutered before being released.
Some City Councilors didn’t agree with the 6-month deadline, which shelter officials said was the recommendation from two contract veterinarians who work with the shelter. Mayor Debra Wimpee said guidelines she read suggested 9 to 18 months before spaying or neutering for large dogs. The amended ordinance had an exception to the 6-month timeframe if an owner’s veterinarian provided a written opinion that sterilization needed to be done later.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Christi Gillespie said she was supportive of spaying and neutering, but the City Council “can’t mandate that people have common sense.
“I know people that have very strong opinions about it, and they don’t want their dog to be mean or vicious. But there are reasons people don’t want to sterilize, especially male dogs. And I don’t think I have the right to tell them they have to do that,” she said.
Gillespie also questioned whether the ordinance would simply result in more dogs being dumped instead of being brought to the shelter.
“We’re saying I can go to my doctor and make a decision about my dog and give the government a note from my doctor. That sounds very big brother. I don’t like it,” Wimpee said.
Berryhill said the ability to write a citation is simply encouragement for owners to have their dogs sterilized, but they could also just opt to pay the ticket.
“The second part of this is when a dog gets out it procreates, and that creates the problem for our staff to have to care for those dogs, and in some cases euthanize those dogs,” he said. “It’s about what happens to the rest of the community, and it creates a health and safety problem for everybody else.”
Tim Boni, the city’s animal control manager, said the city doesn’t have a breeders permit or exception, although there is a hobbyist permit for those who may have show or hunting dogs who may be exempt from the sterilization requirement. He added that Tulsa, Claremore, Owasso and Sand Springs already have some kind of spay-and-neuter ordinance in place.
Boni said the live-release rate at the Broken Arrow shelter is around 90%, which he believes is high for a municipal shelter. “However, with the amount of animals coming into the shelter this is where this spay and neuter ordinance would hopefully help have an impact,” he said. “We do our best to keep them as long as we can.”
Broken Arrow resident Angela Liter spoke against the sterilization requirement. “I can certainly see the need for rabies shots, leash laws, sanitary housing, and noise abatement, but this provision seems to be another government solution looking for a problem,” Liter said.
“As an owner of a large-breed female dog my breeder recommended letting her go through at least three heat cycles, or around two years before even considering getting her spayed. The reason provided by the breeder was to ensure that my dog receives full benefit from her body’s hormones released over that time. That directly affects her development in many areas, but particularly in her mature joint development.”
Other changes being made to the animal control ordinance, to be voted on Jan. 16, include:
- “Definitions” will be amended to add a definition for “adequate shelter” of an animal. This section will also include new examples of a “nuisance animal.”
- “Staking, confining or pasturing an animal” will be amended to restrict a dog owner from tethering his or her dog, unless the dog has access to water and shelter or is supervised by the owner.
- “Management of dogs, cats, or ferrets that bite a person” will be amended to address situations when the owner of an animal that has been found to be “dangerous” refuses to properly confine the animal.
- “Cruelty to animals generally” will be amended with additional examples of behavior that constitutes an animal cruelty offense, including intentional harassment and overworking of an animal.
- “Destruction or sale of impounded animals; sterilization of adopted dog or cat” will be amended to list factors the city may consider in refusing an individual’s request for adoption or sale of an animal. Examples include when the individual has a prior record of animal cruelty, has other prior convictions or lacks adequate housing.
- “Sale of animals” will be adopted to address where sales of animals may take place within the city.
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