Could LA stop issuing dog breeding permits?

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday will consider a temporary moratorium on dog breeding permits, which officials say is an attempt to address overpopulation at the six city-run animal shelters.

In order to implement the temporary moratorium, the City Council will need to approve an ordinance. Last week, the three-member Neighborhoods and Community Enrichment Committee passed the ordinance in a 2-0 vote on consent, meaning no prior discussion was held on the matter.

Councilman John Lee, who sits on the committee, was absent during the vote.

According to city documents, the moratorium would be lifted once shelters were at or below 75% capacity for three consecutive months, and could be automatically reinstated if shelter capacity rises above 75%.

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The shelters are "experiencing a dire crisis due to the overcrowding of dogs," which is consistent with trends in public and private animal shelters nationwide, officials previously said.

The city has seen steadily increasing numbers of dogs, cats and rabbits at its six shelters for the last few years, and commissioners and many animal advocates from the private sector have lobbied for a halt to breeding and more robust spay-and-neuter efforts as the two most important steps toward tackling the problem.

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"The current dog population in the department's animal shelters has exceeded kennel capacity for more than a year, necessitating the doubling and tripling of dogs in single kennels and the placement of dogs in temporary hallway crates for up to months at a time, while at the same time, increasing strain on department staff," city documents read.

Staycee Dains, head of the city's Animal Department of Animal Services, had previously described the moratorium as a way to "signal to the community clearly that our shelters are not in any position to take in one more animal."

In 2023, Dains reported the city had issued about 1,200 breeding permits, and was on pace to finish that year with about 1,800.