After hearing that the Obama administration is launching a new website called We the People that will allow users to create their own petitions, which, when achieving 5,000 supporters, will be submitted to the administration for review, spay-and-neuter guru Bob Barker has teamed up with PETA to petition for a mandatory spay-and-neuter law.
The law would apply to all animals adopted from shelters or bought from pet stores, puppy mills, and breeders until the nation’s overpopulation crisis has abated and all the homeless dogs and cats in the U.S. have homes to call their own.
Barker, who never signs an autographed picture without including a spay-and-neuter message, such as “Control the Overpopulation Problem: Spay and Neuter Your Dogs and Cats,” has recorded an audio message on PETA.org, encouraging people to sign PETA’s petition. With his help, PETA hopes to be the first to reach
5,000 signatures and have its petition reviewed by the White House administration.
A longtime vegetarian and PETA supporter, Barker’s commitment to spreading the spay-and-neuter message started in his The Price Is Right days and has continued since his retirement from television a few years ago. “Let’s let President Obama know that dogs and cats deserve a voice in politics too,” says Barker in the announcement. “Help control the pet population: Have your pets spayed or neutered.”
One unspayed female cat and her offspring can create 420,000 cats in just seven years, and an unneutered male can father limitless litters of kittens. Every year, 6 to 8 million dogs and cats are left at extremely crowded animal shelters; roughly half of those animals are euthanized because there simply aren’t enough good homes to go around. The less fortunate never even make it to a safe haven. They are abandoned to fend for themselves on the streets and are often subjected to cruelty, or they succumb to starvation, diseases, or injuries.
