Dogs in Manteca

“You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.”

(Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish essayist, poet and author of fiction and travel books, 1850-1894)

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A citizen recently asked my "stance" on the subject of dogs and animal control in Manteca.

I am a registered Manteca voter who is deciding who should be on our City Council. Would you please answer a few questions for me:

1. What is your stance on the condition of the Manteca Animal Shelter?

2. What is your stance on Pit Bulls within our city limits?

3. What are you planning to do to help the animal shelter with the enormous amount of stray animals that they receive?

Thank you for your prompt response

[ ___ ]
A Registered Manteca Voter

This is my response in blue, with additional comment in red:

Dear [Registered Voter],

First, a new animal shelter design and funding plan has just been approved as part of the new city corporation yard on Main and Wetmore Streets. [This was a long-delayed action by the current and previous councils during the "boom" years. Except for the apparent vote-buying by this council, this city facility upgrade is a case of better late than never.]

Second, I have no problem with pit bull breeds, or any other dogs, in the city or anywhere, as long as the owners strictly control them and follow all city animal laws. Dogs only become problems when the owners make them so. [Dogs are not criminals; irresponsible and law-breaking owners are. Besides their inherent natures, animals do what their owners teach them or allow them to do. The Manteca Municipal Code and the Animal Control Department are as much a "policing" fuction of the city as is the Police Department.]

Third, most "stray" animals are not strays but feral, or dumped or abandoned by brainless people. There is only a finite capacity for adoptions out as owners become "saturated" with pets. Even shipping them out to other facilities has a saturation point. After the point of saturation, the only option is euthanasia, horrific as that sounds. They should be pets and have their rights as animals, but they are not people with human rights. [People should be stewards of the earth, its resources, and its life. Husbandry techniques for livestock and pets has been around for how many centuries? Unfortunately, many uneducated or uncaring people foster the problem of animal overpopulation, which puts conscientious people in the unsavory position of cleaning up after them. Even so, I am flat out opposed to animal rights activists who constantly push for granting human rights to non-human species.]

Thank you very much for taking the time to participate in our form of self-government. I appreciate your questions and hope my answers give you the confidence to make your choice of representative to Manteca’s City Council.

Richard Behling