8.02.400 ABANDONED ANIMALS.

(a) FINDINGS. The City Council finds and determines that:

(1) An unacceptable number of healthy but abandoned dogs and cats are euthanized annually in San Mateo County by the Peninsula Humane Society.

(2) Due to the large number of stray and abandoned cats and dogs, euthanasia is not a cost effective, acceptable or ethical solution to the threats of public health and safety posed by large populations of stray domestic animals.

(3) Stray and abandoned pets, specifically cats and dogs, create numerous public health and safety problems, including transmission of disease, attacks by stray dogs on people, livestock and pets, and traffic hazards created by stray dogs and cats running loose on public streets.

(4) A permit system for breeding of cats and dogs owned or harbored in the City of San Mateo combined with a program for spaying/neutering is a reasonable and effective means of reducing the population of abandoned or stray cats and dogs, and for eliminating the practice of euthanizing homeless cats and dogs except those for whom euthanasia is an escape from suffering or necessary to protect people and/or other animals from vicious behavior.

(b) DECLARATION OF INTENT. The City Council hereby finds and declares that it intends to provide for the public health, safety and welfare through a program requiring spaying and neutering of dogs and cats unless appropriate permits are acquired.