Hello, my name is Hana Hattori Kemper and I am writing you this letter on behalf of myself and my husband George Whitney Kemper Jr.

I don't know how to start, but let me start from saying that I have been very heart-broken by the way animals have been treated in the shelter.

I know it might not be realistic to ask to not kill any animals since the shelter have to feed them, have a place, and hire people to take care of them, and the government might not be able to afford to keep animals forever.

But I don't think that any humans have the right o make animals suffer when they are euthanized.

Recently I saw a story on the news that really disturbed me. You can read about it here: http://www.wsmv.com/iteam/14481336/detail.html I couldn't believe that it might be legal for a veterinarian to euthanize an animal without giving it anesthesia first. I urge you to introduce a bill that requires veterinarians to follow humane standards for euthanizing stray animals.

I know Tennessee has a program that sells animal license plates to fund low cost spaying/neutering, but I don't think this goes far enough. What would be best would be for Tennessee to mandate that all dogs and cats have to be spayed or neutered (with financial aid from the state government) unless their owner has a license. Instead of paying a veterinarian $9 for every animal he kills (encouraging him to kill animals as fast as he can like in the story I linked to above), we should be spending money to prevent over-breeding. This would reduce the number of stray and unwanted animals meaning we would euthanize fewer animals while saving state and local governments money by reducing the need for government funded animal shelters.

There are several cities and states that have enacted similar policies with consistent success, for example: Tacoma, WA (10 years led to a 66% reduction in animals admitted to shelters), New Hampshire, Santa Cruz, CA, and Palm Beach, FL. Currently Virginia, California and San Antonio, TX (among others) are seriously considering mandatory spaying and neutering programs.

While I don't pretend to know how to write a bill, this is a proposed draft I found online that I think makes my arguments very clear: http://www.instituteforanimalrightslaw.org/statute_mandatory_spay-neuter.htm


This is all I'm asking. I've been seeing too many local news stories about animal abuse. This is not the kind of community I want to live in and I do not want my tax dollars to be spent on paying "veterinarians" to kill as many animals as they possibly can without any care given to the animals being killed. We can reduce the number of animals being killed in shelters while saving state and local governments millions of dollars a year.

Sincerely,
Hana Hattori Kemper
George Whitney Kemper Jr.