TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

The only sure way to stop animal overpopulation, other than through lethal injection, is to keep puppies and kittens from being born.

They mature quickly and can breed several times a year -- birthing litters of four to 10 animals each time.

The Humane Society of the United States estimates a single female cat and her offspring can produce more than420,000 cats in seven years.

A single female dog and her pups can produce 67,000 dogs in six years.

Each year between 3 million and 4 million dogs and cats are killed by animal control officers nationwide.

A spay or neuter surgery -- which removes a pet's reproductive organs -- can stop those kills cold.

But there's a problem locally.

In Kern County, the surgery is optional, can cost up to $200 and there is a cultural reluctance to neuter male animals.

That leads to overpopulation and millions of tax dollars each year to catch, hold and kill unwanted and homeless animals.

MAD SCRAMBLE

Kern County Animal Control dispatcher Stacey Achen's fingers fly over the keys of her phone on a busy Tuesday morning. Her desk supports three coffee cups of various sizes. She needs the caffeine.

The computer system is down. Achen is taking information down on a legal pad.

Calls come rapid-fire.

Loose dog. Dead dog. Dead dog. Dog bite. Stray. Dead. Loose. Cats locked in an apartment. Dog with its head stuck in the spokes of a car's wheel rim.

She listens to the traumatic lives and deaths of Kern's creatures and sends animal control officers to clean up the mess.

She gets between 100 and 160 calls each day. She clocked 2,645 distress calls in June.

The lack of care people have for animals frustrates her.

"They just let their animals overpopulate. Spay and neuter them, that's the bottom line," she said.

CULTURAL BARRIERS

If only it were that simple.

Cost can be a critical barrier to altering animals. It can cost between $40 and $200 to fix an animal depending on its sex and size.

That's a lot of money for many families and there is very limited help to defray those costs.

The county and city don't offer any vouchers. The Humane Society and the Cat People organization do offer limited vouchers, but only for about $20 to $25.

And there are other barriers.

Kern County's rural heritage is blamed for a casual attitude toward animals, say animal control officials and activists. Spaying and neutering are uncommon.

"We have many people in the community who do not believe it's appropriate to neuter the male," said Barbara Hays, a leader of The Cat People, a local nonprofit group that cares for homeless cats.

That attitude is tied, often, to the ego of male humans who feel uncomfortable if their male animals aren't able to breed, say animal rescuers and shelter officers across the county.

In addition, the city and county have few rules governing cats. They aren't required to be licensed.

"Cats are not valued. They are just property," Hays said. "The same family that won't spay a cat will go out and buy a widescreen TV."

Countering that culture may take radical action -- action for which county officials aren't sure residents are ready.

New county dog limits drew heated opposition from residents that has yet to cool down.

A law that would force owners to spay and neuter their pets could be worse.

Kern County Environmental Health Services Director Steve McCalley isn't sure county residents would stand for such a law.

But that is exactly what Santa Cruz County did.

Jody Cramer was the executive director of the Santa Cruz Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals during most of the 1990s -- before SPCA turned over animal control and euthanization duties to the county.

She spearheaded ordinances in Santa Cruz County, and most of its cities, that demanded all animals be altered. Breeding was only allowed with a special permit.

Cramer said the 18-month fight was vicious -- even in a community where love of animals is nearly universal.

"I was called a fascist and people threw things at me. But it made people think about this like they never thought about it before," she said.

What people don't understand, she said, is the scope of the animal overpopulation problem.

She had to shock even the most knowledgeable of politicians just to bring the situation home to them.

"I invited every elected official to come, one at a time, to the animal shelter. Then I took them into the euthanization room. I don't care if they were uncomfortable and there was blood on the floor," Cramer said.

She won her fight.

The number of homeless animals taken to Santa Cruz County's animal shelter has dropped by more than half in the past seven years. Euthanization rates have plummeted.

The solution worked.

LOCALIZING CHANGE

But can that solution work in Kern County?

Bakersfield officials said it would be impossible without a large community effort.

Helen Acosta, a Bakersfield College teacher, is trying to follow in Cramer's footsteps. But she knows the Santa Cruz plan has to be adapted to Bakersfield.

Kern County is less affluent than Santa Cruz. It is not a community known for activism. A spay/neuter ordinance would need to look different.

"If you're going to make it mandatory, what you need to do is make it low cost," Acosta said.

It can cost up to $200 for a large female dog.

Dr. Paul Ulrich of Bakersfield Veterinary Hospital said it is hard for local veterinarians to offer more than a smattering of time for charity spay-and-neuter work.

"People are spending everything from 40 to 70 hours on their own practices," he said. "These (surgeries) are very labor-intensive."

He said the real source of the problem is owners who are careless about spaying, neutering, confining and caring for their pets.

Creating a low-cost spay-and-neuter program would require government or the private sector to pay for the veterinarians' work.

"It would have to be subsidized in some way," Ulrich said.

Acosta stands behind the vets.

"Every veterinarian in town is very busy," she said. "A lot of people have said, over the years, that our vets are just greedy. No, they're overworked."

There are programs, mainly run by The Cat People and the Kern County Humane Society, that offer people vouchers that help them get low-cost spay-and-neuter surgeries.

But they can't keep up with the need, and government, which used to help out with cash, can't afford to assist any more.

McCalley said the county used to be able to spend around $20,000 to $25,000 a year on spay-and-neuter vouchers. But, he said, the state started requiring the county to spay and neuter every animal adopted out of the county's shelter, so the money went to that.

Rick Blackwell, of Merced County Animal Control, said he expects to have a county-sponsored low-cost spay-neuter program up and running in the next couple of months.

He's in negotiations with area veterinarians about how to organize the program. Merced County would provide vouchers.

In the end, the problem of pet overpopulation is a simple one with difficult solutions.

"We are never going to adopt our way out of animal overpopulation," said John Snyder, director of companion animals for The Humane Society of the United States.

It comes down to Bakersfield's culture, animal advocates said. This city throws away animals.

"Changing the community culture is like trying to navigate the Exxon Valdez in Truxtun Lake," McCalley said.