8 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY november 14-20, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com news So-called “backyard breeding,” the breeding of cats or dogs with no regulation, is a problem the City of Seaside has faced for years. At least in part, that’s because the city hasn’t required a permit for breeders. On Nov. 7, the City Council passed an ordinance (which still requires another vote before becoming official) that would require breeders to have a permit. Currently, Police Chief Nick Borges says his department spends about $80,000 per year to offload unwanted animals to SPCA Monterey County, and expects that number will rise as the SPCA has increased its fee per animal from about $185 last year to $245 this year. The problem, Borges says, is that some breeders out to make a buck will abandon animals they can’t sell, and then the city foots the bill. Particularly in the case of dogs, Borges adds, inbreeding can cause animals to have serious health problems that can eventually require surgeries that cost thousands of dollars, which people aren’t willing to, or simply cannot, pay. Seaside Animal Control Officer Alex Kjellgren told the council Nov. 7 that the ordinance would allow him to have “another tool in my tool belt,” while also adding that it’s not a “silver bullet.” The new ordinance will require pet owners without a breeding permit or with a vet-approved medical exemption to get cats spayed or neutered at 5 months old, and dogs at 6 months old. Borges sees it as a way to help improve a longstanding problem for the city, which has thus far let it go unregulated. That is not just from a fiscal perspective, but also for the well-being of the animals in question, which are often found in a state of neglect. Balls Out Seaside to enact a spay-and-neuter ordinance to curb wanton breeding of cats and dogs. By David Schmalz The burning of a Chinese fishing village on the shores of Pacific Grove in 1906 continues to reverberate through the town’s history to the present—two years ago, P.G. City Council issued an official apology for the fire and racism endured by Chinese immigrants and their descendants. It’s a story known to locals, but it remains largely unknown beyond the Monterey Peninsula. A new film aims to change that. “The fact that the story was not well known was an injustice,” says Chelsea Tu, executive director of the nonprofit Monterey Waterkeeper. The organization partnered with the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History to secure a $2,000 grant from Oakland-based foundation Coastal Quest to create an interactive film by Santa Cruz filmmaker David Waller, which is paired with a school curriculum. The film, Chinese Fishing Villages of Monterey Bay, features the three villages that were founded at Point Lobos, Point Alones in P.G. and in Monterey. Monterey Waterkeeper works in part to protect the coastline with equity as an underlying value, Tu says. Amplifying the story of the economic and social contributions of the Chinese who pioneered the region’s fishing industry was a natural fit. Her own family immigrated to the U.S. from China when she was 10. They came by plane, but she felt a kinship with the Chinese immigrants who traveled by boat to Point Lobos around 1850. Like them, Tu’s family faced economic challenges as well as instances of racism. Museum staff were already developing a program with Greenfield Unified School District to bring students from inland Monterey County— many of them the children of immigrants themselves—to learn about the Chinese immigrants. Waller contacted Liese Murphree, the museum’s director of education and outreach, about making a film about the museum itself. Murphree suggested he make one about the fishing villages instead. Waller had never heard their stories, but a visit to the museum’s exhibit sparked his interest. “This, for me, is the story of a lifetime,” Waller says. “It is an important story not only of people from China, not only of California, America and the past, but the present and the future.” Waller worked with museum staff and direct descendants of the village, as well as other experts, to tell the story in a way easily understandable to classrooms of different levels. Using historical photographs, art and interviews, the film is broken into sections covering history and sharing stories of the immigrants as told by descendants. Short chapters explain why the immigrants made the harrowing journey by boat from China, the challenges they faced once in the U.S. and how they are remembered through the annual Walk of Remembrance, founded by the late Gerry Low-Sabado, a fifth-generation descendant who died in 2021. LowSabado’s legacy looms large in the film—her husband, Randy Sabado, speaks on her behalf. In addition, the film highlights the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, P.G.’s Feast of Lanterns and the contributions by Chinese immigrants to the fishing industry and science. A free screening of Chinese Fishing Villages of Monterey Bay takes place at 5:30pm Thursday, Nov. 21 at the P.G. Museum of Natural History, 165 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove. 648-5716, pgmuseum.org. Liese Murphree, left, and Nate King of the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, shown in the museum’s Chinese fishing village exhibit, which is set to expand. Talking History P.G.’s Chinese fishing village story is powerfully told by its descendants in a new interactive film. By Pam Marino This Seaside resident, an adoptee from the SPCA Monterey County, was spayed before finding her forever home. Babs is a rarity; 70 percent of cats that enter local shelters are euthanized. “This, for me, is the story of a lifetime.” Daniel Dreifuss david schmalz
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