A recent change in policy at the Montgomery County Humane Society that helps ensure pets are spayed or neutered before they are adopted is welcome.

About 85 percent of adopters have their new pets spayed or neutered, but a measure that requires proof of spaying or neutering before adopters can take their pets home will help attain 100 percent compliance. A voucher system that defrayed costs for adopters had been in place for three decades and change was long overdue.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates that as many as 7 million animals enter shelters nationwide every year; of those, roughly half are euthanized.

This change will help that situation in Montgomery, where the humane society handled more than 9,000 animals in 2010. Of those, roughly 2,800 were adopted and 1,200 were returned to their owners. The rest were transferred to other agencies or euthanized.