Each year, Californians place approximately 1 million cats and dogs in animal shelters, and nearly 70 percent of those animals are euthanized. Concerned about this staggering loss of animal life, more than 100 animal-protection advocates, animal-control officials, dog and cat breeders, and pet industry representatives will gather Friday and Saturday, Dec. 5-6, at the UC Davis Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center for the fourth Pet Overpopulation Symposium. The keynote speaker for "Think Globally, Act Locally" will be Dr. Philip Kass, a veterinary epidemiologist in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. He will report on the preliminary results of recent studies by the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy and the California Council of Companion Animal Advocates. He conducted one of these studies in Sacramento County in an effort to pinpoint why the relationships between owners and their pets fail, with the animals then taken to shelters. "This is probably the largest controlled study of the risk factors for pet relinquishment ever conducted," Kass says. "We're hoping it will provide direction for people who want to solve the fundamental problems behind why pets are given up by their owners." The symposium is open for a fee to the public.