Let's Eliminate the #1 Cause of Companion Animal Death
- Being Euthanized Because They Are Unwanted!
Here is a project well worth our city’s interest and eventual support. (Hopefully sooner than later.) A spay/neuter clinic is being opened in Newmarket / Greater Toronto Area - which is offering $50 to $100 spays and neuters for cats and dogs. It's based on a model program offered by Humane Alliance in the states.
Here is the video for it. http://www.spaycentral.com/en/imagine/ The Humane Alliance’s low-cost high-volume spay/neuter clinic started in North Carolina. It has since seeded many new clinics across the states and is assisting with the Newmarket/GTA clinic. http://www.humanealliance.org/HA2/what.htm Here are two quotations from the Humane Alliance website that truly hit the nail with the hammer: “No other disease or condition of companion animals takes as many lives as euthanasia. In fact, no other disease comes close.” - Janet M. Scarlett, DVM, MPH, PhD, Cornell University "In this country, we spend a minimum of one billion dollars annually to pick-up, house, and destroy companion animals. If only 5% of that one billion were allocated to spay/neuter, we could open 250 clinics across the nation, and sterilize more than four million companion animals every year. This necessary next step would end euthanasia as the current solution to the pet overpopulation dilemma." http://www.humanealliance.org/HA2/what.htm I know the usual blurb is to "educate." Truly, people know about spaying and neutering - but spay / neuter costs are well above what many families can easily afford. I know some readers will say, "If you can't afford it, you shouldn't have it!" But if we took that attitude about the many other things we all benefit from, but couldn’t personally afford, there wouldn’t be much left to make for healthy communities. And companion animals DO improve family and community health! http://www.deltasociety.org/AnimalsHealthChildren Children.htm |
What about the Vets?Veterinarians may be concerned about a decrease in their income if a high-volume low-cost spay/neuter clinic opens up. In fact, there may be an impact on them – but it will be positive one. The vets who work in areas where the Humane Alliance has helped to open clinics are actually seeing more companion animals, not fewer. This is because people are less likely to abandon their animals once they are fixed AND because these spay/neuter clinics only see animals for spays/neuters and an initial vaccination. Full stop. Also, folks for whom money is not tight tend to stay with their own vet for this surgery anyway.
Let’s be blunt here. Across North America, most open admission pounds and shelters have to euthanize about 75% of their animals – this stat is lower for dogs but higher for cats. No Kill shelters have considerably lower kill rates - but when they are full, abandoned animals have to go somewhere. And that somewhere is usually the area pounds. And due to lack of demand – especially for cats – the animal is likely going to be euthanized. There are truly not enough homes for them all. You can imagine the scenario. You are a family with not much income – especially in the face of soaring energy, food and housing costs. There is a stray cat in the backyard, dying to get into your home. You let it in, the kids love it, but you don’t have a few hundred dollars to get her fixed. So, out she goes again or she goes to the municipal pound to join the other six that have come in today! Sigh! We know what doesn’t work. This is the current system of controlling the unwanted and abandoned companion animal population by euthanizing. It’s miserable for everyone involved. Can you imagine what it’s like for shelter staff to have to take in wonderful loving creatures who have very little hope of adoption? What does work is CHEAP HIGH-VOLUME SPAY/NEUTER CLINICS. In fact, it is the only thing that DOES work. It takes a few years to see the results – as with every other important project a community takes on. And we have to remember, we are not talking about “widgets” here. We are talking about best friends. Creatures who love and want to be loved, and who (according to scientific evidence and from conversations in the cafeteria) have the ability to make us more humane people. Let our city councilors know our community wants and needs a high-volume low-cost spay / neuter program (especially for cats). For contact info, see http://www.city.greatersudbury.on.ca/CMS/index.cfm?app=div_council&lang=en or Councilors Respond. Write letters to the editor of our area newspapers, and station managers of radio and tv. Contact info is at http://smallthings.ca/default.asp?id=1991 Be nice to the front-line folks who work at our municipal pound. They have an unenviable job to do. Contact SNeRD at [email protected] or (705) 522-5126. |