by Cathy Davis
I wrote a check today to pay a bill. Not usually a stellar day, when I have to spend money, but in this case I get excited every time. Of course I’m talking about the Houlton Humane Society’s spay/neuter grant program and the many cats and kittens that we are helping to spay and neuter.
We don’t have to wait for donors to start a fund — we have a fund. We were awarded $5,000 from the ASPCA to help low income and elderly individuals spay and neuter their cats. Occasionally, we get a request to help with a dog and our apologies, we can’t do that, we have to stay within the guidelines of the grant, but we have funds to help you with your cats.
Why is that, you ask? It’s because there is a population explosion of the feline kind. Kitten season is fast approaching and it is our goal to help you where help isn’t always available.
We know it’s expensive to spay and neuter your animals. But we also know the time and expertise and medical experience it takes to perform these surgeries. Veterinarians are professionals who are paid much less than medical professionals in other fields. Can you imagine taking a small child to the local hospital for delicate surgery and paying $150 for it?
These animals have to be tested, sedated, opened up, have their reproductive organs removed, and be closed back up with care and skill. They have to be monitored and gently tended to. This surgery requires skill, you can’t do it on your kitchen table with a pair of scissors and a ball of twine, you need years of expensive education, training, and experience. I get it when you say you can’t “afford” to have your cat spayed, but it isn’t because your Vet is expensive, it’s because your income level just doesn’t support these unexpected expenses.
I do get it, I live there, I’m right with you. My paycheck goes to mortgage payments, food, you name it. If my Scruffy dog gets sick, I don’t have an insurance policy to pay the bill or a magic pile of funds sitting around just waiting for an emergency, Dave Ramsey aside, with this great push for an emergency fund, for the majority of us, we live paycheck to paycheck.
That’s why we go out and appeal to foundations for grants, because we know you need help, and we also believe with all our hearts and souls that spaying and neutering pets is not only good for population control, and therefore the reduction in stray, abandoned, and abused animals, but it is also good for the health of your pet.
Did you know the following? One un-spayed female cat and one un-neutered male cat and their offspring can result in 420,000 kittens in seven years.
Spaying a female eliminates the constant crying and nervous pacing of a female cat in heat and eliminates the messiness associated with the heat cycle in a female canine.
Neutering of male dogs and cats can prevent undesirable behaviors, such as urine marking, male aggression and the urge to roam. If you have multiple animals in your household, all the pets will generally get along better if they are neutered.
A long-term benefit of spaying and neutering is improved health for both cats and dogs. Spaying females prior to their first heat cycle nearly eliminates the risk of breast cancer and totally prevents uterine infections and uterine cancer. Neutering males prevents testicular cancer and enlargement of the prostate gland and greatly reduces their risk for perianal tumors.
The Houlton Humane Society can pay, directly to your Vet, up to $50 toward the cost of neutering a male cat and up to $75 toward the cost of spaying a female. Please call the shelter at 532-2862 and ask for an application. I can pretty much guarantee you that 90 percent of the southern Aroostook population qualifies as low income or elderly. We have yet to turn down an application.
To date, we have spayed or neutered 17 cats. If you do the math above, assuming half were male and half were female, we have prevented 3,570,000 unwanted births. We have 21 approved vouchers, owners just waiting for appointments. There are still plenty of funds left to do more.
Please spay and neuter your pets and if you need help, call us, we’ll send you a simple application, a voucher is issued, your Vet will honor the voucher for the $50 or $75 that we offer and we will pay the Vet directly after the surgery is performed. This is a grant, not a loan. You don’t have to pay us back.
It’s worth it in so many directions. Your pet deserves the health benefits. If you don’t need this help but your neighbor does, tell them about this program. Our goal is to run out of money and apply for more but we have to show a need in the area and support for the program and the one and only way to do that is to spend this money and spay and neuter your pets. Thank you!
Cathy Davis is a longtime volunteer for the Houlton Humane Society. She can be reached at houltonanimalshelter@gmail.com or 532-2345.
