HSDC offering free spay, neuter surgery for feral or free-roaming cats on Feb. 25

The Humane Soci­ety of Delaware County (HSDC) encour­ages res­i­dents to have their free-roaming cats spayed or neutered at a spe­cial clinic being held at the society’s shel­ter on Mon­day, Feb­ru­ary 25. The one-day clinic is being funded by Pet FBI (Pets Found By Inter­net) as part of World Spay Day, a nation­wide event spon­sored by the Humane Soci­ety of the United States. Over­pop­u­la­tion is an espe­cially big prob­lem for cats because they can repro­duce as early as four months old and have two or three lit­ters a year.

Pet FBI is cov­er­ing the surgery costs, but is ask­ing own­ers to make a dona­tion if pos­si­ble. This clinic is being offered to Delaware County res­i­dents only who are car­ing for free-roaming cats or have taken in a stray cat. All surg­eries must be sched­uled in advance, and appli­cants will need to show proof of Delaware County res­i­dency in the form of a driver’s license or util­ity bill. Only 35 surgery spots will be avail­able so own­ers are urged to apply online or stop by HSDC’s shel­ter as soon as possible.

Own­ers may choose to pur­chase extra ser­vices such as vac­ci­na­tions, a microchip, dewormer, or flea and tick pre­ven­ta­tive. At the owner’s request, the vet­eri­nar­ian will ear-tip cats which Pet FBI rec­om­mends doing for free roam­ing or feral cats to iden­tify the cats who have been spayed or neutered.

“Using the TNR (trap, neuter and release) method is the most effec­tive and humane way to man­age free-roaming cat pop­u­la­tions,” says Maresa Finelli, founder of Pet FBI.

Pet FBI was ini­tially cre­ated in 2004 to pro­vide a lost and found ani­mal data­base serv­ing all of Ohio. Four years later, the pro­gram expanded to include a TNR Out­reach Pro­gram to help man­age free-roaming cat colonies in low-income areas. For the past five years, Pet FBI has focused TNR oper­a­tions in Delaware County and has spayed and neutered 3,369 cats – pre­vent­ing an esti­mated 556,855 home­less kit­tens from being born. Any­one wish­ing to make a dona­tion to help sup­port their ongo­ing mis­sion may do so by vis­it­ing < www.petfbi.org >.

To sched­ule an appoint­ment for the HSUS World Spay Day clinic being held Mon­day, Feb­ru­ary 25, at the Humane Soci­ety of Delaware County, please call 740–369-7387 or send an email to < spayneuterhsdc@live.com >. Surgery appli­ca­tions are avail­able at the shel­ter located at 4920 Ohio 37 East in Delaware or can be found at < www.hsdcohio.org >.

Posted by Gary Henery on Feb 20 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.