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City of Seattle
Gregory J. Nickels, Mayor
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NEWS ADVISORY
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| SUBJECT: Seattle Animal Shelter supports Spay Day 2008
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
2/20/2008 12:45:00 PM |
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Don Jordan (206)386-4286
(206)953-2529 (cell)
Christine Titus (206)386-4293
Katherine Schubert-Knapp (206) 684-0909
Kathy Sugiyama (206) 684-0909
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Seattle Animal Shelter supports Spay Day 2008
Free spay and neuter certificates available the week of Feb. 25, 2008
SEATTLE — During the week of Feb. 25 through March 3, 2008, the Seattle Animal Shelter will offer certificates for free spaying and neutering to pet owners in need of financial assistance to have their pets spayed or neutered. This offer ends at 5 p.m., Monday, March 3. For more information, call (206) 386-PETS (7387) or visit www.seattleanimalshelter.org.
This special offer commemorates the 14th anniversary of “Spay Day USA,” a national campaign sponsored by the Doris Day Animal Foundation to help reduce companion animal overpopulation.
“Thousands of animals are needlessly euthanized each year simply because there are not enough homes for them all,” says Seattle Animal Shelter Director Don Jordan. “We can help address this problem by spaying and neutering companion animals. By ending these unwanted births, we reduce the needless suffering homeless animals endure and ultimately save taxpayers money.”
Donations to the city’s “Pet Population Control Fund” pay for this incentive for pet owners to have their pets sterilized. The fund also helps pay for spaying and neutering pets owned by low-income, elderly, disabled, homeless citizens or other people who would otherwise not be able to afford the cost of sterilizing their pets.
Spay Day USA is America’s first and only national day of action to promote the spaying or neutering of pets. During Spay Day USA, veterinarians and their staffs, animal welfare professionals, business owners, and concerned citizens join forces nationwide to spay or neuter as many animals as possible, and to promote spaying/neutering as an essential component of good pet health care, in addition to being an effective and humane means of decreasing euthanasia of homeless animals in shelters.
During Spay Day USA’s first thirteen years, participants spayed or neutered more than 1,386,000 animals. When you consider how prolific animals are, and the high cost for shelters to handle each homeless animal it is clear that Spay Day USA participants have, potentially, prevented millions of surplus births and saved millions of taxpayers’ dollars.
“As long as people continue to donate to this fund, the offer will continue,” Jordan says. “We want to discourage the sad practice of leaving boxes of puppies and kittens on the sides of roads, in front of grocery stores or discarding them in garbage cans and dumpsters. If people bring these litters to the Seattle Animal Shelter instead, we can have them adopted by qualified, loving owners and help improve their quality of life,” adds Jordan.
All animals adopted from the shelter are spayed or neutered before they leave the shelter.
Here’s how you can celebrate Spay Day USA and share the message that spaying and neutering improves pets’ lives in a number of ways:
o Raise money to help subsidize the cost of spay/neuter surgeries. The money (tax deductible) donated to the Pet Population Control Fund can be applied toward the cost of certificates for this event or the cost of surgeries after this event.
o Have an animal spayed or neutered -- your pet; a free-roaming cat; a needy neighbor’s pet; or a shelter animal awaiting adoption. Encourage family, friends and neighbors to do the same!
o Submit a digital photo of your pet to the Spay Day USA Pet Photo Contest, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States. The Seattle Animal Shelter and other humane organizations throughout the country will participate in the contest. For details, go to http://www.spaydayusa.org/
o Turn in a litter. As part of an ongoing program, anyone who turns in a litter of puppies or kittens to the Seattle Animal Shelter throughout the entire year is eligible for a free spay or neuter for the parent animal(s). The shelter guarantees the adoption of these kittens and puppies.
For more information about Spay Day Seattle, to make a donation to the Pet Population Control Fund, or to learn more about other Seattle Animal Shelter services, call (206) 386-PETS (7387), or visit www.seattleanimalshelter.org.
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