Posted: July 27, 2009, 5 a.m. EDT
This month, Clinico, a nonprofit organization that provides low-cost spay and neuter services in an effort to reduce the number of animals that end up in shelters, opened its first spay-neuter clinic in Los Angeles.
“Basically it’s the only way to control the euthanization rate within the shelters,” said Michael Gilman, director of communications for Found Animals Foundation, Inc., the organization that funded the new clinic and its services in cooperation with PetSmart Charities Inc. “People are leaving pets behind with foreclosures. If they don’t get adopted they’re just euthanized for lack of a home.”
According to Gilman, during spring and summer, the numbers of puppies and kittens coming in to the shelters increases dramatically.
Right now it’s high kitten and puppy season,” he said. “When unweaned cats or kittens end up in the shelters, they need foster care. Most of those animals are going to die anyway. The same goes for puppies. So the best solution is spay and neuter. It will cut down on the animals that are just left out there.”
At the time of surgery, the clinic will also offer pain medication, vaccinations, flea and tick treatment, ear mite treatment, microchipping and feline leukemia and FIV testing for cats.
Los Angeles residents who earn less than $40,000 per year can have their cats neutered for $35 or spayed for $45. The cost to neuter a dog is $50 and a canine spay surgery is offered for $70.
A limited-time promotion is also available to low-income owners of cats and pit bulls or pit mixes in the Wilmington, San Pedro and Harbor City sections of Los Angeles, making spay and neuter surgeries available for cats for $10 and $25 for pit bulls and pit mixes.