Spay/Neuter Partnership to Begin: Service Will Take Animals to Evansville or Louisville

Jun 19, 08:13 AM

Current Headlines: By James Mayse, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Jun. 19--The Owensboro-Daviess County Humane Society is partnering with Humane Society chapters in Evansville and Louisville to provide additional pet spaying and neutering services in the Daviess County area.

The first scheduled spaying and neutering day is next week, and regular weekly services will begin in July. The president of the local Humane Society chapter said she hopes to eventually expand the service to twice per week.

"In five years, I'd like to see the euthanasia rate (at the county animal shelter) drop in half," said Carmel McLeod, the Owensboro Humane Society president.

"I'm excited about it. It's going to be the biggest thing I've ever done for the Humane Society," McLeod said.

The service will take animals in air conditioned vans to either Evansville or Louisville. The Vanderburgh Humane Society is opening a spay/neuter clinic in late July, and the Kentucky Humane Society has been operating a full-time clinic since February.

McLeod said the cost would be $40 for cats and $60 for dogs, regardless of size or gender. Pit bulls will be spayed and neutered for $10, McLeod said.

In addition, the animals will be kept overnight and examined by a veterinarian before being returned. Rabies shots will also be available for unvaccinated animals for an additional $5, she said.

"It will be year-round," McLeod said. " ... If we didn't take it on, another group in town would have, and it makes sense the Humane Society do it."

Kendall Paul, executive director of the Vanderburgh Humane Society, said the agency has an agreement to spay and neuter animals with the Owensboro group.

"We will actually schedule days with them when we will come over to Owensboro, pick up the animals, spay or neuter them and take them back the next day," Paul said.

"It will be a low-cost, high-volume clinic ... (and) for those animal welfare groups, we're looking at giving them a little bit more of a break," Paul said.

Michelle Ray, public relations and marketing director for the Kentucky Humane Society in Louisville, said the organization offers spaying and neutering through its S.N.I.P. clinic. The organization is already offering spaying and neutering in several Kentucky and Indiana counties near Louisville, Ray said.

The S.N.I.P. clinic is for people who might not be able to afford a veterinarian.

"For certain people, there is a cost barrier," Ray said. "They may want to spay or neuter their pet, but they don't have the (money) to do that.

"It is geared toward lower income individuals. We want to offer the service to people who can't afford it."

The Humane Society is a nonprofit organization. McLeod said fees would go back into the spaying and neutering program.

"We just need enough to pay for the overhead," she said.

The Humane Society will schedule clinic days on a first-come, first-served basis. McLeod said people interested in having a pet spayed or neutered through the service should call the Humane Society office at 302-6813.

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