By: Stacy LeBaron, USA Board Member and Head Cat, Community Cats Podcast

In the mindset of today’s animal welfare space, it seems impossible to pay $500 in order to spay a cat and put her back outdoors, and yet it seems entirely reasonable to rescue, house, and adopt that same cat out, even with a cost of stay around $450.

I want to ask the question: why? 

I was recently reading this article by John Boone, a wildlife biologist at Great Bay Bird Observatory, about the importance of “front loading” our trap-neuter-return (TNR) efforts in order to minimize the expensive growth of the colonies. This approach makes total sense to me. Bryan Kortis, National Programs Director at Neighborhood Cats, has also spoken about the importance of mass trapping and being strategic in our TNR. 

Back in the 90’s, before access to low-cost spay/neuter clinics was broadly available (there were a few clinics that started in the late 80’s, but they weren’t really popular at this point), I was working with 14 private practice veterinarians in my community to coordinate the spay/neuter surgeries needed for our TNR and shelter cats. The Board of Directors at the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society (MRFRS) in 1992 had a strict neuter before adoption policy. There was no choice; the cats had to be spayed and neutered, so we had to take advantage of whatever resources were available – whatever the cost.

MRFRS and other rescues were routinely paying over $100 for spays back then (which is over $200 today, when adjusted for inflation). I will freely admit that we did not enjoy paying those bills or dealing with the logistics, but we were determined to fundraise the money and did what was needed in order to get the cats fixed. 

I knew that there were inefficiencies working with private practice in the 90’s, especially with TNR. Faced with that understanding, and the knowledge that no one else was going to swoop in to solve this problem for us, MRFRS started the Sunday Spay Neuter Clinic in 2000 to offer free spay/neuter services for community cats. The Sunday Clinic continues to this day. 

We took the initiative and created another outlet, which grew into other opportunities for spay/neuter. 

Faced with the realities and impact of the veterinary shortage, I feel like we are back in the 90’s. We need to re-create opportunities, but in the meantime we need to take what we can get. 

But keep in mind, there is no reason that private practice veterinarians cannot be a part of the solution today. One unexpected benefit of working so closely with those 14 private practice veterinarians, was that MRFRS became the conduit for communication with the local private veterinary community about animal welfare issues. As a regular client with a strong relationship to each practice, it would have been easy for me to chat with them about campaigns like Feline Fix By Five, or gauge their interest in learning high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter techniques to increase their efficiency during surgery. Collaboration and cooperation can go a long way toward building successful and sustainable community programs.

Looking toward our own resources, most organizations that do program-based budgeting have adoption programs that have operated in the red (some by several hundred thousand dollars), and for some reason that is ok! But for some reason, it is impossible to have your spay/neuter program lose money. That is, if you even have a spay/neuter program.

Now it is time to spay it forward and dig into those spay/neuter savings, or even go into debt a bit in order to get those very necessary services out there. 

Maybe it is time to cut back on wellness services and do more spay/neuter. Price your spay/neuter appropriately (no lower than 1/3 of retail in your area) and then use grant funds or unrestricted donations to help those that really need it. Make sure you have the money to pay your staff what they are worth and support them. 

You may be thinking, we don’t have that kind of money!

This is about making choices. You are choosing how you are spending the money you do have.

If we get too bogged down in rescue, we are faced with unpredictable costs (expensive dentals are usually at the top of the list), overhead costs, etc. Rescue is expensive too, but we are making this choice.

Why can’t we choose spay/neuter? 

When I see a delayed spay, in my mind I see a litter of four kittens being born outside in a tough environment. I see two or three of them dying miserably. I see preventable suffering. I also see the kittens who do survive having litter after litter. I calculate the now increasing costs to spay/neuter even more cats, and well, it can get expensive fast.

Are we acting like hoarders? I hate that term. Yet many hoarders feel overwhelmed, and justify that what they are doing is ok. After all, they are providing food and shelter, isn’t that good enough?

This sentiment feels startlingly close to where we are in animal welfare at this moment. We are overwhelmed – many of us understaffed and under-resourced. We are providing food and shelter, while the animals in our charge continue to have litter after litter. 

But that is not enough. We are enabling society to believe that releasing animals into the public unspayed or unneutered is ok. It is not. 

In summary, if you have access to any type of spay/neuter services, please take advantage of them. And while we are utilizing the resources currently available, we need to take initiative, get creative and develop capacity-building solutions to support the cats and dogs in our cities and towns that need our support.