In October, I was lucky enough to attend Best Friends’ No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas.  It’s a great opportunity to network with fellow animal welfare people and to learn about what’s new, innovative and WORKING in animal welfare.

While I’m lucky and get to work in a WHOLE OFFICE of people who love pets and dedicate their lives to the betterment of animals, a lot of the attendees do the work alone—or with maybe a handful of their friends.  They’re the ones in rural areas, setting traps for feral cats at 3am to get them neutered and returned.  They are the ones who get the calls from their friends about the puppies taped in boxes and thrown in the trash—these people are fighting on their own for the animals in their areas.

When feral cats are trapped, neutered & released, they get "ear tipped" like this cat

It was my second time at this particular conference and I felt that they really did a spectacular job—the speakers were truly outstanding.  When I wasn’t working at the spectacular 6 Packs / 9 Lives booth, I was hearing some of our nation’s leading animal welfare activists.

One of my favorites was Holly Sizemore, the Director of Community Programs and Services for Best Friends Animal Society.  I have heard her speak about Super Adoptions when she was with No More Homeless Pets Utah.  Two starting points:

• While dogs have seen tremendous decreases in euthanasia, cats are still suffering at the same level as they have for years
• So it is possible to adopt our way out of the dog problem, but the solution to limiting cat euthanasia lies in spay & neuter.

We have mandatory spay & neuter in Los Angeles.  Which means that if you own a cat or dog, the law requires it to be sterilized unless you have a breeding permit.  And spay & neuter is what the Found Animals Foundation really spends the majority of its budget on—supporting FixNation, Spay4LA, SNP LA, and Michelson Prize and Grants.  Some of these programs are about supplying free and low cost sterilizations and others (MPG) are about finding a larger solution to this global challenge.

Holly gave us the advantages and  disadvantages for a variety of types of spay & neuter plans:  vouchers, in-clinic clinics, MASH units, shelter and municipal partnerships, high volume stationary clinics, high volume mobile clinics and transport.

VOUCHERS: drive business, good tracking, administratively intensive, low redemption rate, timely payment to vets can be a problem (we have a voucher program in Los Angeles to assist pet owners—it’s administered through the shelter system)

IN-CLINIC CLINICS:  uses existing staff and equipment, great for special events but can alienate private vets

MASH UNITS:  high level of community engagement, can involve a lot of travel and staff burnout, has to be 100% self-sustained, difficult to find locations that can be sterile for operations

SHELTER/MUNICIPAL PARTNERSHIPS:  maximize fixed costs, target opportunities high, shelter might have restrictions, disease prevention could be tough, could be challenged with changing political scene

HIGH VOLUME STATIONARY:  can do high numbers of sterilizations, easier to staff, might encounter private vet opposition, requires heavy promotion and PR, significant start-up costs (we run SNP LA at three locations that are examples of this type of spay & neuter)

HIGH VOLUME MOBILE: services geographically underserved, high volume and high quality, costly to run and start up, maintenance costs are high, logistically can be challenging, might have high staff turnover (we run Spay4LA in South LA that is a mobile unit)

TRANSPORT:  provides accessibility, labor intensive, might have trust issues with pet owners

So if you’ve been itching to make a difference in a big way, these are some things to consider.  And if you’ve been itching to make a difference in a smaller way—get your animal spayed or neutered and encourage your friends, family and colleagues to do the same!