Contact: Lane County Animal Services Administration Analyst Rochelle Jones, 541-682-3013; Lane County Animal Services Volunteer and Community Outreach Coordinator Kylie Belachaikovsky, 541-682-2388
It’s been a single year and already, Lane County Animal Services has handed out its 200th Bully Breed Voucher.
This is both a milestone and a reminder.
LCAS launched its Bully Breed Voucher program one year ago as a strategy targeted at preventing unwanted litters of dog breeds that are most likely to end up homeless and abandoned, and are most challenging to adopt from the shelter.
Using pit bulls as an example, an average sized litter includes 13 puppies. These 200 surgeries made possible through the voucher program prevented 2,600 puppies (assuming just one litter each). And that number grows exponentially when including multiple litters over the lifespan of the dog, and the prevention of future litters from those avoided off-spring.
According to LCAS Supervisor Tom Howard, this is really an important time to focus on spaying and neutering all pets as the shelter is seeing an influx of fresh kittens.
“LCAS has already been receiving abandoned litters of kittens at the shelter, and spay/neuter is the very best way to prevent unwanted animals in the community,” Howard said. “There are resources available to help with the cost of spay/neuter surgeries. LCAS offers two different types of financial assistance for spay/neuter surgeries, The Bully Breed Vouchers program and the Low Income Spay/Neuter Voucher program, which is funded through 5 percent of all license sales. When these vouchers are used at one of the low-cost clinics in the community, surgeries are affordable for all pet owners.”
LCAS is looking for businesses and individuals to help underwrite these surgeries. With discounts through partners at the City of Eugene Spay/Neuter Clinic and Greenhill Humane Society, LCAS is able to provide these surgeries for only $40, plus a $10 co-pay requested from the dog owner.
“This is a solid investment pet parents can make that generates immediate and significant returns for years to come from a single, relatively small upfront fee,” said Howard.
LCAS encourages pet owners and soon-to-be pet owners to join in the effort to reduce unwanted litters by spaying or neutering their pets.
More information on the Spay/Neuter Voucher program is available at: http://lanecounty.org/Departments/HHS/LCAS/Pages/SpayNeuterVoucherProgram.aspx
Information on Low Cost Spay/Neuter clinics is available at: http://lanecounty.org/Departments/HHS/LCAS/Pages/LocalLowCostSpayandNeuterClinics.aspx
Amber Fossen
Public Information Officer
Lane County Government
125 E. Eighth Ave.
Eugene, Oregon 97401
541.682.3718
541.359.9143 (cell)