Last time I wrote about my experiences with the newborn kitten and mentioned how this gave me an idea. A brainstorm, really, an epiphany. I said it would probably have to be a “When I win the lottery” kind of undertaking, not something easy start up unless you have a lot of money, as well as a lot of time. So I’ll present this idea now as a “Someday/Maybe” wish for the future.
If I won the lottery (or somehow came into a ton of money so that I didn’t have the work and had tons of time as well as tons of money), I would like to develop a charity to help people get their pets fixed.
I’ve known for a long time (and indeed everyone knows, if they just take the time to think about it), that there are far too many unwanted animals in the world, and a lot of them cannot be adequately cared for. Far too many are left at shelters simply because their guardians could not afford to keep them, or someone moved in with an allergy, or developed an allergy, or the new apartment will not allow pets. There are too many reasons why people abandon their pets, and not all of them are really good reasons. It’s a shame these things happen, and these things will no doubt go on happening, and there’s probably nothing that can be done to stop the problem completely, but there is one thing every responsible pet owner CAN do.
Spay or neuter.
At least this way, the population of unwanted animals will be kept under control. Because every time you spay or neuter, not only are you preventing a litter of unwanted puppies or kittens, but you are preventing countless future litters of unwanted puppies and kittens. (I recently heard that a single mom and dad cat can lead to up to 450,000 more cats over the course of seven years, if none of the offspring and their offspring are ever spayed or neutered. Yikes!!) This is the sort of thing that can easily be “nipped in the bud” (if you’ll excuse the expression.) A little action now will go a long way into the future.
So…why do people not spay and neuter their pets? Probably lots of reasons, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they #1 reason who people don’t spay and neuter is because they feel it just costs too much and they think they cannot afford it. To my way of thinking, if you can’t afford the cost of spay or neuter, then you cannot afford to keep a pet. It should be that simple, but it’s not. The truth is that there is and there always will be plenty of people who can’t afford to keep pets, but will keep them anyway.
That’s something I can’t change. But I would love to be able to change this: to give the “I can’t afford it” people no excuse to not have their pet spayed or neutered. Of course there are plenty of places in every community that will do the job at a discounted rate or for free for people who truly cannot afford it. But my idea is to take this one step further.
Think for a moment if you will about the child sponsorship charities such as Save the Children or Compassion International, where people send a certain amount of money per month to help support a needy child, usually in some underdeveloped country. When you sign up for this charity program, a lot of times they will ask if you want to sponsor a boy or a girl, and you can even pick which country your sponsored child is from. Then that child will send you letters and pictures, etc., so you feel like you have a relationship with someone that you are truly helping. It’s a very immediate and concrete demonstration of exactly how your donation is helping one specific person in the world.
So here’s what I propose: I want to start a charity that follows a similar pattern, but it will be for keeping the pet population under control. People who sign up to donate will be paying for a spay or neuter of one specific animal. They can choose cat or dog, they may even be able to choose what state or city that animal is from. And in return for their donation, they will get a picture of the pet that they helped, so that they can always look at that picture and say, “This animal has a happier life, and is not contributing to pet overpopulation, and it’s ALL BECAUSE OF ME.” An immediate and concrete demonstration of exactly how your donation is helping.
On the other side of this equation, this organization would somehow work with vets and animal clinics that provide spay and neuter services in order to find those pet-owners who are in need of financial assistance.
As for the pet owner, in exchange for receiving the benefit of financial assistance, all they need to do is provide a picture of their pet, the pet’s name, and perhaps a brief history or description of the pet’s life (“Fluffy is four months old and was adopted at the local animal shelter. She lives with a family with two children and loves to chase balls of crumpled up wrapping paper across the living room floor.”)
See, the real problem with all this is working out the details—how to get the donors and the owners matched up, how to find the vets and clinics providing the actual service, and how to make the payments.
Being a sort of cynical person, I am also on guard against potential fraud. How do you guarantee that there really IS a Fluffy, and that she really did get spayed? How do you make sure the clinic isn’t just telling you they provided these services for non-existent animals, and then pocketing the money?
I haven’t worked out the details yet, but you get the main idea: no one should ever again be able to say “I can’t afford to get my pet fixed,” because this organization (and I haven’t yet figured out a snappy name for it) will always be available to everyone who needs it.
I think there would probably be plenty of pet-lovers out there as well, who would be more than happy to donate a certain amount of money to know that they made a specific dent in pet overpopulation. If I knew there was such a charity, and I could feel secure that my money was actually going to help a particular cat or dog, and if I could get a picture of that specific animal that I helped, I would be more than willing to help. If paying for one spay and one neuter could prevent even a fraction of the estimated 450,000 unwanted animals in the world, I think that would be money well spent.
I feel like I have the germ of a good idea here, but working out the particulars seems nightmarish. Administration of such a charity would be a full-time job! A sort of “matchmaking” service for pets—but in reverse! I think the way to start would be to do this on a very local level at first, see how it goes, then look at expanding over time.
So that’s the beginning of what I think is a good idea. Still needs a bit of fleshing out. If anyone has any further ideas on how to accomplish something this ambitious, please let me know!
I agree and disagree with you again. I agree that spaying and neutering is a number one priority in the ownership of your animal. We have done all our dogs and do not regret in anyway ever having it done. The cost is minimal if you use the Pet-aid program. And that is where I disagree with you. I dont feel cost is the number one factor of not having it done. The same way men dont want vasectomies men dont want their animals altered either. They think it will turn them into a woose. Another point that they dont want is the “inconvience” of taking their pets to the vet and the recovery period of the surgery. Unfortunatly we live in a world of very ignorant people. Good luck with your venture.
Unfortunately, I think you may be right. Case in point: Joey has not had Reggie fixed, for basically the reason that he doesn’t want to “deny him his manhood.” (He also thinks he’s going to make money from selling puppies, which might be the case if Reggie had papers, but he doesn’t, so it’s unlikely anyone is going to pay for those puppies).
And it IS an inconvenience. But at least with my plan, maybe some of those people who are using money as an excuse would not be able to use that excuse, and they would have it done!
And another thing: fixed animals make much better pets! They are more people-oriented. We watch Jackson Galaxy all the time, and more than once, simply having a cat spayed or neutered has solved half the problem.
Hi Chris – having your pet fixed also makes them healthier pets! I know there’s a lot of holes you have to work out in your plan, but it’s a nice idea. Also, I wonder how many people would take advantage and say “sure, I can afford it, but I’ll sign up Fluffy for Chrissy’s plan just so I don’t have to dig into my own pocket”. You are so right when you say that people who can’t afford to get them fixed wouldn’t be able to keep a pet because how would they expect to pay for the yearly vet visits which can be very costly? Anything can come up with them, which sometimes costs a lot more than getting them fixed. Also, a name you might want to consider for your orginization could be “Nu-Spay”. Keep your posts coming and let me know if you are active in using facebook.
Thanks for the idea on the name, Lori! Might be able to work with that. I also thought about how people who CAN afford it might just take advantage, so I think there would have to be a screening process that would involve giving financial information. But checking all that financial information would involve some expense. Those are the kinds of details I need to work out.
As for Facebook, I don’t really care for it that much. I’m on Twitter, thou, as darkshadowspod, but mostly tweet about the podcast.