PALM HARBOR – They began showing up early; SUVs transporting single moms, family sedans with kids, and men in pickup trucks all with a common destination and a single mission; deliver Fluffy or Cosmo or Whiskers to the neuter-a-thon sponsored by the Suncoast Animal League and the Day and Evening Pet Clinic of Palm Harbor.
The all day event Feb. 21 was the second in what will be a regular series of clinics offering low cost cat spay or neuter surgeries. The fee was just $30; typically such surgery can cost $45 or more.
Funding for the sponsored clinics comes from a Florida Animal Friend Grant to Suncoast Animal League, which was one of just 16 groups in Florida selected to receive monies generated from sales of the Florida Animal Friend license plate.
Suncoast Executive Director Rick Chaboudy said, “We intend to hold these clinics at least once a month perhaps twice. There are just too many cats.”
Under the grant, Suncoast will provide 1,000 spay or neuter procedures to Pinellas and Pasco County residents; there is no income eligibility requirement for these low-cost services.
Among the arriving feline patients in colorful, cozy pet carriers were a dozen or so humane wire traps containing cats which Chaboudy said were evidently captured by residents from around the county. The captured cats were given a routine health check, a rabies inoculation and the surgery before being returned to their sponsors.
“Most would be adopted,” Chaboudy said. “If not,” his voice trailed off for a moment, “well then at least the cat won’t be making more cats.”
Pinellas County has no accepted policy for a trap, neuter, release program similar to those used in other counties in Florida and elsewhere around the country to help control the growing population of stray cats. An article from the county code states, “Any person who releases within the county any species of the animal kingdom not indigenous to Florida without having obtained a permit to do so from the fish and wildlife conservation commission shall be in violation of this article.” Domestic cats are considered a nonindigenous species. Pinellas County has formed a task force to look into the issue.
Another cat neuter-a-thon, which also will include spaying for up to 20 female cats, is set for Saturday, March 7. To register, call the Suncoast Animal League at 786-1330.
