FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT: Ria Brown, Public Information Specialist
                                  Lee County Animal Services
                                  (239) 432-2090 Ext. 241

Stamping Out Pet Overpopulation!
Lee County Animal Services Assists Low-income Pet Owners for Spay Day USA

Fort Myers, Florida, February 10, 2003—Lee County Animal Services will participate in Spay Day USA by providing up to 1000 spay or neuter surgeries for low-income pet owners.  While Spay Day is actually celebrated on February 25, Lee County Animal Services will target neighborhoods during the months of February and March with the largest population of unaltered pets owned by residents unable to afford the sterilization procedure.  Coupons will be issued to qualifying pet owners to cover the cost of the surgeries performed at Lee County Animal Services’ Clinic and Affordable Spay/Neuter of Lee County, Inc.

The Doris Day Animal Foundation, creator of Spay Day USA, has chosen the U.S. Postal Services’ Spay/Neuter Commemorative Stamp as this year’s campaign theme. The Foundation is encouraging every American to do their part in “stamping out pet overpopulation.”  Currently, America’s shelter workers are forced to euthanize an estimated five million homeless cats and dogs each year or one every 6 and one half seconds.  Locally, Animal Services must end the lives of over 8,000 unwanted pets each year.  The cost to taxpayers to pick up, house, and eventually euthanize these abandoned pets can be as high as $176 per animal. 

Lee County Animal Services Director, Scott Trebatoski, believes there is a more humane and less costly solution.  “We are making this offer to low-income pet owners to help ease this crisis while we wait for the purchase of a mobile spay/neuter clinic.”  The county’s mobile clinic would travel to target areas and provide a solution not currently available to these residents.  Besides making the procedure affordable, the mobile clinic would overcome another major obstacle – lack of transportation.  “Just like Lee County’s Human Services Department works with these residents to correct social and economic problems associated with low-income neighborhoods, Animal Services must also work to provide solutions to their pet problems,” adds Trebatoski.  Research shows that spay/neuter programs have not been successful without targeting low socioeconomic areas.