National Spay Day is February 28th!

In Celebration, the Cleveland APL will “Fix” up to 50 Feral and Free-Roaming Homeless Cats on February 28th for only $5 each.

National “Spay Day” is an annual event designed to bring attention to the millions of homeless cats and dogs who enter shelters every year in the U.S. and the millions more who live on the streets. It will be marked around the country on February 28th. The Cleveland Animal Protective League (APL) is celebrating by asking Cuyahoga County residents to take advantage of their spay and neuter program for feral and homeless outdoor cats to reduce the numbers of kittens born to a life on the street.

The Cleveland APL has set a goal to perform 50 surgeries through its feral cat program. To help reach this milestone, it is reducing its regularly low fee of $10 to $5 per surgery. The surgery fee includes spay or neuter, rabies vaccine, feline distemper vaccine, tattoo, and an ear tip.

“We hope that this drastic price reduction, which does not even begin to cover our cost for these services, will encourage people to bring cats off the street and into our clinic to be spayed or neutered,” said Sharon Harvey, Cleveland Animal Protective League CEO. “It is crucial that our community help these homeless cats and prevent more kittens from being born to a life spent scavenging for survival in back yards, garages, and vacant lots.”

“Our low-cost spay and neuter program exists to solve this problem; we now need the community’s support and are asking for people to help by scheduling their outdoor, neighborhood cats for surgery,” continued Harvey. “We particularly want to reach kind-hearted people who are feeding these cats; if somebody can afford to feed cats, they can afford our surgery fee.”

Studies show that sterilizing felines in feral colonies will first stabilize the number of resident cats and then lead to a decline through attrition. Nuisance behaviors associated with breeding, such as the yowling of females or the spraying of toms, are virtually eliminated. Unspayed cats can go into heat at just 4 months of age and give birth to three litters each year.

The Cleveland APL evaluates, sterilizes, and vaccinates cats who are brought to its clinic in humane traps. Cats that have undergone the procedure are ear-tipped for identification – meaning a small portion of the left ear is painlessly removed. They are then returned to their familiar habitats under the care of dedicated caretakers. More than 10,000 cats have been spayed through the APL’s program since it was launched, but more action is needed to get ahead of the problem.

For more information about the Cleveland APL’s TNR program, call Gretchen Gipson,
Cleveland APL Animal Welfare Clinic Coordinator, at 216-377-1624.