State legislators passed new legislation designating each February as Spay and Neuter Awareness Month to help reduce pet overpopulation and decrease euthanasia rates.
Spay Tennessee Program Manager Julie Jacobson tracks affordable animal care programs across the Upper Cumberland region. Jacobson said the recent legislative action aims to highlight these local resources for pet owners who might otherwise delay the procedure due to financial concerns or a lack of information.
“One of the problems that we face is that a lot of the public doesn’t know when to do it and they think they can’t afford it,” Jacobson said. “So one of the efforts in making February Spay Neuter Awareness Month is to make sure people know kittens can get pregnant as young as three months old, so please don’t wait.”
The Upper Cumberland region currently operates three spay and neuter clinics located in Warren County, Putnam County, and Cumberland County. Jacobson said 12 of the 14 counties in the area also offer strong assistance programs to help residents use private veterinarians or local clinics.
“That really does help because the first step to no-kill is no-birth,” Jacobson said. “And if your basement is flooding, what do you do first? Do you start bailing or do you turn off the spigot? You know, a lot of the rescue and shelter programs, they’re bailing, but we in the spay-neuter world, we’re trying to turn off the spigot.”
Residents looking for financial assistance can visit spaytennessee.org to find a dropdown list of programs available in their specific county. The website connects pet owners with local options designed to make the procedure affordable for every animal in a household.
“If the goal is to become a no-kill nation and people are interested in seeing shelter euthanasia not be the leading cause of death for cats and dogs in America, the first thing to do is turn off the spigot and have your pets fixed so the shelters don’t stay full,” Jacobson said.
Animal shelters and rescues across the state and the country are currently staying full, making euthanasia a reality for many stray animals. Subsidizing a spay or neuter procedure costs less than housing an animal in a shelter for a single day, while also providing health benefits like cancer prevention and longer lifespans for pets.
“It is very exciting because a lot of times there’s not enough attention paid to things like prevention,” Jacobson said. “There’s a lot of money—municipalities spend a lot of money on sheltering. But it actually is more cost-effective to spay and neuter. Just like criminal justice and personal health, prevention is cheaper than treatment of the disease.”
The Tennessee House and Senate speakers officially signed the awareness month resolution on March 4.