Spay and neuter grant award recipients named
ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland Department of Agriculture’s spay and neuter grant program is awarding more than $892,000 to 36 projects representing 21 counties and Baltimore City.
The projects will provide free spay and neuter services targeted to low-income pet owners and managers of unowned cats across the state.
Since its first round of grants in fiscal year 2015, the program has funded 123 projects, which have completed 36,163 procedures to date. Animal-shelter data since then has shown a steady decline in euthanasia and intake rates.
Area program grant awardees include:
• Washington County: $8,595.75 for low-cost spay/neuter and rabies vaccinations for 135 dogs and cats through the Humane Society of Washington County in the 21740 ZIP code, where the most calls for animal assistance originate.
• Take a Pawz, Fix Your Dawgz: $21,120 for the Frederick County (Md.) Humane Society project to provide free spaying/neutering for 201 pet dogs of low-income residents in three ZIP codes that have been identified by animal control as areas of most need.
• Frederick County Fix for Ferals: $27,959 for Tip Me Frederick to fix 540 unowned cats in the corridor from Walkersville, Woodsboro and north to Thurmont and Emmitsburg, the second-largest source of shelter intake. Project also includes several hot spots with managed colonies.
• Altered Reality (because the reality is there are not enough homes for all of them): $17,950 for Frederick County Animal Control to provide free spaying/neutering for 169 pets of low-income residents of Brunswick, Frederick, Emmitsburg, Monrovia and Adamston.
“Our goal is to reduce intake and euthanasia of cats and dogs in Maryland animal shelters,” program coordinator Jane Mallory said in a news release. “Every spay and neuter procedure reduces the risk of a dog or cat having an unwanted litter that may end up in a county shelter. Less intake to the shelters helps reduce the financial and manpower burden on county shelters, and increases the chances that current shelter dogs and cats will find homes. We have been very impressed by the quality of applications we receive and the terrific results the grantees are able to accomplish.”
Solicitation for this latest round of grants was posted in January. Of the 40 applications received, 36 were approved for funding — the greatest number of approved grants in one cycle thus far. Out of the 36 approved projects, 22 are focused on pets and 14 are focused on feral cats.
The projected total of spay/neuter procedures to be performed by these projects is 16,376.
Funding for the program comes from fees paid by pet-food companies who register to sell their products in Maryland.
For more information, go to mda.maryland.gov/spay_neuter_program/Pages/default.aspx; or contact Jane Mallory at jane.mallory@maryland.gov or 410-841-5770.