Lucky Black Cats Get Free Spay/Neuter Surgeries With PETA’s Halloween Special

Group’s Mobile Clinic Will Waive Charges to Help Keep the Scary Specter of Feline Homelessness at Bay

For Immediate Release:
October 24, 2016

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

There’s nothing unlucky about black cats—as long as their guardians are diligent about having them spayed or neutered. That’s why, before Halloween, PETA is offering Hampton–area residents free spay and neuter surgeries at its mobile veterinary clinics for black cats and black kittens who are more than 14 weeks old:

Date:    Friday, October 28
Time:    8–9 a.m. drop-off (by appointment only; space is limited)
Places:    PETA’s Sam Simon Center, 501 Front St., Norfolk Border Station,
4732 Battlefield Blvd. S., Chesapeake (just across the state line from Moyock, North Carolina)
Island Tan, 188 Stewart Dr., Franklin

Appointments must be made by October 27 by calling PETA at 757-622-PETA (7382), extension 3, or visiting PETA.org/SpayNeuterAppt.

“For all the black cats we spay or neuter, this Halloween could be the luckiest day of their lives,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “It means that more kittens won’t be brought into the world just to end up struggling for survival on the mean streets or dying for a home at a local animal shelter.”

PETA’s mobile clinics have sterilized more than 133,000 animals since the program’s inception in 2001, preventing the births of hundreds of thousands of unwanted kittens and puppies. Sterilized animals also live longer and happier lives and are less likely to develop cancer of the reproductive system or deadly, contagious diseases such as feline leukemia and feline AIDS.

More than 224,000 dogs and cats were admitted to animal shelters across Virginia in 2015 alone, and over 44,000 had to be euthanized, many for lack of a good home. That’s why PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—urges people to adopt animals from a local shelter and always have them spayed or neutered. In addition, PETA cautions cat guardians never to allow cats outside unattended, as they are vulnerable to being hit by cars, attacked by other animals, and abused by cruel people. Black cats, especially, are often stolen, tortured, or killed around Halloween.

For more information, please visit PETA.org/SpayNeuter.