PETA Slashes Cost of Feline ‘Fixes’ for ‘Adopt a Shelter Cat’ Month

Just in Time for ‘Kitten Season,’ Group Offers $25 Spays and Neuters in Effort to Combat Animal Homelessness and Need for Euthanizing Millions

For Immediate Release:
May 22, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Norfolk, Va. — June is “Adopt a Shelter Cat” Month, and PETA wants to make sure that Virginia’s open-admission shelters can someday boast that they don’t have to euthanize even one unwanted homeless animal. That’s why PETA is slashing its price for cat sterilizations from the normally low cost of $45 to just $25. During June, the group’s mobile veterinary clinics will set up shop at several locations within a two-hour radius of PETA’s Norfolk headquarters, making them accessible to many of the commonwealth’s residents. Interested parties are encouraged to call the number below to find out when one of the clinics will be in their area.

“Spaying and neutering are the only ways to get a handle on the number of unwanted cats and dogs born every year, and we’re providing animal guardians with an incentive that’s hard to beat,” says PETA Director Martin Mersereau. “PETA encourages those who are ready to welcome a cat or dog into their home to adopt from their local animal shelter and never buy from pet stores or breeders, which only exacerbate the homeless-animal crisis.”

The results of failing to spay and neuter are tragic. Virginia animal shelters took in at least 93,000 cats in 2012. Approximately 30,000 were adopted, but more than 40,000 were euthanized. May and June begin what’s known as “kitten season”—the time of year when cats breed most prolifically, lasting through the summer. Since 2001, PETA has sterilized more than 92,000 animals, preventing the births of many times that number and saving them from winding up in the streets or in shelters, which are already bursting at the seams with homeless and unwanted cats.

To make an appointment for spaying or neutering, members of the public are encouraged to call PETA at 757-622-PETA (7382), option 3.

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