Calendar Item: ‘Are You Kitten Me?’ PETA to Offer $20 Spay and Neuter Surgeries in May
For Immediate Release:
April 10, 2017
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
In honor of kitten season—the time of year when cats give birth—PETA will offer $20 spay and neuter services for companion cats throughout the Hampton Roads area during the month of May.
When: Throughout the month of May—please visit PETA.org/SpayNeuter for more information and to make appointments.
Where: Boykins, Chesapeake, Eastern Shore, Emporia, Franklin, Hampton, Hopewell, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk, Sussex, Wakefield, and Yorktown—as well as Moyock, North Carolina
PETA’s mobile clinics are on track to spay or neuter more than 1,000 cats this month, which will prevent the births of countless kittens. It’s estimated that within one and a half years, one female cat can give birth to 36 kittens, who can go on to reproduce in just four months. Right now, there are an estimated 80 million homeless cats nationwide.
Sterilized animals live longer and happier lives, are less likely to develop cancer of the reproductive system, and are less likely to roam, fight, or contract deadly contagious diseases.
“Kitten season is a great time to ensure that fewer felines contribute to the companion-animal overpopulation crisis,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “For every cat who gets ‘snipped’ by PETA this May, countless more kittens won’t be born into a world already filled with homeless animals.”
Every year, more than 6 million dogs and cats end up in animal shelters across the U.S., and half of them must be euthanized because there aren’t enough good homes for them. The solution is simple: spaying and neutering. Since 2001, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—has performed low-cost spay and neuter surgeries on over 140,000 dogs, cats, and rabbits, including more than 15,000 in 2016.
