Montrose - Daily Press

MONTROSE — In a scant six months, the Montrose area used more than $25,000 secured to combat pet overpopulation.

In May, the Montrose Animal Protection Agency was forced to suspend its spay/neuter voucher program that helps income-eligible pet owners offset the costs of pet sterilization. It is now actively seeking more grant funding and donations.

Between December and May, MAPA helped pay for the sterilization of 479 pets — roughly as many in six months as were sterilized all last year under the program, MAPA volunteer Susan Kroll Wise said.

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When it has funding, MAPA provides vouchers: $55 for a male dog; $65 for a female dog; $25 for a tomcat and $55 for a female cat. Pet owners are responsible for the remaining balance, which varies by veterinarian.

MAPA used to also have a rebate program, but has canceled that, Kroll Wise said.

“This (voucher) money is not at all money that is used in feral animals,” she said. “This is strictly for companion animals. That’s a contingency in some of the grant applications we have written.”

Program money is generated from several fundraising efforts; business, personal and memorial donations; grants and the Colorado Pet Overpopulation Fund income tax checkoff program.

MAPA received $15,000 from the pet overpopulation fund for 2008 — an amount $10,000 less than what was spent in the first six months. Personal donations amounted to $3,200 while businesses kicked in $5,300.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough money,” Kroll Wise said.

The increased demand for spay/neuter assistance could mean more people are aware of the benefits of pet sterilization, or more aware of MAPA’s services, she said.

But pet overpopulation remains a problem in Montrose County.

“Because of the number of animals euthanized, obviously, people are still not seeing that as a high priority. There’s still a major problem in people realizing how significant this is.”

An unaltered female cat that breeds every cycle and her offspring can, in seven years, produce a staggering number of cats — 420,000, Kroll Wise said.

Unwanted pets can lead to a whole host of related problems — nuisance stray dogs and cats; starving animals that are also at risk for predation and injuries; and, as animal control officers said occurred in Montrose recently, pet dumping.

Animal control is still investigating a report of kittens tossed into a city Dumpster and possibly taken to the trash dumpsite Monday.

“I don’t know what the motivation of this person was,” Kroll Wise said of the Dumpster report. It could have been ignorance about other options, she said, but there was an easy remedy available before the kittens were conceived.

“If that mother cat had been spayed, the whole incident would never have happened. Since this was an unwanted litter, it was the owner’s responsibility to make sure the litter didn’t happen,” Kroll Wise said.

MAPA works to combat the type of ignorance that can lead to pet dumping. It hosts adult education programs and, through its Pets R Us after-school program, teaches children about the ethical care of pets, which includes showing a cat or dog attention every day, providing routine medical care, daily fresh food and water, and adequate shelter from the elements.

“Getting a pet is not the end of it,” Kroll Wise said.

To make a donation to MAPA, write P.O. Box 2009, Montrose, CO 81402 or contact Kroll Wise at 249-9780. The Web site is www.montrosepets.org.

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