Spay/Neuter Work: Celebrating What We’ve Done and Looking Ahead
By Lynn Gibson, Senior Program Officer
As we observe February as Spay/Neuter Awareness Month, we want to look back and celebrate key efforts to improve our communities, specifically in the animal welfare space.
The Rees-Jones Foundation has had a history of supporting animal welfare-related issues since its inception in 2006. Originally, the animal welfare work focused on anti-cruelty efforts. We are grateful for the progress that has been made on that front, as puppy mills are no longer common in the DFW community, laws have been strengthened so that abusers can be more easily convicted, and cultural norms have improved the welfare of animals overall.
More recently, the Foundation has focused on access to spay-neuter and general wellness services. In collaboration with other local and national funders, the Foundation has participated in two large-scale spay-neuter projects. The goal of each of these initiatives has been to reduce the overall dog and cat population within Dallas County.
When thinking back on the community’s efforts to expand access to spay-neuter, understanding the local context is key. In January 2012, the former Dallas Companion Animal Project (“DCAP”), in collaboration with the City of Dallas, published a study titled: A Strategy for Transforming Dallas into a ‘No-Kill’ Community. The “No-Kill” movement—which has set a goal of a 90% live release rate (“LRR”) nationwide for animals coming into shelters—was initiated through Best Friends. Live releases rates are calculated by taking the number of animals that leave an animal shelter alive by the total number of animals that come into the shelter.
In 2011, the year prior to the publication, the live release rate for the City of Dallas was 26.4%. While that might seem abysmal—and it is for a large city shelter—the 2007 rate was even worse at a meager 12.7%, meaning nearly nine of every ten animals that went into Dallas Animal Services (“DAS”), did not make it out alive. In 2010, according to the report, more than 22,000 animals were euthanized at DAS (at the end of the FY23/24, 5,872 animals were euthanized).
Several efforts were identified that needed to be implemented to put the city on a path towards “No-Kill” status. These included: awareness and education, community cat programs, fundraising efforts, accessible free and low-cost spay/neuter services, pet owner outreach, and pet placement/adoption support. While there is certainly still a need to expand on all of these efforts to ensure a healthy and well-cared for companion animal community, Dallas has come a long way during the past fifteen years. Dallas area funders took up the “No-Kill” charge, raised money, went to work, and followed up with several large efforts that continue to reap benefits for our neighbors and friends around the city.
The first effort, The Big Fix for Big D, was launched by DCAP in 2012, and was intended to be a three-year project with a focus on providing free spay and neuter surgeries, vaccinations and registration for animals in the highest-need zip codes of Dallas. The project was eventually extended for another few years. During the first three years of the project, The Big Fix provided more than 28,000 spay and neuter surgeries in high-needs zip codes in Dallas, contributing to a significant decrease in euthanasia and a notable increase in the LRR in the city. While that figure sounds like a large number, upon reflection, 28,000 surgeries was primarily a maintenance figure. In other words, it wasn’t reducing the loose dog population, but was merely stemming the growth of the population in the City of Dallas.
After a fatal incident between a loose pack of dogs and a woman in southern Dallas in 2016, a convening of local animal funders occurred to find a solution to the loose dog problem. In partnership with the Boston Consulting Group, Peter Brodsky (then the City’s Animal Commissioner), and a group of funders, there were many “fixes” that needed to be addressed by the City of Dallas if change was going to be realized. Thankfully, the City got to work with continued guidance from community partners: a new mission statement was adopted to balance human and animal safety, staff were hired to be more responsible to citizen calls and needs, live release rates started to increase, and adoption rates and volunteers also saw growth in numbers.
Alongside other private funders, the “Let’s Fix This” campaign was born. The Surge (or “Let’s Fix This”) expanded the reach of free and low-cost spay-neuter surgeries to encompass 23 high needs zip codes. Partner agencies such as Spay Neuter Network and the SPCA of Texas expanded their surgery capacity and outreach staff in order to reach the community to ensure that pet-owners had access to spay-neuter services. This campaign resulted in a dramatic increase in dog and cat surgeries because of the community partners who joined together to tackle a very preventable problem. Most notably, nearly 80,000 surgeries were completed by the SPCA of Texas and Spay Neuter Network.
While many efforts are important to controlling the local pet population – transports to other areas of the country and adoptions, in particular – ensuring that fewer litters are born and that the animals that are born are adopted is crucial. Spay-neuter offers the most bang for the buck. While it costs anywhere from $500-$700 to transport an animal to other areas of the country, a spay-neuter surgery can be performed for about $100, or less in some cases.
While partners have made a huge dent in the overpopulation issues in southern and West Dallas, the work continues. The Foundation is currently focused on providing spay-neuter access to the top 10 intake zip codes (75217, 75216, 75212, 75111, 75226, 75241, 75224, 75228, 75232, 75208) at DAS. Spay-neuter services help keep local animal populations healthy and ensure that the community can care for the animals it already has.
The Foundation continues to hold the belief that the more we invest in furry friends across our communities, the more we will see positive dividends in the well-being of children, families and neighborhoods.