Pet owners can help save animals’ lives

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2002 | 5:41 a.m.

NEW YEAR'S EDITION

Jan. 1, 2003

Locations to obtain vouchers

Cambridge Recreation Center, 3930 Cambridge

Cora Coleman Sunrise Senior Center, 2100 Bonnie Lane

Desert Breeze Community Center, 8275 Spring Mountain Road

Paradise Community Center, 4775 S. McLeod

Helen Meyer Community Center, 4525 New Forest Drive

Parkdale Community Center, 3200 Ferndale

Sunrise Community Center, 2240 Linn Lane

Sunset Park Administration Building, 2610 E. Sunset Road

Von Tobel Community Center, 3610 E. Carey Ave.

Whitney Center, 5712 E. Missouri Ave.

Walnut Community Center, 3075 N. Walnut Ave.

Winchester Community Center, 3130 S. McLeod

West Flamingo Senior Center, 6255 W. Flamingo

Searchlight Community Center, 4525 New Forest Drive, Michael Wendell Way

Moapa Valley Community Center, 320 N. Moapa Valley Boulevard, Overton

Laughlin Town Manager's office, 101 Civic Way, Laughlin

For a fourth year Clark County is offering vouchers for pet owners to have their dogs and cats spayed or neutered.

The vouchers are available on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Thursday and lasting until the county's $25,000 voucher fund runs out. Pet owners can visit designated community centers or government buildings to get a voucher. Phone requests for vouchers will not be accepted.

By sterilizing more dogs and cats, the county hopes to euthanize fewer animals, County Animal Control Manager Joe Boteilho said. Each year the county destroys about 10,000 animals, he said.

D.J. Cogswell, manager of the Dewey Animal Care Center, said one benefit of sterilization is the reduction in numbers.

"When you can have a litter of anywhere between one or 10 more cats," for example, "you're overpopulating," he said.

But, he added, sterilization has other benefits for pets. It lowers the risk for certain cancers, such as of the mammary glands, so it will prolong the life of a pet.

In addition, he said, sterilized dogs are "not as apt to run away, looking for a mate. We end up with a lot of animals here who were out looking for a date."

In 2001 vouchers paid, or helped pay, for 431 pet sterilizations, and in 2002 vouchers were used for 554 sterilizations, he said.

The vouchers pay for all or part of a sterilization depending on how much a veterinarian charges. The vouchers are worth $10 for a male cat, $20 for a male dog, $30 for a female cat and $40 for a female dog, Boteilho said.

Money for the vouchers comes from unused vouchers given to people who pick up their pets from the animal shelter.

When pet owners retrieve their pet from the shelter, if the animal isn't sterilized the owner has to pay $50 to the county and receives two vouchers in return. One voucher is for $35 toward a sterilization. The other provides $15 for a microchip implant, which is used for identification, Boteilho said.

But by the end of the year, many of those vouchers have gone unused, and the money set aside for them is made available for free procedures for all Clark County pet owners, he said.

Lists of the 28 veterinarians participating in the voucher program are available at the places where the vouchers can be picked up.