$200K Grant Boosts Spay & Neuter Efforts
The Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust has awarded a $200,000 grant to the Fix.Adopt.Save. initiative to fund the completion of 2,740 spay or neuter surgeries over the next six months.
Fix.Adopt.Save. partner Altered Tails, Arizona’s largest nonprofit spay/neuter clinic specializing in high-quality, low-cost spay/neuter services, will receive $150,000 of this grant to perform more than 2,000 of those surgeries.
The funding received by Altered Tails Barnhart Clinics for its Phoenix and Mesa locations will enable it to sufficiently perform 2,040 free surgeries; 840 for Maricopa County Animal Care & Control adoption-ready animals and 1,200 for owned animals. Also, 700 Fix.Adopt.Save. vouchers will be distributed to partners for free surgeries for owned dogs and cats.
The goal of the grant is to provide free dog and cat surgeries for residents of Maricopa County and to assist with sterilization of adoption-ready animals.
“Spay/neuter surgeries are critical to reducing the euthanasia of dogs and cats at our Valley shelters,” said Lisa Shover Kackley, trustee of the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. “We’re proud to continue supporting the Fix. Adopt. Save. initiative the Trust helped launch five years ago with an animal welfare coalition of seven local agencies. This grant to Altered Tails will continue the important work of serving animals in need across Maricopa County.”
Launched in 2012, Fix.Adopt.Save. focuses on dramatically increasing the availability of low-cost and no-cost spay/neuter services to reduce shelter intake and euthanasia. Funded by the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust and PetSmart Charities, the efforts of Maricopa County’s Alliance for Companion Animals and the Fix.Adopt.Save. initiative have resulted in one of the most rapid improvements in animal welfare in the country, decreasing euthanasia rates countywide by 79 percent and saving nearly 30,000 additional dogs and cats since 2012.
“It is so important to continue to reduce the number of unwanted pets entering Maricopa County shelters,” said Susana Della Maddalena, executive director of the Altered Tails Barnhart Clinics. “Spay and neuter achieves that and also improves the quality of life for pets and their owners. This grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust will have a significant impact on furthering the impressive results of the Fix.Adopt.Save. initiative.”
