News

Spay-neuter organization appeals for help

By Bill Moss, Published: December 8, 2016

The founder of a successful nonprofit spay neuter program Henderson County is appealing for public support to keep the program going through 2017.

Mary Cervini says grants for the spay-neuter program are drying up and the organization needs a steadier supply of funding to sustain the program that has prevented the birth of thousands of unwanted dogs and cats.
“The money was there so we really didn’t ever rely on the donations from community because we were able to get what we needed through grants,” Cervini said. “But the last three years there just has been a steady decline in the number of grants that are specifically targeted for us as well as the grants are much much smaller.”
Cervini said the Community Partnership for Pets applied for 62 grants over the past 10 months and got three. It got a grant recently that will extend the spay neuter program into next year but after that she’s unsure of the future.
The organization sells spay-neuter vouchers for $9 for a cat and $25 for a dog and pays the difference. The nonprofit effort has accounted for 25,894 surgeries.
“That has stopped thousands and thousands of animals from being born,” she said. “As our people population is going up the pet intake to the shelter is going down. That’s an important indication that what we do is working. … The intake to the shelter is down 52 percent. At the end of last year 2,100 had come in.” The highest intake was 4,400.
The nonprofit does not have an expense side to cut; the money it takes in goes to subsidize the low-cost surgeries.
“We’re all volunteers, we’re not paying any salaries,” she said. “We’re not saying we’ve got a couple of staff that can go to part-time or we can give up a leased building because we all work from home and we work for free.”
Henderson County Shelter director Brad Rayfield told the Cervinis that “with these animals not streaming in, it gives him and his staff more time inside to get the animals ready to be adopted.”
“We’ve still got probably another 20 (grant applications) out there,” she said. “Between the donations and the grants we have enough to be able to sell vouchers through the end of March. We’ve always been looking for a long-term solution knowing that grants are not the answer. One of the things that really would help us is if a lot of people would just make a small donation either every month or once a year. If every man, woman and child gave us $3 a year that would give us $300,000 to operate.”
Another option is donor-directed funding through the Henderson County Community Foundation.
“Some of the grantors are very focused on spay and neuter and very happy with the results we have,” she said. “So we’re on their preferred list when they have money.”

To donate visit http://communitypartnershipforpets.org/donate/ or the Go Fund Me page https://www.gofundme.com/24d653qs or mail a check to Community Partnership for Pets, P.O. Box 1021, Flat Rock, N.C. 28731.