San Diego, August 3, 2018 – The Spay-Neuter Action Project of San Diego, or SNAP, will travel to the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel at Schoolhouse Canyon Road, on Saturday, August 4, to hold an affordable spay/neuter clinic on tribal grounds.
SNAP, a registered non-profit, is recognized as the first organization in San Diego County, to implement programs to reduce the number of companion animals euthanized in local shelters each year. In 1990, they published the very first referral guide of affordable spay/neuter providers in the region, to address pet overpopulation at its source. An improvement was realized in the number of shelter intakes from some zip codes, but lower-income communities trailed behind significantly. SNAP changed course in 2003 by becoming an affordable spay/neuter provider, to bring services directly into these areas struggling with chronic pet overpopulation. An average of 500 spay/neuter procedures are performed each month on location, by a fully trained and California State licensed veterinary team inside the Neuter Scooter surgical bus. Over 70,000 combined cats and dogs have been altered to date.
“Clinics are made possible through partnerships with the Native America Humane Society and Indian Health Council, Inc., respectively. They provide access onto tribal grounds and sponsorships so procedures for pets belonging to tribal members, can be performed at no charge,” said Dorell Sackett, SNAP Executive Director. SNAP holds quarterly clinics, with some for consecutive days due to the enormous coordination of staff and distance traveled by the medical team. “By providing quarterly spay and neuter clinics, we can help tribal pets lead healthier lives while decreasing the number of strays that can pose a problem for domesticated animals, as dogs living in the wild often hunt in packs and cats multiply at an expeditious rate, even with the large presence of coyotes, non-domesticated dogs and other wildlife,” said Ms. Sackett.
SNAP is proud to be the first non-Native organization to partner with Native American organizations and vice-versa to address domestic pet overpopulation. The program, referred to as Tribal-SNAP, has now entered its second year and has made a difference in preventing or stopping the birth of unwanted litters on reservations. “Many caring tribal members (and their families) have joined the effort by rounding up stray dogs and cats the morning of clinics, because they want to participate in the process of alleviating the suffering of companion animals and unwanted offspring,” said Dorell Sackett.
SNAP would like to publicly thank the entire tribal community for being part of the solution.
For more information about SNAP, please visit www.snap-sandiego.org or join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or by using the hashtag #SNAPsandiego.