FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Diego, December 11, 2024
Funding will provide free microchips to pet dogs and cats of low-income rural, military, and unhoused San Diego County residents and members of Native Nations
Spay-Neuter Action Project (SNAP) announced that it has received a $6,835.66 Community Care Grant from Banfield Foundation® to provide free microchips to 1,220 pet dogs and cats of low-income rural, military, and unhoused San Diego County residents as well as members of Native Nations. Microchips facilitate the recovery of lost pets and thereby help to reduce the number entering animal shelters. The microchips will be provided at SNAP’s free spay/neuter clinics. Spay/neuter prevents the birth of unwanted animals and is essential to reducing the current crisis of overcrowded San Diego County animal shelters that are caring for far more animals than their facilities were designed to house. Offering the microchips for free as part of SNAP’s spay/neuter services provides another incentive to sterilize pets in marginalized communities where pet overpopulation is prevalent. The microchipping and spay/neuter services will be performed in 2025 by SNAP’s high-volume surgeons on a mobile surgical bus (the “Neuter Scooter”) that travels across San Diego County to meet clients where they are needed most, and at the SNAP East Spay Center at 702 Broadway, El Cajon, CA 92021.
SNAP’s mission is to save lives by reducing pet overpopulation. Since 2003, SNAP has provided over 85,000 free and low-cost spay and neuter surgeries for pets of financially challenged clients in underserved communities. SNAPs generous spay/neuter surgery package includes a general health exam, nail trim, flea and tick treatment, deworming, pain medication, rabies vaccination, recovery collars for dogs and female cats, and cardboard carriers for cats that need one. Loose teeth extraction and wound care are also available, when needed, and for a nominal fee the surgeons neuter animals with cryptorchidism, repair simple hernias, and implant microchips. A one-year free license is available for pets who qualify by zip code. For a limited time, lifesaving DAPPv vaccines for dogs and FVRCP vaccines for cats, donated by Petco Love, are administered at no charge.
“We are very grateful to the Banfield Foundation for this grant support which will enable us to provide free microchips to more San Diego County and Native Nations pets” said Dorell Sackett, SNAP’s Executive Director.
About Banfield Foundation
Since 2015, Banfield Foundation has been making preventive care possible for the pets that need it most. Through grants and partnerships, they provide medical supplies and resources to nonprofit partners in need; support pets, people and communities in crisis; and enable veterinary professionals to deliver compassionate and inclusive preventive veterinary care in under resourced communities areas across the nation.
About Spay-Neuter Action Project (SNAP)
SNAP became a registered nonprofit organization in 1996. SNAP was the first organization in the San Diego region to implement programs to reduce the number of companion animals euthanized in local shelters. SNAP brings affordable spay/neuter services directly to communities struggling with chronic pet overpopulation. SNAP has fixed over 85,000 dogs, cats, and rabbits since 2003. Visit www.snap-sandiego.org to learn more, or follow SNAP on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with our latest news and events.