{"id":20741,"date":"2016-10-11T11:40:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T15:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=20741"},"modified":"2016-10-11T11:40:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T15:40:03","slug":"statewide-spay-neuter-program-reaches-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2016\/10\/11\/statewide-spay-neuter-program-reaches-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Statewide Spay & Neuter Program Reaches Milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SpayProgram Projects Complete More Than 12,000 Procedures in Less Than Three Years<\/em><\/p>\n

ANNAPOLIS, MD (October 11, 2016)<\/strong> \u2013 \u00a0The Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2019s Statewide Spay and Neuter Program has funded\u00a0 projects that have so far completed 12,088 procedures since the program began in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to reduce intake and euthanasia of cats and dogs in Maryland animal shelters,\u201d said Program Coordinator Jane Mallory.\u00a0 \u201cEvery spay and neuter procedure reduces the risk of a dog or cat having an unwanted litter that may end up in a county shelter. We have been very impressed by the quality of applications we receive and the terrific work the grantees have been able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program was created by the General Assembly in 2013 (FY 2014) to reduce the number of unwanted cats and dogs euthanized in shelters across the state. The program distributes competitive grants to local governments and animal welfare organizations that promote and provide free\u00a0spay and neuter services to pets of low income Marylanders and to\u00a0colonies of feral cats. The program distributed its first round of grants in FY 2015.<\/p>\n

Funding for this program comes from fees paid by pet food companies who register to sell their products in Maryland.<\/p>\n

To date, the program has provided $1.8 million in grants for 58 projects that provide free surgeries to pets and feral cats. Of those, 43 projects provide free spay and neuter services to pet cats and dogs of low income Marylanders, and 15 focus on fixing community cats in feral cat colonies.<\/p>\n

To date, 13 projects are completed but 46 are either ongoing or about to start up. \u00a0In addition, the program has provided funds to help organizations purchase equipment to expand the capacity of a low cost spay and neuter clinic in Anne Arundel County and to equip new clinics in Allegany and Cecil counties.<\/p>\n

For more info: http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/jdxo7df<\/a><\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Program Projects Complete More Than 12,000 Procedures in Less Than Three Years ANNAPOLIS, MD (October 11, 2016) \u2013 \u00a0The Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2019s Statewide Spay and Neuter Program has funded\u00a0 projects that have so far completed 12,088 procedures since the program began in 2014. \u201cOur goal is to reduce intake and euthanasia of cats and  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20742,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20741\/revisions\/20742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}