A big hello and happy holidays from SpayMart to all our wonderful friends!
This year has been particularly exciting for me because we have laser-focused on our true mission: keeping dogs and cats in homes and out of shelters, providing low cost spay/neuter services to every segment of the population regardless of income, and delivering a wide range of safety net programs and services to the community to support our mission.
Our vision is to ensure that no animal is ever surrendered to a shelter; that all animals have access to affordable, quality vet care; that spay/neuter will always be our primary way of controlling unwanted, homeless animals; and that rescue groups across our state work together until zero euthanasia can be reached.
When I founded this organization in 1998, I chose the name SpayMart because I understood spay/neuter is the only way out of this animal overpopulation crisis. No matter how aggressive we are with adoptions or transport, we will never win this war unless spay/neuter is primary. Thanks to a generous grant from PetSmart Charities, we had a banner year for sterilizing animals in our community and beyond. By partnering with local nonprofits and rescue groups, SpayMart was able to provide affordable spay/neuter to 1800 animals in 2023.
Although spay/neuter is core to our mission, safety net programs must be in place to deal with any animal overflow. Last year alone, SpayMart’s Kitten Foster Program, under the leadership of Joan Avent and Lauree Nunez, successfully adopted out over 750 kittens, all of whom had been sterilized, vaccinated, and microchipped. Most of these kittens were pulled directly from open admission shelters, which simply don’t have the staff or resources to deal with this population of animals.
SpayMart realizes that older cats are a high-risk population because of their inability to compete with their younger counterparts for homes. Oftentimes, this leaves the facility no option but to euthanize them. Our Senior Cats for Senior Citizens Program matches older, harder to place cats with senior citizens. It brings an older cat from homelessness to a home and provides a much-needed companion for an older person. Forty-four senior cats found happiness and homes through this program this year.
Sadly, many families are forced to surrender their pets to local shelters because they are financially unable to provide necessary medical care. SpayMart’s Felicity Fund provides this care and allows pets to remain out of shelters and with the families who love them most. Over the past year, 75 cats received the medical care they needed because of your support of this program.
My Christmas wish would be to tell you our work is done. But sadly, there are still so many abandoned and homeless animals roaming our streets in search of food and shelter, so many who have suffered so long in silence, they have given up hope, so many waiting for homes, waiting for medical care, waiting for love, waiting for YOU to change their lives and restore their hope. The numbers are staggering, but together we’ll find a way to help them all!
Have a great holiday season! Thanking you in advance for supporting our work and making it a great year for all the animals in our community!
Sincerely,
Lynn Chiche
President, SpayMart