February 27, 2008

FORT WORTH, Texas – To address the growing number of animals put down by the city every year, Fort Worth is expanding its current shelter with the addition of a spay-and-neuter clinic.

Picking up on what has become standard practice for many shelters nationwide, the city of Fort Worth is building a spay-neuter facility for local strays. It’s the first move of its kind in the Lone Star state.

The goal is that the new clinic, with a city-hired vet, will make sure that every dog or cat leaving the shelter’s adoption program does not contribute to the number of strays in the city.

Currently, many shelters provide spay-neuter for all their adoptive animals. It’s the mantra that has proven to cut down pet populations.

“There’s no line (of people) out there to take these animals out,” Shelter Manager Keane Menefee said. “And this line of trucks coming in with animals on board, at times, seems never ending.”

As it stands now, 70 percent of the 25,000 stray animals in Fort Worth’s shelter system never find homes. This means 45 dogs and cats go from the adoption room to being on death row every day.

“I’m up to 19 and I’m not finished yet,” said shelter employee Graham Rushing as he picked animals to go on the “E list.” The “E” stands for euthanasia.

“I don’t have an employee here, including myself, who doesn’t own one or several pets at home, and it is very difficult,” Menefee said.

The shelter, which currently does not offer spaying or neutering services, relies on adoptive families to be responsible for their pet ownership.

While at least 30 states require owners adopting a pet from a shelter to spay or neuter the animal, or face hefty fines, Texas has not succeeded in enforcing its spay ordinance.

That's why when the Barela family arrived to pick out a new puppy recently, they were shocked by the high number of animals to choose from.

“I think she’s set on that one, the girly,” Jacob Barela said after the family settled on a favorite.

Currently, once an animal leaves the Fort Worth shelter there is little the city can do to prevent it from reproducing. State law requires shelters to fix any cat or dog adopted from their facilities.

If an animal is not spayed before adoption, an agreement must be made whereby the owner becomes responsible for sterilization. But enforcing that provision has proven difficult - an issue the new proposal should alleviate.

It’s a scenario that plays out in every city across the country. An adopted pet finds a new home, but is not neutered before it mates. Then the unplanned offspring ends up back in the same shelter its parent came from.

But the new city-sponsored facility, which opens in August, could change all of that.

“I hope it will make a huge difference,” Menefee said.

To find out more about Texas’ spay-neuter practices and how you can contact lawmakers there, visit capitol.state.tx.us.

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