According to SpayUSA, every day there are over 70,000 puppies and kittens born in the United States, compared to only 10,000 humans.   Over half of the 70,000 animals born are "oops" (unintended) litters.  As long as these birth rates exist and unwanted litters continue to be born, there will be neglected, abused, stray, abandoned, and homeless dogs and cats.  As a result of this uncontrolled reproduction, over 8 million healthy and treatable dogs and cats enter U.S. shelters every year and over 4 million of those not lucky enough to be quickly adopted are euthanized.

 

Spay/Neuter is the simple solution.   By preventing unwanted litters from ever being born, less homeless and unwanted dogs and cats end up in over-burdened shelters. 

Spay/Neuter benefits the community. Stray and roaming animals can be dangerous to the community; they may bite and attack other pets and people and cause vehicular accidents by running across roads. Communities spend millions of dollars to control unwanted animals, including the fees of dog wardens and the costs to collect, house and feed the homeless animals.  According to the Humane Society of the United States, it costs an average of $176 to collect, shelter and euthanize a single animal. In Hamilton County alone, over $1 million is spent annually on animal control and dog warden services. This does not include indirect amounts spent by our health, fire and police departments on animal-related issues and by our courts on animal abuse/neglect cases. So, even if you don’t own a pet, you still pay for this. And, since it is money spent to treat symptoms and not causes, you’ll pay for it again year after year.

United Coalition for Animals (UCAN) was founded in 2001, to stop the endless cycle of unwanted births and euthanasia.  The main reasons people do not spay/neuter their pets is the cost or they do not have access to spay/neuter services.  UCAN provides low-cost spay/neuter services and free transports to its clinics from several locations in Southern Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and Southeast Indiana.

Our initial efforts focused on funding a voucher program which partnered with area veterinarians. The program resulted in the sterilization of nearly 1,000 animals.  The impact was clearly not great enough, so in 2005, the UCAN board began researching how UCAN could expand its reach and impact. After two years, thousands of volunteer hours and a successful capital campaign, UCAN opened its nonprofit Spay Neuter Clinic in Cincinnati's Queensgate area. Since that date, April 16, 2007, the clinic has provided over 47,000  spay/neuter surgeries, preventing hundreds of thousands of unwanted dogs and cats from being born into abuse, neglect and ultimate euthanasia.  

The UCAN Clinic is based on the Humane Alliance high-volume, high-quality, low-cost model which has been implemented successfully in other communities around the country, including Louisville, KY and Bloomington, IN. Located in Asheville,
North Carolina, Humane Alliance (www.humanealliance.org) opened in 1994.