Maricopa County’s Spay Neuter Assistance Program (MC SNAP) is lessening the County’s pet overpopulation problem one animal at a time. With more than 55,000 dogs and cats coming into Maricopa County Animal Care and Control’s (MCACC) shelters every year, there are too many unwanted animals. This program is trying to lessen those numbers. MC SNAP works with local veterinary clinics, offering spay and neuter surgeries to owned pets. The pet owner pays nothing for the surgery and the clinics get reimbursed by MCACC.
The program, driven by Friends of Animal Care and Control (FACCs), MCACC’s non-profit 501c3, has paid for more than 30,000 surgeries in the last three and a half years. This last year was the biggest yet - more than 1.2 million dollars was spent on surgeries (20,000+ animals).
MC SNAP has become so successful that FACCs has had to limit the number of applications put out each month. They believe they can only cover about 12,000 surgeries this year. When the first of October rolled around, more than 75 people came to the West Valley Animal Care Center asking for an application.
Max Wilson, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors believes MC SNAP is an important program that needs to stick around. “There are too many homeless animals in Maricopa County,” he said. “We need to reverse this overpopulation problem we have.”
More information can be found at www.pets.maricopa.gov. Donations can be made at www.azfaccs.org. Applications are available at the beginning of each month at 2500 S. 27th Avenue in Phoenix and 2630 W. 8th Street in Mesa.