For our next special offer, the benefactor receiving $25 from every photo session booking is an initiative driven and operated by Cat Alliance. The purpose of the alliance is to facilitate constructive dialogue between welfare groups, management officers and the state and local governments towards better cat welfare.
As such, the concept of a Spay Shuttle is being developed. The aim of the Spay Shuttle is to directly address the pet overpopulation problem in WA by providing and funding a mobile animal spay / neuter clinic, specifically targeting stray and semi-owned cats. The main benefits of operating a mobile clinic such as this are:
- It can operate in varying climates
- Staff can work in tandem with local veterinarians and councils throughout the state
- The clinic can service low income families, animal welfare organisations and voluntters and communities without access to veterinary care to provide basic veterinary care and affordable spay & neuter services
- The Spay Shuttle will also provide a mobile deployable veterinary facility for any future State Emergency Response Plan for animals.
At present approximately 24,000 cats are destroyed in WA each year. Some are euthanized by veterinarians, but many are disposed of in less humane ways. With 98.6% of stray cats not desexed, their prolific breeding is a huge issue in WA, impacting on the environment, wildlife, and public health. The Spay Shuttle aims to reduce the number of feral cats and associated issues.
The Spay Shuttle team consists of a number of animal professionals – The president is Christine Yurovich, who runs Feline 5 Star cattery in Baldivis; project manager is Dr Eric Yeoh; treasurer is Joan Tan; honorary secretary is Liddell Williams of the Cat Haven; special veterinary consultant is Dr Jo Ling; and committee member is Michelle Williamson, founder of Pet Rescue.
At present the Spay Shuttle project is going into corporate fundraising mode, with the aim to raise $1,052,000. Additional funding, like the donations Houndstooth Studio will be making, will boost the corporate fundraising effort as well. A third to half of the $1,052,000 will go into purchasing a towing vehicle and fitting and equipping the clinic caravan. A quarter of the funding will engage a full-tim veterinarian, a clinic manager and head nurse to run the clinics for the first 2 years (after that the clinic should be self-funding), with the remainder of the funds will go towards education and administrative costs.
The Spay Shuttle will hopefully be built by the end of the year and be operational by the summer of 2011. At Houndstooth Studio we are looking forward to contributing funds to the project, as well as providing stock images for Spay Shuttle marketing ventures! For more info click here.
