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Just in case you haven’t noticed -- over the past few months
we’ve been using a slightly different name for our foundation – Zimmer Feline Foundation. It’s a subtle change but one that more
depicts who we are and what we do. And –
it also is the last step in transitioning from a Michigan corporation (where we
worked with cats from 2000-2009 to a New Mexico corporation where we’ve been
working with cats since 2010.
We no longer use Cat
Spay of Santa Fe for our spay-neuter program either. When we first moved to New Mexico we “assumed”
we would limit our work to Santa Fe County – but soon understood the need for
free-and-local cat spay/neuter for low-income pets here is great – and extends
far beyond the boundaries of Santa Fe County.
So – with the help of 27 private and non-profit veterinary clinics – we now
locally service north and central New Mexico including most of Bernalillo,
Catron, Colfax, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos, Torrance and
Valencia counties – and will add more counties as we find vet clinics to
service them.
The Zimmer Feline Foundation vouchers are totally free to
qualified applicants – individuals and households with gross incomes under $40K
per year can apply for free spay/neuter vouchers – and those who receive food
stamps can also apply for acute veterinary vouchers in the event of a treatable
medical emergency. The spay/neuter
vouchers cover the complete cost to spay or neuter a cat – and a rabies
vaccination given at time of surgery.
The acute care vouchers pay up to $300 toward the cost to treat a
medical emergency such as broken bones, infections and fight wounds.
Our spay/neuter focus is expressly on the 15% of pet cats
who are not routinely fixed when they are adopted –those in low-income homes
who find the cost of sterilization even at low-cost clinics a burden that is
easily put off. Our experience (10 years
working with both pet and feral cat caregivers in Michigan and 4 years working
with pet caregivers in New Mexico), finds these unfixed pet cats are the root
source of most of the feral colonies formed each year and most of the cats and kittens
delivered to animal control shelters and often euthanized.
We no longer provide spay/neuter vouchers for feral cats
(ie, cats you cannot handle) because we rely on our Participants making (and
keeping) pre-arranged veterinary appointments so that the clinics we work with
are not faced with last-minute cancellations because the feral cat didn’t show
(or couldn’t be trapped) the morning of the appointment.
But – we can now selectively provide financial assistance to
cat groups who work in situations our vouchers wouldn’t normally cover –
outside our service area or special situations or events – provided the cat
caregivers are not charged any co-pay and the project is well-defined and
furthers our mission.
Many adoption and TNR (trap-neuter-return) programs are active in New Mexico to
deal with the problem caused by leaving this 15% of pet cats intact – and we
support and applaud their efforts. But –
we’ve come to the conclusion that the cat population cannot stabilize unless
and until that 15% of unfixed pet cats is significantly reduced – and in our
opinion that can happen only when cat sterilization services are free and local
for all cats – that is our program focus.
To date we’ve helped 2,800 New Mexico caregivers sterilize – and keep –
5,200 cats.
If you know anyone in our
service area that could use our help, please ask them to call – applications are
taken over the phone and vouchers are mailed within a day or two of
approval. Keeping a cat in its original homes is well
worth it!
