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CNY Spay & Neuter Clinics, Animal Shelters, Struggle to Keep Up Spay and Neuter Clinics, Animal Shelters, Struggle to Keep Up

By Dillon Brendle

Dillon Brendle: These cute kitties at spay and neuter Syracuse are set for an operation desperately needed to curb the number of stray animals around the city.

MaryKay Tracy: “We are sometimes the only vet these animals see for their entire life. For us to be able to do this helps so many people in our community”

Dillon Brendle: For rescues like these, spaying and neutering keeps animals out of shelters like the one run by Troy Waffner. He says the cost to spay and neuter is just too high for Syracuse residents.

Troy Waffner: “Some just can’t afford it. If you go to a vet today it can cost five or six hundred dollars. That’s cost prohibitive”

Dillon Brendle: Overpopulation of animals isn’t new to cities, but during the early parts of the pandemic, spaying and neutering stopped and people adopted animals they eventually realized they couldn’t take care of. Now clinics and shelters are just trying to keep up.

Troy Waffner: “The back up in the system continues to create problems downstream. In terms of getting animals ready to be adopted and it causes stress throughout the facility from the person that’s waiting for the animal to the vet that has to take care of it.”

Dillon Brendle: Both organizations agree the solution is pretty simple

MaryKay Tracy: “The only way the problem can get better is by spaying and neutering”

Dillon Brendle: Mary Kay says that means more clinics in the area and more funding for the ones that already exist. C-N-Y S-P-C-A says it’s looking into creating its own low cost spay and neuter clinic. In Syracuse, Dillon Brendle. N-C-C News.

Syracuse, N.Y. (NCC News) — Overrun – That’s the way one animal shelter director in Syracuse is describing the rescue and stray animal problem in the city, but the issue has been building for years.

The cute kittens at Spay and Neuter Syracuse are set for an operation desperately needed to curb the number of stray animals around the city.

“We are sometimes the only vet these animals see for their entire life,” said MaryKay Tracy the Clinical Manager at Spay and Neuter Syracuse. “For us to be able to do this helps so many people in our community.”

When they spay and neuter rescued animals it helps keep populations down in shelters like the CNY Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (CNY SPCA) run by Troy Waffner.  He said the cost to spay and neuter is just too high for Syracuse residents. 

“Some just can’t afford it,” Waffner said. “If you go to a vet today it can cost five or six hundred dollars. That’s cost prohibitive for people.”

Thanks to a recent grant from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Spay and Neuter Syracuse is offering low-cost spay and neuter surgeries for qualifying families.

Stray cats and dogs are not new to cities, but during the early parts of the pandemic spaying and neutering stopped and people adopted animals they eventually realized they couldn’t take care of. Now, clinics and shelters are just trying to keep up. Waffner said he gets around a dozen calls a day from people who want to leave their pets with him.

“The back up in the system continues to create problems downstream, in terms of getting animals ready to be adopted and it causes stress throughout the facility from the person that’s waiting for the animal, to the vet that has to take care of it,” Waffner said.

Both Spay and Neuter Syracuse and CNY SPCA agree the solution is simple.

“The only way the problem can get better is by spaying and neutering,” Taylor said.

Taylor said the city needs more spay and neuter clinics and more funding for the ones that already exist. CNY SPCA is looking to create its own low-cost spay and neuter clinic in the future.

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