The Animal Alliance of Greater Syracuse has met its fundraising goal and can now proceed with the construction of a high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter clinic.

According to AAGS Executive Director Donna Chambers, the clinic will help reduce the sky-high euthanasia rate in the Syracuse area by reducing the number of unwanted animals.

“The absence of truly low-cost spay/neuter options in this area is a strong contributor to our inordinately high rate of euthanasia in comparison to other upstate cities,” Chambers said. “Most surrounding communities, including smaller ones like Cortland and Auburn, have low-cost options available to the public.”

In addition to decreasing costs to taxpayers for shelters to provide health care, shelter and animal control, spaying and neutering is healthier for pets.

“Spay/neuter is the most important health benefit a pet owner can provide for their pet,” Chambers said. “Altered pets suffer significantly fewer incidences of certain cancers.”

Unfortunately, for many pet-owning families, spay/neuter is just too costly.

“Thousands of income-challenged families in CNY who love their pets cannot afford the going rates charged by our current lower-cost spay/neuter clinic,” Chambers said. “Even if they could afford them, many lack the transportation to get their pets to them.”

That’s why the AAGS, a local animal welfare group that also runs humane education programs and runs the nonprofit Cuse Pit Crew, started looking to construct the high-volume low-cost clinic. Efforts began three years ago but took off in April of last year, when the Humane Alliance, a North Carolina-based high-volume training facility, accepted the AAGS’ application for training for local vets in high-volume spay/neuter.

“What differentiates high-volume spay-neuter from what the veterinarians and techs typically learn in their training consists of both technique and procedure,” Chambers said. “The vets, for instance, learn particular knots, as well as the techniques that allow them to leave a very tiny incision in a spayed animal. The technicians learn lessons of efficiency that use almost a production line methodology to create a smooth flow while decreasing the chances for errors.”

Though the Humane Alliance training is free, the agency advised the AAGS that they should raise at least $35,000 to ensure that the clinic can provide care. Anyone who participates in the training must raise that money first. The AAGS met that goal last week, thanks in part to a $3,000 grant from the Staffworks Fund as well as an anonymous $20,000 from a local family.

“The donors are active in the animal welfare community and are strong believers in the necessity for this clinic,” Chambers said of the anonymous donor. “For every additional week we had to delay opening the clinic, at least 125 cats or dogs would not be neutered. That meant 125 more litters of animals would be born in the next year. That’s 1,000 more unwanted puppies and kittens in our community just because we had to wait one more week. And we had months, not weeks, of fundraising ahead of us.”

With this funding in place, the AAGS qualifies to apply for an $85,000 grant from PetSmart Charities, which will help with the construction of the facility and purchasing equipment. Chambers said the organization is currently looking for a suitable site.

“We have applied for a grant from the New York State Animal Population Control Program, which is administered by the ASPCA in support of high-volume spay/neuter projects; we anticipate a response from them within the next month,” Chambers said. “We have several potential sites in mind, but will continue to look. We would like to be centrally located for the convenience of our target communities.”

The clinic will be staffed by a combination of volunteers and paid staff. Costs for surgery would run on a sliding scale from $25 to $65 based on certain income qualifications — still significantly less than surgeries performed in vets’ offices, which run from $150 to $400, and even less than the $75 to $100 charged by existing low-cost clinics. The clinic will be open five days a week. In addition to performing the surgeries, vets will provide rabies and distemper vaccinations as well as basic veterinary wellness services, such as deworming and defleaing. Local rescue groups can also take advantage of the clinic’s services. AAGS has also received a grant to subsidize fees paid by low-income families over the first three years of the clinic’s operation.

Chambers said providing that option should reduce the number of pets on the streets, and thus the euthanasia rate in Central New York.

“Our hearts ache for the countless cats and dogs who suffer simply because they were born into a community that cannot provide for them. Those are the faces we see in TV and print ads, the pets who need a home or food now, today,” she said. “[But] the only effective way to stop this suffering before it happens is to go back to its source —uncontrolled reproduction. Even though the idea of a surgery to end this vicious cycle doesn’t tug on people’s heartstrings and send them to their wallets and purses, it sure gives an unprecedented bang for the buck. We hope that when folks support it, they picture the faces of the thousands of cats and dogs they are helping to save.”