Press Room

(Alameda, CA — June 21, 2001) Maddie's Fund, the pet rescue foundation whose goal is to help animal shelters throughout the nation establish community wide adoption guarantees for healthy dogs and cats, announced today that it will award $610,000.00 to the Alabama Veterinary Medical Association (ALVMA) to support the first year of a two year spay/neuter program for the dogs and cats of Alabama’s low-income residents. As goals are achieved, Maddie's Fund will make approximately $2.5 million dollars available to the project.

Maddie's Big Fix for Alabama has a first year goal of altering 10,000 dogs and cats; it's estimated that 30,000 pets will be spayed/neutered in year two. The project will begin on July 1, 2001.

The cost to owner/caregivers will be $5 per cat surgery and $10 per dog surgery. Maddie's Fund will contribute an average of $45 per cat surgery and $70 per dog surgery. ALVMA doctors participating in the program will contribute the remainder of the cost by reducing their fees to help more low-income pet owners spay/neuter their companion animals. Clients will be asked to show proof of low-income with a Medicaid card and there will be a limit of six pets per household.

Maddie's Big Fix for Alabama sprang from the work of the Alabama Humane Federation, a statewide coalition of sixteen traditional shelters, fifteen animal control agencies, nine no-kill organizations and the ALVMA. The coalition wants to save all of the state's healthy shelter dogs and cats, and has decided to start with Maddie's Big Fix for Alabama. All of the Humane Federation partners are participating in the project by providing one of the most important prerequisites of the Maddie's Fund grant: shelter statistics on impounds, adoptions and deaths that will provide the means to measure the program's effectiveness. Says Maddie's Fund Veterinary Consultant, Dr. Laurie Peek, "With shelter statistics, we'll be able to precisely determine how much a statewide, targeted, spay/neuter program can contribute to turning the tide of pet overpopulation in Alabama."

According to ALVMA Executive Director Dr. Charles Franz, "Various spay/neuter campaigns in the past have been successful in the short term, but those Band-Aid types of efforts have not stopped the flood of unwanted animals coming into shelters. We're anxious to measure the results of a comprehensive project like this one."

While the dogs and cats are getting altered, Humane Federation partners are planning to significantly increase adoptions in their various communities, and some intend to apply for their own Maddie's Fund grants. Maddie's Fund will consider extending Maddie's Big Fix for Alabama beyond two years where community collaborative projects supported by the foundation are operational.

The foray into the South is a new but welcome addition for Maddie's Fund. Says Dr. Peek, "One of our goals is to test various models in different parts of the country. We believe the incredible collaboration of the private practice veterinarians, traditional shelters, no-kill organizations and animal control agencies is bound to make Alabama a landmark program for saving animal lives."