The May Spay Challenge

Our guest blogger this week is Brianna Grant, Communications Associate at Alley Cat Rescue in Mt. Rainier, Maryland. Alley Cat Rescue’s May Spay Challenge has become a powerful program to engage local veterinarians in the battle against feline overpopulation. Here’s Brianna’s take:

Back in 2010, we were looking for creative solutions to increase spay/neuter capacity for community cats. The colony caretakers we worked with were struggling with the need for more resources, and we came up with the idea of engaging participation from local veterinarians with what we dubbed the “May Spay Challenge.”

Simply put, the Challenge asked that vets commit to doing one low-cost or free spay/neuter every week in the month of May. We felt that was a reasonable goal and that if we could get enough vets interested, we would dramatically increase our ability to have an impact on community cat colonies in many places. We chose May because — obviously—it is the prelude to “kitten season” and could have a palpable impact on colonies and on shelter intakes.

Our first year—2010— the May Spay Challenge resulted in 155 vets across the country performing surgeries on 1,030 cats. Not bad for a first effort! One big thing we learned is how much education local vets required about TNR, its benefits and the protocols for doing spay/neuter on community cats. Some of them were anxious about the concept of bringing a “wild” cat onto their premises! Others were concerned about the perception that providing “low-cost” services for some cats devalues their practices.

So, we created a “feral cat treatment protocol” document covering exactly what doctors and clinics can expect, as well as resources for local rescues and organizations to reach out to their local vets. Many vets proved to be interested in joining our “army,” but just needed to learn how to work in this specialized area. We also engaged our supporters to support this education through outreach to their local doctors.

You can hear more from Brianna Grant in episode 134 of the podcast.

From this small seed we planted, we are starting to see powerful impact. In 2017, 12,000 veterinarians will have fixed 30,000 cats as part of the May Spay Challenge. Our geographical impact spans 45 of the 50 states, as well as Canada, Israel, South Africa and Croatia. We’re starting to see interest in other parts of the world as well and have extended invitations to clinics in Japan, Egypt, Italy and South America. Importantly, the Challenge has helped bring low-cost spay/neuter capabilities to areas where they simply didn’t exist … or were located too far from the location of the community cats.

A wonderful and unexpected outcome of the Challenge is that we’re seeing local veterinary practices build relationships with colony caretakers that will persist once the month is over and bring new, albeit lower-cost, business to those doctors — and new spay/neuter capacity to these areas.

We’re getting ready right now for what we hope will be the biggest May Spay Challenge ever. If you’re interested in learning more or getting involved, our website has a tab dedicated to the Challenge with information and promotional materials; simply go to saveacat.org.