Around 4,300 animals a year are euthanized at Tulsa’s animal shelter, and a new program aims to change that.
Saving the Pets of Tulsa — or SPOT — is a partnership to register more dogs and cats and to increase access to low-cost spay and neutering services. Tulsa Animal Welfare Manager Jean Letcher said they get some sick and injured animals that can’t be saved.
"What we want to stop is the euthanasia for space, for behavior modification, lack of that ability," Letcher said. "We euthanize too many healthy, adoptable animals."
Dogs and cats in Tulsa must be registered by law. Letcher said it's easier to find the owners of registered dogs and cats and return them to their homes.
Tulsa Animal Welfare estimates there are as many as 245,000 pet cats and dogs in the city, but only 6,000 or so are registered. It’s hard to determine how many of those pets are spayed or neutered.
"About 10,000 animals a year come into the shelter," Letcher said. "A great majority of them are not spayed or neutered."
An online pet registration system is in the works, and Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett said the money collected will fund the other piece of SPOT.
"We're going to do whatever we can to make certain that money does not go into the general fund of the city but is given to the veterinarians association to be able to disburse it to the veterinarians and those people of limited economic means to help them spay and neuter their pets," Bartlett said.
The City of Tulsa and the Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Association are the major partners on SPOT.
