Aloha,

There seems some confusion and questions about the Neuter Now Program and the contractor, Animal CARE Foundation, that I thought I would elaborate on for your readers.

It may be boring stuff for lawyers, but that statute allows for either a certificate program with statutorily set prices *or* for a single provider that can charge the cost to the City and County or less than that cost.

 Article 5. Public Spay and Neuter Clinic for Dogs and Cats

Sections:
   7-5.1    Authority for clinic and fees.

Sec. 7-5.1    Authority for clinic and fees.
(a)    The City and County of Honolulu is authorized and empowered to establish a clinic, through a fee-for-service
   contract, at which members of the public may have dogs and cats spayed or neutered in a humane manner. Except as
   provided in subsection (b), members of the public shall pay either the following fees or the cost to the city under the
   fee-for-service contract for services performed, whichever is less:
   (1)    For spaying a female dog, $75.00.
   (2)    For spaying a female cat or neutering a male dog, $50.00.
   (3)    For neutering a male cat, $40.00.
(b)    A member of the public who has been issued an EBT card shall pay a fee of $20.00 for the spaying of a female dog or cat or the neutering a male dog or cat. For the purpose of this subsection, an “EBT card” means a card issued by the state department of human services that will allow the holder to access social service benefits in an electronic benefit transfer account.
(Sec. 13-39.1, R.O. 1978 (1987 Supp. to 1983 Ed.); Am. Ord. 92-72, 95-34, 03-14)


The way the the contact had been put out before was who could charge the least to do the paperwork and accounting for the program - print the certificates, reimburse the vets, do the accounting, etc.  HHS was like health insurance that way.  This time the contract was, to over simplify a bit, "who could do the neuters for the lowest cost".  The City and County was finding that with the price increases in the program there were less surgeries being done (only around 5,000 last year)and the program was ran out of money every year before the end of the year, sometimes as early as April.

ACF currently does between 3-4,000 neuters a year.  That's with one vet doing maybe 5-10 surgeries daily, 5 days a week, with an additional 20-30 being done on Fridays by two volunteer vets, with a few mass neutering events that neuter 100 plus animals.  ACF is open 6 days a week from 7am to 8pm.  So that is a lot of time and days to do neuters as well as other medical cases.  ACF is a 501(c)(3) not for profit corporation and gets support to help in it's mission, and that also helps keep the costs of neuters low.  The more expensive medical care and procedures subsidizes the neuters as well.  Our vets are veterans of neuter surgeries and are some of the best at it on the island having done literally tens of thousands of neuter surgeries.

With the addition of our new mobile clinic and taking on an additional veterinarian that will do 20 animals a day 5 days a week we will easily perform an additional 5,000 neuters a year on top of what we already do at our Hawaii Kai facility.

On top of the Neuter Now program we will be supplementing it by adding neuters of exotic animals (rabbit, guinea pigs, rats, and mice mainly) at the same price of dogs.  This is significant price reduction from what you can find anywhere else on the island.  We also have private grants to deal specifically with the house-less people's dogs around the island.  And we will be doing some very basic exams and low cost treatments for these animals who simply do not have access to, or ability to afford veterinary care.

And last but not least, while the Neuter Now Program may run out of money we will continue to provide the neuters at $56.81 for all dogs, male or female, and $35.50 for all cats, male or female,and $56.81 for all exotics, male or female.  Microchips are included for free with all neuters.

If we ever hope to stem the tide of killing between 30 and 60,000 animal companions a year on O`ahu we absolutely must step up the number of neuters done here yearly, and reach out to communities that are under served by the current program.

Frank De Giacomo, V.P.
Animal CARE Foundation