Snipped Funds Mean Unsnipped Animals

Animal welfare advocates are angered that money from these license plates isn't going where it was intended.

Last Friday was a big day for Boss the Rottweiler. He awoke before dawn, and at 5:30am began heading south from Round Rock with his owner Wayne Branham. The two waited for a couple of hours in the back of Branham's pickup at the Southeast Community Library in southeast Austin, and at 8am, when the EmanciPet Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinic pulled up to offer 40 free surgeries, the momentous nature of Boss' day became clear.

Branham and Boss weren't the only early risers in the parking lot that day. All told, about two dozen Austinites got their animals fixed on Friday; most had waited several hours in the dark for a spot on the list. Starting in September, though, those hoping to score a free surgery will have to get up a little earlier. Due to the loss of a state-funded grant, EmanciPet will only offer free surgeries one day a week, cutting the number of animals served in half.

As he roamed the parking lot, putting together a list to keep the line orderly, volunteer Delwin Goss said the cut will only exacerbate the pushing, shoving, and line-butting that plagues the clinic's busiest days. "Last week, in Montopolis, we were full both days and had to turn people away," Goss said. He described people showing up at 3:45am and sleeping in their cars to score a spot in line. "I can't imagine what it will be like when it's down to one day."

The program is just one victim of some Legislative budgetary voodoo that has kept millions of dollars from going toward its intended purposes. The Free Fridays program is funded by a $25,000 grant from a state pool that gets its money from Texans who chose to pay an extra $22 for specialized "Animal Friendly" license plates. But the fund collects more money than it distributes – in FY 04 alone, plate sales totaled $490,070, of which only about half was distributed. Year after year the extra cash adds up, so that now the state is sitting on about $1 million.

Statewide, there are plenty of groups that could use that money. In the fiscal year that begins Sept. 1, $227,000 of Animal Friendly grants will go to only 11 of the 38 organizations that applied. None of those organizations are in Austin. Doug McBride of the Texas Department of State Health Services said the priority is funding brand-new groups and that Austin's applicants – Animal Trustees of Austin and the city-run Town Lake Animal Center, which handles EmanciPet's Free Fridays funding – are already well established. Still, says Missy McCullough of Animal Trustees of Austin, which has fixed about 2,700 animals with the $43,000 they've received from the fund since 2002, cash collected for a given purpose should be spent on that purpose. "It's a shame because a lot of people lose out, and the real shameful part is that the Legislature is sitting on that money," she said. "There's money available [in the fund] for all the people who applied."

When groups like EmanciPet and Animal Trustees of Austin don't receive the grants, it doesn't directly affect their bottom lines. In addition to their free programs, both groups also provide low-cost surgeries to people all over Austin. When grant money runs out, the surgery slots that had formerly been filled by grant-funded customers will instead be filled by customers who pay for the service. The funding reduction will result in some Austinites deciding not to fix their pets, however, and that becomes everyone's problem. TDSHS estimates that Texas euthanizes more than half a million animals a year, at a cost of about $20 million. At Town Lake Animal Center, the carnage tops 10,000 animals.

Several pet owners waiting at the Southeast Library said the program cut will discourage some of their neighbors from fixing their animals. Waiting her turn with her tiny pit bull, LaToya Evans said that fixing pets is uncommon in her southeast neighborhood. In fact, she came to own Snoop (whom she did not name) because a friend found him running loose around her neighborhood, evidence that someone was letting his dog breed without much thought about pups. Evans said that she only just learned that EmanciPet exists, and thinks more of her neighbors would spay or neuter if they knew cheap surgeries were available.

"The primary reason is the money," she said. "It's expensive." Still, she admitted that some aren't as concerned with the cost as they are with the cojones. "Some guys do have the 'he's not going to be a man if he's fixed' thing," she said with a shrug.

Both ATA and EmanciPet will continue to offer low-cost spay and neuter surgeries, but only on Fridays now. Visit www.animaltrustees.org or www.emancipet.org for more information.