West Valley Pet Owners Get Discount on Spaying

People who adopt stray dogs and cats from the city’s West Valley animal shelter may have them sterilized at subsidized rates at nearby private veterinary clinics, under a program announced Friday by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

The new program is aimed at increasing the percentage of adopted pets that are spayed or neutered by making it more convenient for owners. The city operates a single veterinary clinic in the Valley, in North Hollywood, that performs the procedures.

Officials said that some people who adopted pets at the West Valley Animal Care and Control Center were not having the animals spayed or neutered because they had to either drive to the North Hollywood shelter or pay the higher charges set by private vets.

As in the past, when adopting a pet, the new owners must pay a sterilization deposit--$20 for a female and $14 for a male--refunded when they provide proof that the animal has been spayed or neutered elsewhere.

Under the new program, the shelter also will issue the new pet owners surgery vouchers that can be redeemed for sterilizations at 22 participating private West San Fernando Valley clinics. The city will reimburse the private vets $48 for spaying a female and $40 for neutering a male. Pet owners will pay only their sterilization deposit.

Money for the reimbursements will come from the city’s Animal Sterilization Trust Fund, an accumulation of unclaimed sterilization deposits and other donations, Bradley said. The trust fund totals about $225,000, said Dyer Huston, a spokesman for the city Department of Animal Regulation.

Huston said the additional hassle for pet owners in the West Valley may have contributed to the abundance of unsterilized pets. Huston said department records show that more than half of the sterilization fees charged by the city’s animal shelters are never refunded, indicating that those pets probably are not sterilized.

Under state law, cities must encourage pet owners to sterilize their animals.