A Letter to Our Friends & Supporters

The Coalition: HUMAnE Spay & Neuter Clinic has been open since March 3, 2008. The clinic staff has seen over 1,700 animals in this short period of time! What an amazing accomplishment and contribution toward pet overpopulation in our region. Although we announced from the beginning that we were following the Humane Alliance model, it appears that now is a good time to provide some reminders and additional information about Coalition: HUMAnE (formerly Peninsula Spay/Neuter Project).

Thank you for taking the time to read,

Coalition: HUMAnE
Board of Directors

Coalition: HUMAnE Spay & Neuter Clinic

What we are:

-A Humane Alliance model clinic: www.humanealliance.org

-A giving nonprofit that would like to help as many people as it can get their pets altered at affordable prices.

-A business that relies on cash flow to stay afloat. Everything we offer at a discount or for free, we must find a way to pay for ourselves - through fundraising. Our clinic is self-sufficient based on fees for services, i.e. if we collect our low fees, it will cover the cost of rent, salaries, utilities, expenses, etc.

-A clinic that is able to offer discounted services to certain populations, thanks to our fundraising efforts as well as the generosity of funding from grants and local organizations such as the Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County and the Dugan Foundation.

What we are not:

-A feral cat clinic. FCSNP in Seattle is its own model, but is not the model we selected for our community. We will serve feral cats to the best of our ability. Without an available project leader early in the planning of the clinic we have had to start small, but plan to grow this area.

-A full service vet clinic. We are limited by state law as to what services we can provide, and who we can serve.

-Offering the same services as PSNP did.

-A small, all-volunteer organization working out of our homes. We now have the obligations that come with running a freestanding spay/neuter clinic – including the payment of rent, salaries and supplies.

Regarding free-roaming and feral cats:

-We set aside up to 5 surgery slots every day for free-roaming cats. These cats are provided with our Project Catnip package which includes sterilization, rabies vaccination, ear mite treatment (if needed), ear tip and tattoo.

-We ask that caretakers bring in their own cats. We recognize that transportation is an issue for some people and hope to address that when resources become available.

-We have discussed the idea of special free-roaming cat clinics and have always supported this idea.

-We no longer provide free TNR services to caretakers with transport to Seattle’s Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project.

Feral Cats in Our Community:

One challenge that feral and free roaming cat supporters encounter are convincing others about the benefits and success of Trap/Neuter/Return programs. Even if Coalition: HUMAnE altered every unowned cat and kitten it doesn’t stop the killing of those same cats. If a person does not want a free roaming altered cat on their property they have a right to remove the cat.

As the laws are currently written, animal control officers are mandated to respond to calls and remove cats if requested. Our laws do not protect free roaming altered cats. It is up to all of us to put our energies into addressing cat overpopulation and work to educate our friends, neighbors, co-workers and government about the economical and non lethal methods of reducing cat overpopulation.

Coalition: HUMAnE has made a commitment to providing the highest quality service and medical care for animals at the lowest prices possible. Our pursuit of the nationally recognized and proven Humane Alliance model will ensure that we optimize our operations, maintain the highest levels of medical protocol and keep costs to a minimum.

In Closing:

Coalition: HUMAnE’s mission is to promote and provide spay and neuter services in order to address pet overpopulation. Our clinic will sterilize thousands of dogs and cats every year. The board of PSNP together made the decision to open a Humane Alliance model clinic.

For more information on that, feel free to visit www.humanealliance.org. There's a good video link here that explains the program:

http://humanealliance.org/HA2/what.htm We hope you will agree that all animals matter. We invite you to come and tour the clinic if you have done so already. We are sure you'll be please at the work going on there.

Questions and comments may be directed to board@coalitionhumane.org.