Understand the Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program

The Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program is an all-volunteer, non-profit

organization located in Monongalia County, West Virginia. The Mountaineer Spay Neuter

Assistance Program, or M-SNAP works toward eliminating euthanasia as a necessary means of

pet population control. They do this by encouraging people to spay and neuter their pet dogs

and cats.

How does this work? Well, first you must know there are around 70 million homeless

dogs and cats in the United States. It is estimated that, on average only 6 to 8 million dogs and

cats enter a shelter each year. Of those 6 to 8 million dogs and cat, only about 3.2 million are

actually adopted each year. So, what happens to the rest?

Well, they could enter a foster program, if the fosters are available at the time. Or, the

animals could have been lucky enough to have been place in a no-kill animal shelter. Or, they

become one of the 2.7 million dogs and cats being euthanized each year due to overpopulation

in animal shelters.

The Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program is trying to prevent the use of

euthanasia as a means of pet population control, but how?

By attacking it at the root of the problem. Unspayed and/or not neutered dogs and cats.

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Many states have created spay and neuter laws to try to control the overpopulation

problem in the United States. In West Virginia, all adopted shelter dogs and cats must be

spayed and neutered either by the shelter in which they are held in, or by the person adopting

the animal within the first 30 days of the adoptions. Failure to do so, will result in fines or

having the animal returned to the shelter.

But these laws do not apply to non-shelter animals, meaning all the people who

purchase their animals from breeders or pet stores, and all the people who buy animals from

local litters, there is no law requiring them to spay or neuter their animal.

The Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program encourages the community members

to adopt from local shelters rather than to purchase a dog or cat from a breeder or pet store.

One unsprayed/not neutered dog can produce on average 16 off-spring in one year.

That doesn’t seem like a big number, but when people all over the community, and all over the

United States do not have their animals spayed and neutered, those numbers add up. And it

has added up to the 70 million homeless dogs and cats we have today.

The Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program works to educate the Monongalia

County community of the importance of spay and neuter in order to locally reduce the number

of homeless animals in the area.

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The Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program offers vouchers to qualifying

residents of Monongalia County to have their dog or cat spayed or neutered. In order to qualify,

you must be a pet caregiver who does not have the funds and/or resources to fix their animals.

It is not intended to those who have decided to purchase a dog from a pet store or breed, or for

those who have adopted an animal from a shelter or rescue group that is regulated by

the WV Spay Neuter Act.

The Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program has already made a local change in

the Mon County Shelter and other local shelters. The non-profit started in 2010 and by 2012

fewer than 1,000 dogs and cats were euthanized at Mon County Shelter. In 2015, The

Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program issued over 1,000 vouchers in one year. In 2017,

the non-profit gave vouchers for 980 different spay and neuter surgeries, while partnering with

12 local veterinary clinics. These 12 local veterinary clinics work along side M-SNAP and

accepted their vouchers.

Being a non-profit, the Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program is always in need

of money. Members of M-SNAP support the idea that money in the bank serves no good

purpose while homeless pets are being killed in Monongalia County. The policy for reducing pet

overpopulation, agreed to by all member in 2008, is that M-SNAP will send vouchers to

residents in need until the funds are exhausted. During the period of time, when M-SNAP has

no money, a wait list will be created and the distributions of vouchers will return when new

funds are available.

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The Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program has many sources of income. Its main

source being ReTails Thrift Shop, a thrift shop located in Morgantown Mall, West Virginia.

ReTails accepts new and gently used merchandise. All merchandise sold at ReTails is donated

merchandise, and after paying the store’s overhead and operating costs, 100% of the profit

goes to the M-SNAP Voucher Program. Retails Thift Shop is open to shop, donate, or volunteer

Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The program has 4 different types of volunteer committees, Fundraising, Action,

Outreach, and Membership Committee. These all work cohesively to reach a common goal, to

educate people on the importance of spay and neuter, and to provide spay and neuter to the

members of the local Monongalia County community, whom are in need of assistance.

M-SNAP also accepts check contributions in its PO box. They also collect fund through

Amazon Smile and Kroger Plus card, when people choose M-SNAP as their charity of choice a

percentage of everything purchased (on Amazon and/or at Kroger) goes to M-SNAP with no

extra cost to the contributor.

The Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program has been working hard since 2010 to

make animals lives better. They believe it is the community’s responsibility to help out with the

local pet overpopulation problem. M-SNAP works hard to ensure the community is educated on

the topic of pet overpopulation, and the importance of spaying and neuter.

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