Bill would provide free spay, neutering

Ohio has an amazing opportunity to reduce the suffering of thousands of unwanted animals at no cost to taxpayers. Senate Bill 232, the Veterinary Spay-Neuter Bill, gives Ohio veterinarians the option to perform four hours of free spay and neutering in exchange for two continuing-education units required for their license renewal.

Ohio shelters are overwhelmed with unwanted animals and many rural shelters are closing due to lack of funding. Taxpayers are burdened with funding animal control, shelter facilities, salaries and euthanization costs associated with unwanted animals. With more than 6.5 million unwanted animals in shelters in this country, we are never going to “shelter” our way out of this problem. Our focus must be on spay-andneuter programs.

SB 232 would provide much-needed spay/neutering to rescue groups that struggle financially and it would also provide the service to low-income families who do not have the funds to take their pets to the vet for this procedure.

Killing healthy animals is an inhumane and barbaric approach to controlling pet population. Instead of euthanizing unwanted animals to control overpopulation, we should support a free humane alternative to prevent unwanted litters to begin with.

Readers should encourage the Ohio Senate Agriculture Committee to support the bill, including Sen. Bob Hackett, committee chair; Sen. Frank Hoagland, vice chair; and Sen. Sean O’Brien, ranking minority member.

Rebecca Sue Babjak Bellefontaine