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Friday, March 29, 2024
<p dir="ltr">Kylie Gurthie, 3, and a volunteer play with the newly adopted 5-month-old dog Joey during the Summer Lovin’ Adopt-A-Thon at Alachua County Animal Services. Kylie won a free stuffed toy in a wheel-spinning game to share with her new pet.</p>

Kylie Gurthie, 3, and a volunteer play with the newly adopted 5-month-old dog Joey during the Summer Lovin’ Adopt-A-Thon at Alachua County Animal Services. Kylie won a free stuffed toy in a wheel-spinning game to share with her new pet.

Florida Animal Friend is helping fund spaying and neutering procedures for pets, and it wants students to know that the service is available in Gainesville. 

Florida Animal Friend donated $14,800 in August to St. Francis Pet Care Clinic so low-income pet owners can spay or neuter their cats or dogs for no cost. The donation covers 224 surgeries, and 72 have been completed since veterinarians began conducting surgeries in November, said Priscilla Caplan, a volunteer and a former secretary of the St. Francis Pet Care board.

St. Francis Pet Care Clinic is part of the St. Francis House, located at 413 S. Main St. The clinic offers basic veterinary care for the cats and dogs of low-income families, said Joanne Lopez, member of the St. Francis Pet Care board of directors. 

All clients who reside in Alachua County, homeless or not, must produce proof of low-income status, such as food stamps, low-income housing and supplemental social security income. 

“We really believe in keeping pets and their people together,” Lopez said.

Spay and neutering procedures usually cost families several hundred dollars, Lopez said. Although the clinic has other functions besides neutering and spaying cats and dogs, this grant is specifically for that. 

Lois Kostroski, the executive director for Florida Animal Friend, said that unwanted pets either end up euthanized or left in shelters with a poor quality of life.

“If then we can provide spaying and neutering to prevent all of those additional births, then we’ve done a great thing for everyone, actually,” Kostroski said.

Approximately 19 million pets living in poverty across America, according to data from American University. Forty percent of low-income families who give up their pets would keep them if they had access to affordable veterinary care, according to a 2015 study by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, one of the largest humane societies in the world.

“There’s no reason that somebody of inadequate means can’t have a pet to fulfill their life,” Lopez said. “A lot of the clients wouldn’t wake up in the morning if they didn’t have an animal to take care of.”

Contact Allessandra Inzinna at ainzinna@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @ainzinna. 

Kylie Gurthie, 3, and a volunteer play with the newly adopted 5-month-old dog Joey during the Summer Lovin’ Adopt-A-Thon at Alachua County Animal Services. Kylie won a free stuffed toy in a wheel-spinning game to share with her new pet.

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Allessandra Inzinna

Allessandra is a third-year journalism major with a minor in English. In the past, she has covered local musicians and the cannabis industry. She is now the Student Government reporter for The Alligator. Allessandra paints and plays guitar in her free time. 


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