It's hip to SNIP

"There is pregnant mom here that needs help"

"I just found a litter and a mom who is really thin, can you help?"

As a dog rescue organization, we hear these phrases all too frequently.  These pleas for help are a local symbol of the global canine overpopulation problem.  Intact dogs breed naturally and their numbers increase exponentially.  These dogs can become a danger to humans and themselves when shelter and food are scarce.  Tragically, many of these dogs die cruel deaths, suffering from starvation, illness, injury, cold, lack of medical care and abusive human interaction. 

The unfortunate reality is that we do not have the resources to help every innocent puppy who is born into an unwanted and uncared for litter.  The puppies who survive, grow to perpetuate the overpopulation problem and we rescuers have no chance of keeping up.

What are we doing about it? 

Three years ago, hart's SNIP (Spays and Neuters in Partnership) Program was born. 

The philosophy is simple - if puppies are not conceived, they are not born into an unwanted litter, destined to become a dog in need of rescue.   The solution is even simpler - spay and neuter. 

Through field volunteers, we are able to identify four dogs every month that are transported into our veterinary partners, altered and returned.

Spay/neuter is a safe and humane method of controlling the canine overpopulation problem in our rescue community.  As more participants take part in the subsidized program, the community is seeing a reduction in litters and the acceptance of spay/neuter initiatives is increasing. 

Is such a program really needed? 

Consider the numbers:

A mature female dog can carry two litters per year.  A litter can vary in size between 4-14 pups depending on factors such as age, size, breed and overall condition of the mother.  However, if the average number of pups born were 10 per litter, this equates to 20 births per year per mother.  For the purpose of this illustration, we will assume that half of each litter is female and half of each litter is male.

A female reaches sexual maturity at 6 months.  So over the following year, the original mother and just her first two litter can, theoretically produce another 216 dogs.  After 30 months, this number can reach 10,000 dogs. 

10,000 innocent victims of the overpopulation problem. 

10,000 puppies born into unwanted and uncared for litters.

10,000 unfed, unsocialized and unloved puppies. 

10,000 puppies who will have shortened life spans because of lack of food, shelter and care.

SNIP is helping to decrease this tragic cycle by raising awareness and offering a subsidized access to spay/neuter procedures. 

Planned pethood is the desire of SNIP so that every dog is wanted and will have a loving and caring home.