Lurie Clinic Tops 30,000 Spay/Neuter Mark
May 01, 2006
In an unassuming building in the heart of Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, a quiet revolution is taking place. This is the PAWS Chicago Lurie Clinic, the city’s only high-volume, free and low-cost spay/neuter clinic located in and serving low-income communities where the majority of stray and unwanted pets originate.
PAWS Chicago was founded in 1997 by concerned civic leaders determined to bring a progressive, solution based approach to the problem of homeless animals in Chicago and to end the city’s appalling euthanasia rate. The effort has been remarkably successful, with the number of homeless animals killed in Chicago nearly halved since PAWS Chicago first began to put a public face on this horrific, but once hidden tragedy – down from more than 42,000 in 1997 to about 24,000 in 2004.
The cornerstone of PAWS Chicago’s effort to make Chicago a No Kill city, where cats and dogs are no longer killed because they are homeless, has been the Lurie Clinic, which has sterilized
more than 30,000 pets. The 30,000th surgery was done on October 11 on Sydney, a 15-month old Labrador Retriever mix. Since the Clinic opened, 60% of the reduction of euthanasia of homeless animals in Chicago can be attributed to fewer animals entering shelters.
Through innovative Angels with Tails adoption events held every weekend at area shopping centers, retail stores, and banks, PAWS Chicago is saving lives by finding families willing to open their hearts and homes to homeless dogs and cats.
However adoption alone will never solve the pet overpopulation problem. Just consider that one female dog and her offspring can produce over 67,000 dogs in just six years, while a female cat and her offspring are capable of birthing 420,000 cats in just seven years. Spay/neuter is the only proven solution to reduce the oversupply of homeless dogs and cats.
Focusing efforts on high-volume, affordable sterilization of owned pets enables PAWS Chicago to significantly reduce the number of unwanted animals born and thereby fight overpopulation and euthanasia at the source.
The Lurie Clinic’s location and policies target resources toward providing spay/neuter services for low-income pet owners in neighborhoods with serious overpopulation problems, rather than subsidizing lakefront pet owners who can afford private sterilization for their animals. Free transportation is provided for pets of individuals on public assistance who cannot get to the Lurie Clinic.
Spay/neuter services are performed for free on pets whose owners are on any form of government assistance or who live in one of 12 targeted Chicago zip codes, where incomes are at or below poverty level.
The Lurie Clinic is currently in operation Sundays through Thursdays. PAWS Chicago is looking to raise the support necessary to keep the Clinic open one more day a week. The surgical space, along with free drugs, is also made available to such other humane organizations as People and Animals in Community Together. The work of the Lurie Clinic has been recognized by the media. In 2003, PAWS Chicago became the first nonprofit organization to receive a Chicago Sun-Times Chicago Innovation Award, for the Lurie Clinic.
The awards recognize successful development and marketing of ideas that create a new category of business, change customer expectations, solve unmet needs, and create a “me-too” response. In addition, the Lurie Clinic was featured in the national PBS documentary Best Friend Forgotten, as the solution to pet overpopulation. For many clients of the PAWS Chicago Lurie Clinic – the poor, housebound elderly, and families on welfare – their animals are a primary source of joy and happiness. The Clinic enables them to provide vital care for their animals, no matter how limited their means, right in the community where they live.