The Community Animal Rescue Effort’s annual fundraising Spay-ghetti dinner Sunday served nearly 360 people and netted a record $11,000 at Columbus’ Tre Bicchieri restaurant, 425 Washington St.
CARE has sent 6,583 animals to the Pets Alive nonprofit spay-neuter clinic in Bloomington since June 2006, according to the Elaine DeClue of CARE.
Organizers regularly say it is difficult to estimate how many surgeries could be funded with the money, since various discounts are available at various times through the clinic, which does the procedures on local animals taken there. Much of the work is done for as little as $20 per animal for low-income families.
That price is significant since DeClue and others with CARE say struggling families generally will not pay $250 to $400 to a veterinarian for spaying or neutering a pet. If they don’t seek other means for the procedure for a pet, the area then faces more stray animals at a time when it is already experiencing overpopulation.
