Animal Care & Control is offering for the fifth year, Neuter for a Nickel as part of the 18th annual Spay Day USA celebrated in February by humane organizations nationwide.  Neuter for a Nickel offers residents living in Allen, Adams, DeKalb, Noble, Whitley, Huntington and Wells counties the opportunity to schedule male cat neuter surgeries for up to seven male cats per household for just five cents per cat.  The event will be held at Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control, 3020 Hillegas Road on February 11 and 12, 2012 with surgeries provided by contributing veterinarians.

Participants are asked to call on or after January 3, 2012 to schedule an appointment prior to the event at (260) 427-1244 (option 7). Neuter surgeries will be provided for male cats ages eight weeks and older on a first come bases.  The event is made possible through an all volunteer effort and with private donations to help the shelter prevent as many unwanted spring litters as possible.  Last year Animal Care & Control handled 8,229 cats and kittens, while only 167 of them were ever claimed by their owners; 948 were adopted.

The shelter urges cat owners to spay or neuter their cats at the earliest possible age to prevent additional litters competing for homes.  “Uncontrolled cat breeding accounts for the majority of animals surrendered to Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control and to shelters across the country.  The problem can be solved easily by spaying and neutering pets.

The shelter expects to neuter 600 male cats during the two day event. Only male cats will be served by the program to account for the high volume.  Donations to the program are urged by calling 260-427-1244.

City of Fort Wayne, Ind. – Animal Care & Control Director Belinda Lewis along with Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy and Police Chief Rusty York announced a new city initiative called "Home Again" that will allow lost pets with traceable identification to be returned directly to their home.

Animal Care & Control has added mobile computers, retired from the police department, to Animal Control vans, which will provide animal control officers direct access to pet owner information. When a lost pet is found with current, traceable identification the officer will now be able to take the lost pet directly home.

According to Director Belinda Lewis, "The program will enhance the direct return of pets to their homes, save citizens time coming into the shelter and increase life saving opportunities for pets already in our building."

Chief Rusty York along with the police department's mobile support staff worked with the shelter to make the retired police mobile computers available, at a tremendous cost savings. The Controllers Office and Chief Technology Officer for the City assisted with the ancillary requirements of the project.

Deputy Mayor Malloy congratulated each of the city departments for coming together to provide an additional service to the community without increasing costs to citizens.

Lewis stressed that the key to the overall success of the program will be motivating citizens to keep identification tags and microchip information current and registered with the shelter. If identification isn't traceable, we can't send them home again.

With the launch of our new "Home Again" program, we are encouraging pet owners more than ever to purchase a City pet registration tag and be certain to attach the tag to your dog or cat's collar to be worn at all times. We are already seeing a tremendous jump in the numbers of lost animals that have been returned directly home by our officers because the pets were wearing traceable identification. Now that our officers have computers in their vehicles, they can access pet owner information while they are still on the street and make an attempt to bring your lost pet "Home Again". Be sure to call us with your pet's microchip number, so that we have it on file and update your address and phone numbers every year for added protection.