Prevent a litter - spay or neuter your critter
Tomcat Special offers cure for costly pets
By Kevin Schnepp Staff writer

Budget cutbacks can help cure peoples' financial concerns, but cats and dogs do not necessarily understand their responsibilities when it comes to helping out in times of need.

Carroll County residents will have to make do with fewer county-supported animal control services due to county budget woes. Our domesticated friends have siezed the opportunity to spawn like mad, but a kennel in Tippecanoe County is offering its adjacent county's residents a chance to lick their financial wounds and nip the problem in the bud.

Anita Pollock, co-owner of Crystal Creek Boarding Kennel in Tippecanoe County, said Thursday the more cats and dogs her facility can spay or neuter for residents in bordering counties, the more she can help curb the abundance of stray domestic animals in her own county. That theory led her to offer a "Tomcat Special" to neighboring counties, including Carroll County.

The Tomcat Special is an opportunity for residents of counties adjacent to Tippecanoe County to neuter a tomcat for $10, a steep discount compared to typical costs. Reduced prices are also being offered for female cats and male and female dogs.

"People often have a stray show up at their door and they begin to feed it and tend to its basic needs, but most times they don't have it spayed or neutered," Pollock said. "Then the animal finds a mate near its new home and the host family has a bigger, more costly problem

on its

hands. The

Tomcat Special is an opportunity to solve the problem before it is created. If we don't help adjacent counties, we will suffer just as much as they will. By helping them, we are helping ourselves."

Those interested in having a cat or dog spayed or neutered should call (765) 497-3141 as soon as possible to schedule an appointment.

Callers will be directed to leave their name, phone number and the type of service in which they are interested. Crystal Creek will check the messages daily and return each call with a scheduled time. Residents will need to deliver the pet(s) to Crystal Creek Boarding Kennel on Goldsberry Rd. near Americus in a pet carrier at the scheduled time and be prepared to sign surgical consent forms. The animals will be ready to return home the following day.

Carroll County established an animal control group to determine how to manage the domestic animal population in light of decreased county funding. The county provided the group with a van, cages and $13,000 seed money to get started. Town of Flora Clerk- Treasurer Joretta Tinsman is part of that animal control group.

Tinsman said she was not informed of the Tomcat

Special but was excited

for the opportunity.

"The need is definitely there for Carroll

County," she said Friday.

"The sheriff's office gets

a lot of animal control calls,

but not much can be done

currently. Tippecanoe County's offer is very helpful and couldn't come at a better time to help us out. It is our hope Carroll County residents do everyone, including themselves, a favor and take care of their pets through this great deal."

Pollock said her kennel receives 10 to 15 calls each week from Carroll County residents in search of help for their pets or strays.

"A problem exists with dogs," she explained. "But the real problem lies with the number of male cats in the area. If our neighbors can help us spay or neuter one or two hundred more, we'll be in better shape heading into next summer. We can't eliminate the problem, but together we can make it manageable."

"We can sit here and tread water, or we can do something about it," she concluded.