Title
To Designate February 2017 as Spay/Neuter Awareness Month in the City of Columbus.
Body
WHEREAS, domestic animals have provided companionship to people for centuries, sharing homes in millions of U.S. and Ohio households, providing many benefits to their families such as love, loyalty and an improved sense of well-being; and
WHEREAS, more than two million healthy and adoptable cats and dogs are put down in animal shelters each year due to a lack of critical resources and public awareness; and
WHEREAS, while most pets living in poverty are unaltered, spaying and neutering has been shown to dramatically reduce the number of animals who are put down through programs that exist to assist with the cost of spaying or neutering pets and community cats; and
WHEREAS, through “World Spay Day” on February 28 veterinarians, national and local animal protection organizations, and private citizens work together to ensure the spaying or neutering of tens of thousands of pets and community cats in the United States on and throughout the world during “World Spay Month”; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
That this Council does hereby designate February 2017 as Spay/Neuter Awareness Month and call upon the people of the City of Columbus to celebrate the month by having their own pets spayed or neutered or by sponsoring the spaying or neutering of an animal in need.