World Spay Day

WHEREAS, pets provide companionship to 68 percent of United States households; and

WHEREAS, nearly three 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, nearly 90 percent of pets living in poverty, and 98 percent of community (feral and stray) cats are unaltered; and

WHEREAS, spaying and neutering has been shown to dramatically reduce the number of animals who are euthanized in animals shelters; and

WHEREAS, veterinarians, national and local animal protection organizations, and private citizens worked together to ensure the spaying or neutering of more than 68,000 pets and community cats  through “World Spay Day” in the United States and throughout the world in 2014; and

WHEREAS, veterinarians, national and local animal protection organizations, and private citizens have joined together again to advocate the spaying or neutering of pets and community cats on “World Spay Day 2015:”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert Bentley, Governor of Alabama, do hereby proclaim February 24, 2015, as

World Spay Day

in the state of Alabama.