“Properly trained, a man can be dog’s best friend.” - Corey Ford Ben Franklin’s maxim, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” never met a more perfect issue to prove its point than the problem of birth control, or the lack thereof. Getting a grip on population explosion, whether human or animal, is not an easy proposition because humans tend to ignore or deny the consequences of overpopulation of their own species, and are too often willing to throw animal populations out of ecological balance for selfish and short-sighted purposes. One such imbalance is certainly our disregard for some of our closest friends, our domesticated pets.

I’ll never forget my dad’s low grumble when I brought home my first stray kitten.

“Cats are always pregnant,” he groaned. I had no idea what he meant, but soon learned that if we had a family pet, I would not be witnessing the miracle of birth from my promptly “fixed” new friend. And as a child, I did not appreciate that I had wise parents, or know that they were extraordinarily kind as well.

Maybe that’s the catch.

Maybe we do not view prevention of unwanted litters of cats, dogs, rabbits, etc. as a kindness.

Varying statistics of animal euthanasia in our country, however, place the deaths between 4 million and 11 million annually so it seems obvious that spaying and neutering is on par with providing food and shelter.

Fortunately there are among our own species those who, when they see a wrong, act to make a right. When Marcia Donley of Fayetteville, who has probably lost count of how many pets she’s adopted, worked as a volunteer at our local animal shelter, she saw firsthand the unending death march of perfectly good but unadopted pets.

After attending a Spay USA conference in 2007, she was motivated enough to believe that a similar program was something she might be able to initiate in Northwest Arkansas. Studying various programs across the country, including the excellent Humane Alliance model, and inspired by an excellent article by Peter Marsh from New Hampshire titled, “Chain of Collars,” Donley founded Spay Arkansas, a nonprofit group.

The organization formed a board, which eventually set its sights toward a clinic facility, and fundraising began. Their mission, “… to make Arkansas a place where the number of companion animals available is equal to the number of people who want them,” has driven their eff orts to raise money through silent auctions, masquerade parties, musical events, potlucks, etc.

Between 2007 and 2011, the five-member board managed to raise about $60,000, which was matched in 2010 by anonymous gifts. Finally ready to act, last March they opened their spay/neuter clinic at 1909 W. Huntsville Road in Springdale (appointment phone: 479-756-1100).

Targeted toward low income pet owners, the clinic’s licensed vets are performing between 20 to 30 procedures each day, three to four days per week.

The fee for dogs is $40, $30 for cats, and includes their rabies shot. Pet owners need to act quickly because puppies and kittens can get impregnated as early as 5 months of age, and then real life and death decisions begin. In their first year, the clinic has spayed (female) or neutered (male) about 3,500 animals, which translates in the avoidance of destroying about 14,000 lives.

It certainly makes sense for governments to promote and help spaying and neutering efforts, since every dollar spent on those procedures would save $3 in animal control costs.

New Hampshire’s programs, for example, have decreased shelter euthanasia by 70 percent in 10 years. It can be done, and we ought to be doing it as a primary action rather than an afterthought.

Spay Arkansas reports that more than 10,000 animals entered Northwest Arkansas shelters last year and more than 5,000 of them were killed. Most were young, healthy and adoptable. The organization also points out the costs of housing, feeding,euthanizing and incinerating this overpopulation of pets is more than $100 per animal or $500,000 of taxpayers’ money for “something that no one wants to do.”

As with almost all nonprofit organizations, Spay Arkansas needs constant support and funding to subsidize the work they are doing. Please consider helping them continue. Prevention is the key to kindness.

FRAN ALEXANDER IS A FAYETTEVILLE RESIDENT WITH A LONGSTANDING INTEREST IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND AN OPINION ON ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE.

Opinion, Pages 13 on 03/04/2012