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Strays SNYPed for free photo by Drew Fleming Volunteers fix unwanted cats in Eagle Point By Mark Freeman EAGLE POINT � The Eagle Trailer Park is a microcosm of all that is wrong with people�s attitude toward unwanted cats, but Mary Short hopes her little corner of the park is the start of all that is right. The trailer park, like other streets and neighborhoods throughout the Rogue Valley, has at least two dozen unclaimed cats either dumped there as unwanted or the furry by-products of feline unprotected trysts. "This place is always full of stray cats," fumes Short, a 77-year-old park resident. "They keep having kittens, and kittens and more kittens." But not Katrina and Ozzie, two vagabond tabbies who hang out at Short�s trailer. These animals won�t add to the stray cat over-load here because of a volunteer program that is snipping its way to pet-population control. A volunteer group recently helped Short capture the cats, then have them spayed and neutered at no cost to Short, who could not afford to foot the bill. This is one of many success stories for SNYP, whose acronym stands for Spay/Neuter Your Pets and whose organizers literally help cut into the Rogue Valley�s unwanted pet population at its very source. The nonprofit group has parlayed money from donations, craft sales and an annual bowling tournament into an all-out effort to curb the increase of unwanted litters. Clients telephone SNYP volunteers, who provide them with information on and prices for spaying and neutering, as well as the various options available to them through participating local veterinarians. Those who cannot afford any of the options are offered a financial assistance program that can get cats fixed for around $30 and dogs for $45, while still others can get their pets� surgeries for free. Since its inception three years ago, volunteers working the SNYP Line have taken over 5,500 calls and financially assisted over 1,400 surgeries, says Sally Mackler, a local animal-rights activist and one of SNYP�s founders. SNYP�s big three messages to the glut of puppy and kitten births are "prevention, prevention, prevention," Mackler says. In Eagle Trail Park, the SNYP program worked almost to perfection. Katrina and Ozzie were two of the younger stray park cats earlier this year when they found a sympathetic benefactor in Short, a former school cafeteria worker who retired here from San Diego 19 years ago. Already with three cats whose vet bills are stretching her Social Security check to its limit, Short began to provide the two tabbies food and water. In no time, Katrina had her first litter of four kittens, two of which Short captured and turned in to a local shelter. Not wanting to wait for Katrina to spawn even more unclaimed cats, Short got in touch with SNYP and the great catch-and-clip campaign of July was launched. Over a two-week stretch, Short set a cat-trap with food until she finally captured the two strays. SNYP paid for their alterations, then the animals were returned to the park and re-released instead of left at shelters already over-stocked with unwanted cats. "I don�t claim them" Short says. "They�re not mine. I could never afford to get them fixed. But it�s only fair to the animal, and to the neighbors, to take care of them." Since it began, SNYP has been directly responsible for fixing more than 3,000 animals like Katrina and Ozzie, Mackler says. When you consider how many offspring that breeding cats and dogs can generate, their efforts "into literally hundreds of thousands of kittens and puppies who were not born unwanted to suffer or burden our community�s limited resources," Mackler says. SNYP�s Prevent a Litter campaigns hit high gear in the spring, before the major onslaught of seasonal breeding. A second push is made in late summer and fall, which targets the year�s kittens who are coming into breeding age. SNYP currently is targeting low-income and senior residents who demographically are the least likely to get their pets spayed or neutered, and sometimes don�t get help through regular pet channels, Mackler says. The group therefore has asked case workers who assist low-income people and seniors to ask their clients if they have unaltered pets, and steer those toward SNYP. For more information, telephone the SNYP line at 535-8532. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA