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Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Treatment of animals prompts teacher to action

By LYNN BULMAHN | News-Journal Staff Writer

DELEON SPRINGS — Teacher Christie Grant gets upset whenever she hears of improper treatment of animals -- or of another litter of unwanted puppies or kittens.

Too often, she hears these things from some of her pupils at Louise S. McInnis Elementary School.

"They don't take their pets to the vet, their animals are often covered in fleas and they don't take care of them as they need to," Grant said.

This year, Grant sent a survey home with her pupils, and found that among them, they owned about 90 pets that needed spaying or neutering. So, she conducted a meeting at school to talk to parents about proper pet care.

Few came.

The evening meeting last week attracted only a handful of people -- mostly those who were already doing the right things for their pets.

Grant has founded a group called Cat Tail Corner, which is raising funds for low-cost spaying and neutering in this rural community where pet overpopulation is a problem.

During 2002, Volusia County Animal Services received 251 calls from the DeLeon Springs area complaining about stray animals, said Sergio Pacheco, a Volusia County animal control officer. Animal control officers picked up 109 animals from DeLeon Springs last year, he said.

Each year, in Volusia County, between 10,000 and 12,000 ani mals taken to area shelters have to be destroyed because "there are not enough homes for them," Pacheo said.

There are two main reasons to prevent pets from reproducing -- and the overpopulation problem is only one of them. Having your dogs and cats spayed or neutered may actually add years to their lives and make them healthier, a veterinarian told the group.

"People don't realize how important that is, health wise," said Dr. Mark Salzburg, who along with Pacheo, was a featured speaker at the meeting. "I typically spay dogs at about six months of age."

If a female cat or dog is spayed before its first heat, its chances of later developing breast cancer is almost zero.

If a female dog or cat is never spayed, the chance of its having breast cancer when older is about 20 percent.

Male pets should be neutered as soon as possible, the veterinarian said.

He said neutering reduces a male dog's tendencies to wander by about 70 percent. Neutering reduces male aggressive behavior, such as biting. It may save a male pet's life, he said. "This is something no one tells you until you bring in a 10-year-old, uncastrated dog," which has tumors or hernias requiring surgery, he said.

But, "surgery on an 8- or 9-year-old dog is risky" and the veterinarian warned that the pet may not survive.

Even though the program drew a very small crowd, those in attendance said they appreciated the information.

Mimi Ellis, a DeLand senior citizen, said she learned new things from the question and answer session about pet health care.

Mike Carpenter, who said he lives on 5 acres near DeLeon Springs, signed up to have a dog neutered. "This was the first program like this I've come to, and I thought it was pretty neat," he said.

Grant said she will continue efforts to bring information to Northwest Volusians about proper pet care. "I'm not going to give up," she vowed.

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