Neuter Now on Hiatus

The City & County of Honolulu’s Neuter Now program, which provides reduced-rate sterilization for pets, is now on hiatus as of January 2012. All satellite city halls and the Hawaiian Humane Society have discontinued selling the certificates due to depletion of the program’s funds.

Here’s how the program works. Each year, the City Council designates a budget for this program. This fiscal year, which began in July 2011, about $330,000 was earmarked for this program, which enables reduced rate sterilization certificates to be sold to cat and dog owners at these rates: $40 for a male cat, $50 for a female cat, $125 for a male dog, and $150 for a female dog. The funding gets depleted based on those rates. For example, if more certificates are sold for female dogs the money spends down faster than those buying certificates for male cats. When you buy a certificate, the entire fee is paid to the veterinarians who perform the sterilizations.
 
Hawaiian Humane Society administers this program for the county including certificate sales at its adoptions center. The Humane Society runs this program at no cost to tax payers or the City & County of Honolulu. We do this as part of our commitment to reducing overpopulation, supporting spay and neuter and supporting the county’s efforts to address pet overpopulation.

We do not anticipate that the County will resume offering this program until summer of 2012 when the County's new fiscal year begins.

Since the start of the Neuter Now program, more than 200,000 families have benefited. Developed in the 1980s, the program was recognized nationally for its unique public-private partnership in which government, nonprofit and for-profit veterinarians join together in support of pets and their families. Participating veterinarians throughout the island voluntarily perform the surgeries at significantly reduced rates, resulting in savings to pet owners while addressing pet overpopulation on Oahu.

At the program's peak in 1996, 10,500 pets were sterilized. Accessible and affordable spay and neuter programs are essential to reducing pet overpopulation and euthanasia.

Concerns about lack of availability of certificates are best directed to your City Council representative.