During an economic downturn, it may be difficult for students who own pets to provide care for their animals while trying to make ends meet for themselves.
In hopes of combating the negative economic impacts on animals, Humane Ohio, a local nonprofit spay and neuter clinic, is offering low-cost pet care as well as free canned pet food to Toledo residents.
“We make it affordable for people to spay and neuter their animals and can even provide low-cost services to college students,” said Jill Borkowski, marketing manager of Humane Ohio.
“We understand that students are on a low budget [and] we provide free pet food through pet food banks,” she said.
Humane Ohio is the only spay and neuter specific clinic in Toledo and it provides pet food for those who can’t afford it through Feed Your Neighbor Ministries.
“If you think about it, in bad times, animals get their owners through the rough times,” said Director of Humane Ohio Lisa Hochradel. “People want to take care of their pets.”
According to Hochradel, the clinic has seen an increase in customers since they started offering low-cost pet care and appointments have been booked for at least two weeks. “People probably can’t afford to go to their regular veterinarians and come to us and pay less for a surgical procedure,” Hochradel said. “These are desperate times, but people really care for their animals. People are even using federal Assistance programs to spay and neuter their pets.”
Mallory Coomer, a senior majoring in nursing, said people often don’t think about pet care when they are struggling to pay for all of their other living expenses.
“[Humane Ohio] doesn’t make it hard to maintain pets during the rough economic times,” she said.
Coomer said the service Humane Ohio provides is important because some people see their pets as family members.
“If it came down to me getting a hair cut or taking care of my dog, I would definitely put my dog’s health first,” Coomer said.
Katelyn Slomka, a senior majoring in occupational therapy, said spaying and neutering animals is important because it helps prevent overpopulation of domestic animals and should be upheld even when people are low on funds.
“People who aren’t responsible and do not spay and neuter their dogs and cats are contributing to overpopulation and the euthanizing of these pets,” Slomka said.
Borkowski and Hochradel agreed.
“It would cost much less to fix a cat or dog than to raise a whole litter just because the pet could not be spayed or neutered,” Borkowski said.
Hochradel said many animals are being euthanized because there aren’t enough people willing to give them a home.
“Seeing the faces of these animals is horrible; knowing that they will be killed because people won’t adopt them,” she said.
Borkowski stressed the importance of having animals spayed and neutered and said it can actually save pet owners money in the long run.
“Dogs tend to roam a lot while cats tend to mark their territory. These are signs of mating and can be fixed when their reproductive glands are removed,” Borkowski said. “Getting them fixed younger is better. The quicker you spay or neuter your animal, the more healthy it will be, which means less trips to the vet and less money spent.”
Humane Ohio held an open house on Saturday at their new location on Tremainsville Road, where they held a pet canned food drive for all pet owners in need.
Pet Supplies Plus and PETCO were among the companies that donated pet food, which will be saved and donated to pet owners in Toledo.
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