CPPI (15 Years & Counting)

Since 2005, Community Partnership for Pets, Inc. (CPPI) has been setting up and funding programs to improve the lives of dogs and cats in North Carolina. Programs include spay/neuter surgeries, pet food assistance, vaccination clinics, routine veterinary care and a modest amount of emergency care. Each program is designed to reduce the birth of unwanted animals, overcrowding, and euthanasia in county animal shelters. Initially working in Western North Carolina, CPPI now works in less affluent rural areas across the state to set up and fund similar county programs over a 12 to 36 month period. Once the programs are functioning in place, long-term funding is then secured. Just like with adoption and rescue, these programs must not end.

County volunteers and CPPI partner to get the word out to families who have the greatest need. Reducing the number of animals being abandoned, abused or winding up in county shelters cannot simply be solved by one program, organization or person. Education as to available programs is crucial for success and it takes community teamwork.

CPPI is currently working with 12 counties, some of which have local veterinarians offering assistance. Each county has its own unique set of needs and for counties with no vet willing to participate or no veterinarian in the county at all, then mobile clinics and vets from neighboring counties get involved. A genuine partnership of volunteers, veterinarians, county government, businesses

and members of the community is necessary to help low-income families and pets in need. The photo is the mobile spay/neuter clinic that travels over an hour one-way to get to several of the county shelters CPPI is working with. The clinic sets up in the shelter’s parking lot so families can drop off their pets in the morning for surgery and pick them up later in the day. The mobile clinic can do 30 surgeries a day.

Many vets and spay/neuter clinics are successfully working together to reduce the cost of services. The average cost to sterilize an animal or provide basic vet care is $77.84, a considerable savings compared to the cost of one animal’s care once it enters a county animal shelter which the state reports is $176.56. Therefore, providing surgeries to prevent unwanted litters in addition to helping pets remain with their families successfully keeps them out of a shelter in the first place.

Go to our website at www.communitypartnershipforpets.org and click on the “Partners” tab for a listing of those counties we currently are working with in addition to all “Contact” information.