Good News for the Bridgeport city budget and animal community.

An Animal Resource Center is coming to Bridgeport that predicts it will save the city over $100,000 per year in municipal animal control and emergency room costs. 

A Hand for a Paw, Inc., a local non-profit founded in 2008, will be opening the Bridgeport Animal Resource Center (BARC).  BARC will offer a host of services for animals and their families.  The most financially significant of which is their targeted spay/neuter program. 

The Bridgeport Animal Resource center will be a place to come to fulfill all animal needs; an animal centric destination focused on educating the public about the relationship between animals and humans, a  center focusing on community strengthening activities  accentuating the human/animal bond, making animal surrender intervention resources available like discounted spay/neuter and vaccinations, animal food pantry, discounted professional dog training, and classroom based animal care and safety classes for children and adults. 

Imagine a center of animal learning that presents all animals in a positive and happy light; not just learning about the habitat and traits of animals but the relationships that are formed with humans.  Exposing children to the amazing social, emotional and intellectual capacities of animals and improving their reading skills by using a child's innate interest in animals to motivate them to read.  With the new State Dept. of Education Commissioner setting his main focus on Bridgeport, Pryor stated in a CT Post article "There are other districts and other schools exhibiting low performance within the state ... but Bridgeport is very important and it represents a significant opportunity. There is a real chance here to advance a system that ought to be producing better results for the students in Bridgeport." 

Humane Education which extends to the human community is also linked with Crime Prevention.  During Mayor Bill Finch’s congressional terms, he was a major supporter for Humane Education because it is a way to build the human animal bond in these children so they don't participate in animal cruelty (the beginning of a career in violence and erosion of social structure) and so they understand the emotional lives of animals and learn how to relate carefully, respectfully and intelligently.  During these tough economic times we need more proactive crime prevention; a way to entertain children and create a productive focus so these children don't become hardened, hopeless and commit crimes because there is nothing else for them.  After school programs provide positive enrichment for Bridgeport youth... an alternative to the directionless and brutal streets. 

Columbine High School students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who shot and killed 12 classmates before killing themselves, used to brag to their friends about mutilating animals.

If BARC’s anti-cruelty outreach prevents even one child from going to prison as violent offender, BARC will have cut $31,710 (of annual prison fees) from the Connecticut state budget. 

BARC will be offering Animal School, an animal focused curriculum that teaches anti-cruelty and dog bite prevention.  The learned compassion towards animals helps protect children (even from violent neighborhoods) from becoming the violent offenders of tomorrow.  Anti-cruelty education can prevent children from becoming tomorrow’s violent offenders. 

“Many of the Citizens of Bridgeport are in such a need when it comes to their pets; economically and educationally. The cost to do the right thing by spaying or neutering your pet is completely unaffordable by most and many pet owners simply do not know how to keep a pet healthy, happy and safe. Over the past few years, I have spoken to over a thousand children and I feel that by giving them knowledge it will prevent a dog bite or keep a pet out of a shelter.” – Jimmy Gonzalez, Chief Animal Control Officer of the City of Bridgeport and A Hand for a Paw, Board Member 

This all came together one day when a group of animal advocates were brainstorming about recent animal issues when the concept of animal surrender intervention was created.  “We need to keep these animals out of the shelters.  There are not enough homes to adopt all these animals, so we must look to spay/neuter to reduce the number of animals coming in to the shelters.” – Amy Mack, former President of the PAWS Chicago Development Board, and A Hand for a Paw Board Member. “The proven answer to a true no-kill community is the formula we are proposing; most importantly educating our future animal owners and providing affordable spay/neuter.”  The PAWS Chicago Lurie Family Spay/Neuter Clinic sterilized over 83,000 pets (through 2011) resulting in a 60% reduction of euthanasia in Chicago! 

The successful programs run by PAWS Chicago inspired the Bridgeport Animal Resource Center.

 PAWS Chicago, at no cost to the city of Chicago, annually spays and neuters over 17,147 animals that belong to families on public assistance and the working poor.  The effect: 22,000 fewer animals are euthanized in Chicago municipal shelters each year.  Essentially, the privately funded spay neuter initiative saves the city of Chicago more than $2,750,000 per year in euthanasia costs alone. 

According to the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) US pet ownership calculator, Bridgeport has about 36,000 dogs and 41,000 cats.  Due to the current economy and lack of animal resources, 1,597 animals became homeless last year.  On average, the city of Bridgeport spends about $200,000 annually for the animal shelter’s housing/maintenance and veterinarian fees and with our declining economy these numbers are on a steady rise.  When the Bridgeport Animal Resource Center follows the successfully proven PAWS Chicago model, BARC will reduce the Bridgeport animal euthanasia rate from 750 animals to 325 animals, saving Bridgeport city budget $37,500 in euthanasia costs alone.   The privately funded, aggressive spay/neuter program will also cut the homeless animal housing/maintenance fees in half saving the city $61,500 in tax dollars.

Suffice it to say that The Bridgeport Animal Resource Center (BARC) plans to save the city $99,000 dollars in shelter spending as a result of it’s spay/neuter offerings.

 BARC will be in the only spay/neuter facility that services non-driving Bridgeport residents and that accepts the state spay/neuter voucher without charging the client an additional cost. This bodes even higher success for the Connecticut Animal Population Control Program.  BARC’s vision is to ensure a 100% usage rate of the state spay neuter voucher and prevent all newly adopted shelter pets from creating unwanted litters.  Often adopters of shelter animals do not use their vouchers because they cannot afford the additional costs (averaging $100 to $450).

 Spay/neuter helps cut city spending in another way, which rarely receives attention.  

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) more than 70% of all dog bite cases involve unsterilized male dogs, and an unneutered male dog is 2.6 times more likely to bite than a neutered dog.   In 2006, 97% of all dog-related human fatalities in the United States involved unsterilized canines.

 According to emergency room workers, the medical costs associated with treating a serious dog bite can be north of $22,000.  And for low-income residents without health insurance, this ends up on the Connecticut state tab.  From a fiscal perspective, if BARC’s spay neuter initiative prevents even 2 dog bites, then the program will have saved the state $44,000 in tax dollars.

 The Bridgeport Animal Resource Center (BARC) hopes to use the old Whittier School to house it’s spay/neuter initiative and community outreach programs.  A Hand for a Paw, Inc., who will run BARC, is excited to be helping Bridgeport animals and their families.  They feel that city would be well served to allow BARC to use the Whittier School to continue Mayor Finch’s efforts to improve the city.

 BARC will continue to impact budget reduction through its animal surrender intervention program.  According to the intake manager for Bridgeport Animal Control 90% of animal surrenders are preventable and caused by the following:

1) Being unable to afford the cost of pet food

2) Being unable to afford basic vet care

3) Not understanding or being able to manage their dog’s behavior

4) Housing that will not allow their pet 

All of these surrender reasons will be addressed through the BARC Surrender Intervention Program. 

BARC will offer the following Surrender Intervention Services:

-          24 hour help line

-          Animal behavior counseling, training and goods (i.e. crates, chew toys)

-          Animal food bank

-          Real estate assistance.  (We will maintain a log of animal friendly housing and insurance companies.  We will advocate for animal families and also help families develop a positive dialog with their land lords to create win/win housing agreements protecting both the land lord and the tenant).

 Through the Surrender Intervention Program, BARC’s goal is to prevent the surrender of about 400 animals annually, thereby cutting city animal sheltering costs by an additional $26,816 dollars per year.

 Spay/neuter and having available resources are the answers.  A Hand for a Paw’s mission is not simply to reduce companion animal overpopulation, but to end it.

 We are currently in the process of launching this essential project and need your help.  Please go to www.ahandforapaw.org to find out how.