The Toby Project is a non-profit organization working to end the killing of thousands of adoptable dogs and cats each year in New York City’s animal shelters. It is the only organization in NYC whose sole mission is to address pet overpopulation at its inception by preventing the births of unwanted dogs and cats. The organisation’s goal is to spay/neuter the very animals who would otherwise directly perpetuate a vicious cycle of unwanted birth and unnecessary death, and make NYC a true “no-kill’ community.
In the current depressed economic climate where everyone needs a little help, The Toby Project is offering FREE spays and neuters to residents of low income communities of the Bronx via mobile surgical vans. People with dogs and cats can take advantage of this FREE service and help pet overpopulation at the same time they do the right thing for the health and welfare of their pets. Spayed and neutered pets live longer, healther lives. The Toby Project has already performed more than 1400 surgeries in the Bronx. For van locations, please go here.
The Toby Project – Fact Sheet
1. What we do: The Toby Project is a non-profit organization offering FREE spay/neuter services to low-income pet owners of NYC via mobile surgical vans.
2. Mission: Our mission is to prevent the killing of healthy, adoptable pets in New York City’s municipal shelters. In NYC, because of pet overpopulation, we are forced into killing an average of 80 dogs and cats each day. This is not only an unthinkable, unacceptable and sad statistic, but at $110 to collect, house, feed, kill and dispose of each dog and cat, this comes at a tremendous financial cost for the city. Such statistics tell the story that is repeated in shelters across the country.
3. The causes of pet overpopulation: Uncontrolled breeding of pets belonging to low-income owners and strays.
4. The only solution: Targeted spay/neuter: the pet overpopulation problem is long overdue for “prevention” because the “treatment” by means of trying to find enough homes has never worked. The resources and attention that have been given to adoption initiatives has led to a misguided public perception – that adoption can solve the problem. It is now well-established that the ONLY way to solve pet overpopulation is to prevent it by targeting sterilization (spay/neuter) at the very animals that are responsible for the breeding, and whose offspring are filling up shelters. These dogs and cats are those belonging to low-income pet owners and strays.
5. Facts about The Toby Project:
Our service: The Toby Project is a targeted spay/neuter initiative and we feel we have taken the lead here in NYC offering FREE services in low-income communities. We drive our mobile surgical vans into neighborhoods, where people line up at 7:30 am with their dogs and cats, rain or shine, to take advantage of our services.
How far we’ve come: Earlier this year, our first van hit the streets in the Bronx communities that relinquish the most pets to city shelters — and more than 1400 surgeries have been performed to date. We are currently focusing our efforts in the Bronx, but the project’s objective is to operate vans in each of the 5 boroughs of our city.
The spay/neuters we’ve performed to date will in effect save millions of lives over the next 5 years if you calculate the likely breeding behavior of these animals had they not been sterilized.
Why we’re different: What makes us unique when compared to other organizations is that this our only mission, our only function and we will not stop until shelters across the nation serve only to hold and rehabilitate animals in order to be placed into homes rather than a place where they are likely to live three terrifying days before they die.
Inspiration: The project was founded by veterinarian Dr. Andrew Kaplan, Inspired by his experiences as a vet and a chance encounter with a dog named Toby, he’s chosen to take on pet overpopulation as his mission. It’s his vision that no dog or cat be put to death merely because there are not enough homes for all of them.
