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Community Corner

The Toby Project Prepares to Roll Through Bed-Stuy

The Toby Project, a non-profit organization that offers free and low-cost spay/neutering services via mobile surgery units, hits Fulton Street this Saturday.

Dr. Andrew Kaplan has been practicing veterinary medicine at City Veterinary Care since he opened its doors in 2003. Though successful, he felt there was more to be done, and it started when he adopted a dog named Toby, saving the dog from being euthanized. That day, The Toby Project was born.

The Toby Project is a non-profit organization which offers free and low-cost spay/neutering services to pet owners. The company operates five vans that travel throughout the city, with the ultimate goal of saving as many animals as possible.

While most people tend to get emotional when the subject of spaying and neutering dogs and cats is broached, Kaplan says that we should focus on the numbers: "Pet overpopulation is the biggest killer of dogs and cats in this country," he explains. "We kill over five million dogs and cats simply because the supply drastically outnumbers the demand."

The answer, according to Kaplan, isn't adoption, because by then it's too late. "Instead of preventing the existence of these surplus animals, our way has been to adopt out as many as possible and kill the rest. This is unacceptable when the source of the surplus animals is well documented, and efforts to suppress the source in various cities have been successful."

The source Kaplan speaks of is the natural breeding process. Since 2009, when The Toby Project launched, it has spayed/neutered more than 6,000 dogs and cats, thus preventing those animals from giving birth to thousands more.

Getting your pet spayed/neutered also helps it live a longer, healthier life, says Robert Batard, a veterinary technician at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Veterinary Clinic on Tompkins Avenue.

"If you don't get your female dog or cat spayed, they can get breast cancer," says Batard. "For males, non-neutered dogs have a great chance of getting testicular or prostate cancer. Spayed and neutered animals also live about three years longer than ones that aren't."

Kaplan knows that some people, no matter how positive spay/neutering is for pets, will be resistant. He notes that people often claim they don't have enough money to get the surgery, or aren't close enough to a vet to have the procedure done.

Of course, Kaplan is quick to point out that The Toby Project, with free services and mobile surgery units, resolves those issues.

If you own a dog or cat that needs spayed/neutered, a van from The Toby Project will be at 1216 Fulton Street (between Bedford and Nostrand) this Saturday, beginning at 7:30 am.

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