The School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, is joining the Sacramento Area Animal Coalition in its volunteer effort to perform 1,000 low-cost spay and neuter procedures Feb. 22 during Sacramento Spay Day 2004.

Sign-ups for the procedures begin today through the Sacramento Area Animal Coalition.

These spay and neuter procedures, intended to prevent overpopulation and abandonment of cats and dogs, will be available by appointment only to households with an annual income of less than $35,000.

The procedures, costing just $15 per animal, will be offered at 20 locations throughout Sacramento, Yolo and Placer counties. Each year, more than 30,000 unwanted cats and dogs are killed in this three-county area.

In addition to the spay-neuter surgeries, participating animals will receive identifying microchips with lifetime registration, vaccinations, heartworm tests, heartworm and flea-and-tick treatments, and free pet-food samples. This package of services is valued at $300 per animal.

At UC Davis, spay and neuter procedures will be carried out in a new state-of-the-art surgical facility at the School of Veterinary Medicine. The surgeries will be performed by qualified veterinary faculty members and students. Other staff and students of the veterinary school will serve in non-clinical support roles. The vet school anticipates it will be able to provide 300 procedures on Spay Day.

To sign up their cats or dogs for appointments for the spay or neuter procedures, pet owners should call (916) 808-SPAY. Volunteer appointment-schedulers will call back to obtain necessary pet information. Each household can sign up as many as four animals for Spay Day.

Sacramento Spay Day 2004 is coordinated by the Sacramento Area Animal Coalition and its Spay Day partners: the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, the Sacramento Valley Veterinary Medical Association, the California Veterinary Medical Association, the City of Sacramento, United Animal Nations, the Sacramento Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Teaching Everyone Animals Matter. The coalition is committed to eliminating companion-animal overpopulation in the Sacramento area.

The local event is part of Spay Day USA, a national effort coordinated by the Doris Day Animal Foundation.

More information is available online at http://www.sacanimal.org/.