Low-Income Cat-Spay/Neuter Program
Program
Zimmer Feline Foundation vouchers provide a free and convenient way for many low‐income individuals and households to fix their pet cats. The vouchers cover the complete cost to spay or neuter their cats and vaccinate them for rabies at any of our participating veterinary or spay/neuter clinics.
Eligibility
Our target for vouchers are pet cats whose caregivers’ gross household incomes are less than $40,000 per year. Because this is a "pet cat" program, we can provide assistance only where the number of cats in the home (fixed or not) is within a reasonable limit for providing lifelong care — typically less than 6 cats. We rarely provide vouchers for cats that are being fostered, kittens under 16 weeks of age, de-facto shelters or rescues, or outdoor cat colonies of more than 6 cats.
Our purpose in providing vouchers is not simply to “fix cats” but to assist low-income individuals and families provide lifelong care for their pets by stopping the behaviors that most often cost these cats their homes — kittening, spraying and yowling.
Application Procedure
Call us at 505‐466‐1676 during daytime business hours. If we’re unavailable, leave a voice mail and we’ll return your call promptly. If you don’t hear back from us within a day of your voice mail, please call again.
Application Timetable
We’ll process your application within 1‐3 days of receipt, verifying it for accuracy and completeness. Most vouchers are mailed the same day we process the application. But in a few instances we run into gray areas related to income — or determine that some of the information supplied on the application is inaccurate or incomplete. If so, we’ll re‐contact you either for more information or to explain that we had to decline the application. If you have not heard back from us or received your vouchers within 10 days of applying, call us to find out what happened.
Voucher Procedure
As soon as your vouchers arrive, call one of the clinics listed on them to set up your appointments. Although you technically have about 8 weeks to get the surgery done, the vet may need that time to get you into their schedule.
If your cats live outdoors, make sure you bring them in a day or two before their scheduled appointment to ensure you have them for their surgery. If for any reason you can’t keep your appointment — call the vet clinic at least 24 hours in advance to cancel so they may be able to use your appointment for someone else.
On the day of your appointment take your cat to the clinic (in a carrier or live trap) and give the cat’s voucher to the staff. They’ll accept it as a coupon to cover the full cost to spay or neuter your cat and — if it can be done at the same time — to vaccinate for rabies.
Re-application
Since we require that you fix all of the cats in your care at the time of your first application, reapplication is often unnecessary. We can, however, accept applications for an occasional newly-adopted cat or for kittens that were too young to fix under the initial application. These follow‐on vouchers are issued at our discretion and are based on the total number of cats fixed previously, whether you've cooperated fully with us and the clinic, used all of the original vouchers we provided and still have those cats in your personal care.