Free Companion Cat Spay/Neuter Vouchers
“I want to thank you for your help spaying my beloved companion. I love her and hope to have her for many years.” — Alicia, Belen NM
Who We Help
If you have a cat permanently in your care as your lifelong companion pet and need financial help to get him or her fixed, we may be able to help.
Application Process
Simply call us to fill out a brief telephone application — and if it’s approved — we’ll mail you a voucher for a free spay or neuter at any of our participating vet clinics.
Note: Since this program is household-based, we ask that the head of household call to complete the application. This would be the primary adult in the home who is the named tenant on the lease or the property owner in the county records.
During the telephone application, we’ll ask for your address and phone number, the names of all adults living at your physical address and their basic income information. We’ll also ask questions about all the cats or kittens in your care regardless of whether they are already fixed or not.
If you don’t receive a voucher within one week from when you apply, call us to find out why. This could happen for a variety of reasons — it could be lost in the mail or returned to us from the post office for a better address. We could have run into a question or concern that may require you to provide additional information before we can approve it. Or, we may not have approved the application — if that’s the case, we’ll explain why when you follow up. During 2019, we approved over 1,500 applications.
Directions for using the vouchers are printed on them. Please read and follow them completely.
Covered Services
Our vouchers cover the following services. You will not be charged a co‐pay or be required to pay for any additional work to use the voucher (but if you authorize anything more, you will be charged for the additional services).
- Brief day‐of‐surgery exam
- Spay or neuter surgery, including additional charges for pregnant, in-heat, and inguinal cryptorchid cats
- Rabies vaccination given at time of surgery
- Pain medication
- Taxes and fees
Other Veterinary Care
Some (not all) clinics may also include a free FVRCP vaccination, microchip, and/or treatment for visible parasite at time of surgery. If your cat needs treatment for a minor medical condition while at the clinic, we may be able to help with the treatment cost per the guidelines of our Veterinary Care Program.Voucher Exclusions
Our vouchers may be declined by a clinic:- If it’s being used by any person or for any cat other than the ones referenced on the voucher,
- If your cat is being declawed — even if you pay the additional cost,
- If the voucher has expired,
- If, in the doctor’s sole opinion, your cat is too ill or too pregnant to undergo surgery.
- If you fail to cooperate fully with the clinic or have unresolved business dealings with them.
Caregiver Eligibility
- Your gross household income (for all the adults at the same physical address) before deductions is under $50,000 per year and the market value of your property is less than $300,000.
- You live in New Mexico within a 45‐minute drive of a participating vet clinic.
- You intend to fix all the companion cats in your care.
- Total number of companion cats in your household’s care (fixed and not fixed) is four or fewer over the life of our program and are in compliance with municipal and landlord requirements.
- If you have applied for vouchers before, you must have used them, have fully cooperated with us and the clinic you utilized, and still have the cats listed on your earlier applications.
Cat Eligibility
- Is at least three months old, is socialized to people, can be safely picked up and has lived in your home for at least a week. Feral cats (ie, those that need to be live‐trapped) and exclusively outdoor cats are excluded.
- Is permanently cared for as your personal companion at your physical address and would unquestionably move with you if you relocated.
- Is one that you found outdoors, adopted person‐to‐person for free, or was born to your cat.
General
Households are limited to a maximum of 4 vouchers (including both Spay/Neuter and Veterinary Care) over a 5-year period with no more than two Spay/Neuter vouchers over a 12-month period. Caregiver and Clinic use of our vouchers is governed by these guidelines, which are subject to change without notice. Our liability is solely limited to the payment for the work as provided on the current clinic registration sheets.