MORGANTOWN — Members of the West Virginia Spay and Neuter Program (WVSNP) returned victorious in April after successfully saving the state-funded initiative from expiration.
The WVSNP was initially passed by the state legislature in 2013. According to Nancy Young, treasurer of the Mountaineer Spay Neuter Assistance Program, the rules for the program were adopted in 2015, full funding was approved in 2017, and the program began accepting applications in 2018.
“The original bill was for $900,000 every year until they cut that in half to $450,000,” Young said. “They (the state legislature) added a sunset clause that would go into effect in 2027, effectively killing the bill.”
To address the looming deadline, Young said the group planned to begin submitting bills in 2025 aimed at eliminating the sunset clause.
“If we failed in 2025, then we could do it again in 2026, and if it failed in 2026, we could do it again in 2027,” she said. “If it failed in 2027 and went out of existence, then we would have to start this process all over again.”
Young said the campaign to save the program included several organizations that had previously received grant funding through the WVSNP.
“We decided we were going to mount a campaign and include all of the grantees from the past, all of the county commissions, [and] anybody else who wanted to be included,” she said. “In October, we started asking all of these groups to contact their representatives to tell them their stories about how important the West Virginia Spay and Neuter program is for their area.”
That campaign culminated on March 25 at the state Capitol in Charleston.
The event became known as Spay Awareness Day, Young said.
“We fortunately had a friend of FOHO (the Federation of Humane Organizations of West Virginia) that gave us money to provide a complimentary room for at least one person from each group,” she said. “We held a reception in the evening that was paid for, and [we] also had custom-made T-shirts.”
Campaign members spent the day visiting representatives’ offices and attending sessions in both legislative chambers, Young said.
Although both proposed bills to eliminate the sunset clause ultimately failed, there was still a positive outcome.
“Our savior was the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, who actually manages the WVSNP,” she said. “They had their own bill for changes for animal feed, but it also included pet food. They had amended the bill that was going through the process to remove that sunset clause, and it was passed. It was signed by the governor back in April.”
