Best Friends of Baker’s “Neuter Your Ex” event names a cat after your ex
By Joe Hathaway on Monday, February 5th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY — All’s fair in love and war, and if you’re feeling especially vengeful this Valentine’s Day, then the Best Friends of Baker has just the thing for you.
The non-profit’s “Neuter Your Ex” campaign gives scorned lovers a chance to name a cat after their ex and – you guessed it – spay or neuter them.
A flat fee of $35 covers the cost and you can sign up through animal rescue’s website.
“The main idea behind this campaign is to neuter or spay feral cats, which is a huge problem in Baker,” said Megan Kendall, a volunteer for Best Friends of Baker. “It’s an ongoing battle to try to control the population of feral cats.”
Founded in 1988, Best Friends of Baker says it advocates for the needs of domestic pets, particularly dogs and cats, within Baker County. According to its website, “Best Friends promotes dignity, humane treatment, and responsible population control through education, spaying, and neutering. Best Friends facilitates medical needs, foster care and thoughtful placement of all animals.”
Megan says with the feral cat problem growing in Baker, people can help out if they own cats.
“People’s pets are actually contributing to the problem, because of people who have unaltered indoor/outdoor cats, especially male cats,” Kendall says. “If you have an indoor/outdoor female who’s not spayed, she’ll come home pregnant and you’re going to know it. But if you have a male indoor/outdoor cat, he’s not going to come home pregnant, but he’s probably contributing a lot to the feral cat issue.”
Megan also added that a lot of people don’t realize that kittens can begin reproducing at just four months old.
“People think that they can wait to spay or neuter until they’re a year old. And it’s like, nah, they can have a litter well before they’re a year old,” said Kendall. “It’s super important that if you have a family cat or kitten that goes outside, that they really need to be spayed or neutered.
Best Friends of Baker says it’s always looking for volunteers to help out. If you want to help or even provide a monetary donation, please call (541) 519-7387 or email bestfriendsofbaker@yahoo.com.
