Letters [Dec. 1992]
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1992:
Who Pays for FoA Spay/Neuter?
In your October and November
issues, you mentioned that Friends of
Animals has underwritten lowcost spaying
and neutering. As one of the veterinarians
whose practice participates in the FoA pro-
gram, I can tell you that the people who
“underwrite” this program are the veterinar-
ians who accept the imposed rate for the
surgery. FoA collects the money, issues
the certificates, and keeps $9 of the total
fee for this service. For example, they col-
lect $39 for a cat spay, then pay us $30.
Our regular rate is $51, so we underwrite
the discount by accepting $21 less for the
surgery. At one time FoA endeavored to
force participating veterinarians to include
DHL, parvo, and psuedoleukemia vaccina-
tions at no additional charge, but backed
off this demand when, I suspect, partici-
pating veterinarians fled the program.
––Joanne V. Baldwin, DVM,
Richmond, Virginia