Tomaoc supported pet

Tomaoc supported pet-neutering effort, coordinator maintains

Nov. 17, 2001

Journal Staff Report

A woman who coordinates animal-control efforts in Towaoc disputes the account of a mixup there over low-cost pet-neutering that was described in the Tuesday Journal.

Brenda Hinton said, contrary to what a spokesperson for a Denver-based humane group told the Journal, there were indeed numerous appointments made in Towaoc for pet-neutering at reduced prices.

A group from the Max Fund, an organization out of Denver that promotes spaying and neutering as well as humane treatment of animals, was scheduled to spend a week in Montezuma County beginning Monday. The group was to neuter animals in Towaoc for two days, and in Cortez for three days more.

However, when the technicians arrived Monday morning in Towaoc, they found the building locked where they were supposed to operate. The group’s spokesperson said the technicians waited an hour and a half, but there were no persons waiting with pets to be fixed, so they left and went back to Denver.

Hinton admitted she was late arriving at the building. "The electricity went off at my trailer," she said. "My alarm didn’t go off. When I woke I called down there and spoke to someone and he said they’d already left."

She said there were tribal members there waiting to have their pets fixed, that about 30 had appointments for Monday and more had appointments on Tuesday. She also said she didn’t understand why the Max Fund representatives had gone straight back to Denver instead of back to their hotel in Cortez to try to continue with some of the appointments scheduled later in the week.

Hinton said the group waited less than an hour, not an hour and a half as they claimed. "They left just shortly after 8 o’clock," she said.

The Max Fund came to Towaoc this summer and neutered 104 animals, she said, adding that people in Towaoc do respond to the opportunity to have their animals neutered when it is made convenient to them.

She said she had contacted two other groups about possibly stepping in to offer low-cost spaying and neutering.

The Max Fund has also reportedly promised $3,000 to For Pets’ Sake, the local humane group that helped organize the effort, in order to make up for the inconvenience caused by the mixup.