Pet sterilization is an issue veterinarians tend to be pretty knowledgeable about, so it’s not like Bill Elliott needed to be reminded of it this past Sunday morning.

“I was in Oklahoma City at a conference, but my wife pulled up in the parking lot out here, and someone had dumped two mother dogs and 14 puppies,” said the Tahlequah vet. “When she called me, her language wasn’t very nice. In fact, it sounded like me talking.”

Fortunately, by Tuesday, Vickie Elliott had calmed down a bit – but just a bit.

“They had left a chicken pot pie with the dogs, but it was still frozen and in the box and it had tooth marks on it where they had tried to get into it,” she said. “The puppies were about 4 weeks old, and I tried not to look at them too closely. I didn’t want to see how cute they were, because I knew they were probably just going to be euthanized.”

Pet overpopulation is a problem not only in Tahlequah, but all over Oklahoma. Every year, thousands of dogs and cats are – to put it kindly, “put to sleep” – because they simply aren’t wanted.

“I’ve been here almost 30 years, and it’s getting worse,” said Glyn Ryals, Tahlequah animal control officer, who said that, in a year, his department will euthanize about 500 dogs and cats – mostly dogs.

“When Stephen Farmer took over as police chief last year, we started tagging them, and I’m up to tag number 377. But if we get a dog with a bunch of puppies, I don’t even tag those because I know they don’t belong to anybody that wants them.”

In 2004, the Oklahoma Legislature established an “Overpopulation Fund” that provides financial assistance to low-income families for pet sterilization, in hopes of reducing the number of unwanted animals that are either on the streets or in the system (taxpayer-funded dog pounds), waiting to be sent to puppy heaven (or kitty heaven, as the case may be).

Oklahomans who qualify for the program pay only a $10 co-pay to have an animal either spayed (where they take the pertinent reproductive parts out of the female dogs and cats) or neutered (where they cut the pertinent reproductive parts off the male dogs and cats). An optional rabies vaccination is $5.

The program is available to anyone who receives state assistance.

“If they’re getting food stamps, they qualify,” said Elliott. “Spays run $65 and up, and neuters are $35 on cats. A neuter for a dog can run up to $75 or $80, depending on size. So, people can save up to $70 with this program.”

Pet owners who participate must also provide verification that they qualify with a Medicaid Card, Social Security Award Letter, or Electronic Balance Transfer (EBT) Card. An EBT card verifies eligibility in the Food Stamp; Women, Infants & Children program (WIC); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF), and Day Care programs.

“You do have to apply; you can’t just drop in and have it done,” Elliott said. “And they need to bring the animal by so we can weigh it before the application is sent in, because the reimbursement to vets is done by weight.”

Once the application is approved, the sterilization has to be performed within 15 days.

However, Elliott stressed that like a lot of state-funded programs, the Overpopulation Fund is limited.