BARC’s BIG Fix needs $2,000 for Spay/Neuter for Low-Income Families.

BARC (Fenton, MO)

In October 2003, BARC’s humble spay/neuter program was born. Our first program provided 100 free cat spays for families on government assistance. It was born after years of rescue and volunteering at the pound 6 or 7 days a week. We’d finally came to the realization that we could never adopt our way out of pet overpopulation, not even with the help of every rescue group in town.

There would never enough homes for all of the animals continually entering the area shelters. We felt like St. Louis was drowning in unwanted animals. Thousands of dogs and cats are still euthanized every year, despite all of the wonderful efforts and work of so many shelters and rescue groups.

We knew we had to refocus our efforts and take a more proactive approach. One of the things we had learned from our time volunteering was that the majority of people relinquishing animals at shelters simply could not afford to fix their pets. Pet overpopulation and poverty go hand in hand, so there was an obvious solution … we needed to fix pets for people who could not afford to do so.

Today, BARC provides year-round spay/neuter surgeries for low-income family pets. We target this audience as poverty and shelter overpopulation go hand in hand. By providing additional spay/neuter funding, families won't have to worry about unplanned litters and finding homes for them.

Since we started our program in 2003, BARC has provided more than 72,000 free or low cost spay/neuters for low-income families. We continue to gain momentum, with 4,704 surgeries in 2023 for pets of those families most in need.

BARC subsidizes over 600 dog and cat surgeries per month in the St. Louis and Rolla, Missouri areas. We cannot adopt our way out of pet overpopulation, but we can "fix" out way out of it. Spay/neuter is the ONLY way to end pet overpopulation.

Mission:
BARC is a non-profit all-volunteer organization dedicated to animal welfare. We obtained our (501C3) status in 2002. Our mission is to eliminate the euthanasia of adoptable dogs and cats by promoting and providing spay/neuter surgeries for pets of low-income families.

Our passion to eliminate the euthanasia of healthy, adoptable cats and dogs is strong. We will stay steadfast in our efforts. We won’t stop until we get to ZERO euthanasia, and we know it can be done!