Member society supports multi-million dollar safe sterilization initiative

Cats and dogs could benefit from the Michelson prize
© WSPA

Billionaire surgeon, entrepreneur and inventor Dr Gary Michelson recently announced that he is offering US$25 million to the person or group that can come up with a safe, non-surgical, single-dose sterilization method for male and female cats and dogs. His generosity is welcomed by WSPA member society the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs.

The Michelson Prize in Reproductive Biology, an international prize open to applicants from any country, will be awarded to anyone who invents a suitable oral or injectable sterilization method. To help get researchers started Michelson is also offering US$50 million worth of research grants for promising proposals.

Michelson’s non-profit company, Found Animals Foundation, is partnering with the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs (ACC&D) on the initiative. The ACC&D is a non-profit that has been committed to introducing humane, high welfare non-surgical sterilization of cats and dogs for the past eight years.

"This is huge for our cause," said ACC&D president Joyce Briggs, who believes the Michelson Prize has the potential to generate the impetus needed for what she called “ground-breaking approaches in pet sterilization to emerge.”

Michelson, 59, ranks at no. 317 on this year’s Forbes' 400 Richest Americans list. He, like most animal-welfare experts, believes that the introduction of a cheap, reliable pet sterilant will dramatically reduce the number of animals that US shelters are forced to euthanise every year, which presently stands at 4–6 million.

Studies conducted by experts from the ACC&D and other animal advocacy organisations have found that 27% of dogs and 14% of cats have not been spayed or neutered, with owners’ reasons ranging from cost worries to fears about surgical safety.

“[Providing] a safe, effective solution via an injection, and without surgery, could reduce the cost of this procedure and simplify the logistics of providing the service (not to mention making sterilization less stressful to the individual dog and cat),” wrote Briggs on ACC&D’s website.

"[Animals are] helpless. They depend on humans for a good life," Michelson told USA Today in a recent interview. "There's no limit to the number of good causes. I have to pick the one that makes me feel the best."

Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs
www.acc-d.org