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d) straying from the original mission of targeted spay /neuter4 It is important to note that a and b have the possibility of upsetting the support and positive backing that the county's program has always had and wishes to maintain. But most important to the equation is d. The goal of the county's Community Spay /Neuter Program is to target intact (or reproductive) animals belonging to county residents in order to reduce shelter intake numbers, the costs of animal services, and ultimately the use of euthanasia as a means for population control. At this time, there is not sufficient data that would indicate that income criteria alone is causing the decrease or flattening of voucher numbers. There is reason to believe that county residetts who qualify under existing criteria may not currently be aware of the program and that the community is not yet saturated. Therefore, both AnimalKind and Animal Services staff are trying some alternative approaches to reaching this demographic. AnimalKind is experimenting with door hangers and targeting neighborhoods. Animal Services is using new advertising mediums and is targeting zip code areas using direct mail. In addition, the department is collecting data and generating statistics and mapped analyses of areas producing heavy volumes of animal intakes and litters intakes so that more targeted outreach can occur in those areas. A final observation is that cats remain an ongoing challenge in our own community as well as within other communities (as indicated not least by a perennial "kitten season "). Effective strategies for targeting cats owned by residents who qualify for subsidized spay and neuter may be one of the largest challenges the county faces in managing pet overpopulation as we move forward. It is staff's hope that this will be a major concern of the work they do with the Animal Services Advisory Board in the next stage of strategic plan for managing pet overpopulation. In conclusion, while income criteria is an important factor in the population that receives vouchers and qualifies for assistance from Animal Services, staff now believe that increasing current guidelines at this point would be premature and that changing other variables involved in outreach makes more sense in the present. After such changes have been made and data has been evaluated for the coming periods, staff feels there will be more sound basis and knowledge upon which to consider income criteria changes as a means to increase targeted spay /neuter numbers in the community. Cc: Michael Talbert, Assistant County Manager Beth Livingstone, Executive Director, AnimalKind Hilary Green, Interim Executive Director, AnimalKind 4 Targeted spay /neuter is defined as a spay or neuter that, without assistance, would not otherwise be done.