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Mission Statement

Spaymart is a local, all volunteer - based, non-profit, humane organization started specifically to provide low cost Spay/Neuter assistance and adoption programs to the public, with the mission of solving the pet overpopulation crisis in our cities.

Spaymart partners with area shelters and local humane groups to deliver proactive, results-oriented programs to help our shelters achieve the collective goal of zero-euthanasia of healthy, adoptable animals. Utilizing existing veterinary clinics, SpayMart has been operating spay/neuter programs for over 10 years. The programs are funded entirely by private donations and grants. SpayMart operates a shelter facility as well as a foster care program for over 200 cats, where they are cared for while they await adoption. Cats and kittens are available for adoption at PETsMART on Clearview Parkway, as well as listed on our web site with links to petfinder.com, petharbor.com and craigslist.com.  

SpayMart, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)3 humane society started specifically to establish low cost spaying and neutering programs. SpayMart has been operating feral cat clinics for over ten years, utilizing existing veterinary clinics. During its first eighteen months in operation, SpayMart sterilized over 2,000 feral (stray) cats.

The clinics are funded entirely by private donations and grants. Veterinary prices have risen dramatically since the program began and fund-raising has become more challenging. Operating on a shoestring budget, manned by volunteers who receive no pay, and directing all donations to the care of animals, SpayMart has managed to:

• Provide low cost spay/neuter, both to pet owners who would otherwise find it cost-prohibitive and to the caretakers of large feral cat colonies.

• Operate a cat help line, receiving in excess of 100 calls weekly

• Subsidize dried pet food each month, while supplies last, to indigent pet owners and homeless animals

• Partner with local shelters, PetsMart and Petfinder.com to facilitate pet adoptions. SpayMart is responsible for the adoption of more than 300 animals annually. To avoid compounding the problem of overpopulation, all animals offered for adoption through the program are sterilized, vaccinated, wormed, tested for FeLK, FIV and microchipped.

Spaymart does not accept animals from the public.

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Founders

Lynn Chiche

Mrs. Chiche has been involved in animal welfare for the past 13 years.  She co-founded Southern Animal Foundation in 1995, a non-profit humane organization committed to reducing the numbers of unwanted surplus animals through aggressive spay/neuter programs.  Ms. Chiche served as President on the Board of Directors and spearheaded fundraising efforts that successfully purchased Louisiana’s first mobile spay/neuter clinic which provided free spays and neuters to indigent pet owners.  The mobile clinic serviced 25-35 animals per day, operating five days a week.  In less than two years, 5,000 surgeries were performed in the New Orleans area.

In May of 1999, Ms. Chiche co-founded SpayMart, a 501(c )(3) non-profit organization providing spay/neuter assistance to indigent pet owners as well as feral cat caretakers through local participating veterinary offices.  Pre-Katrina, the clinics operated five days a week and sterilized approximately two hundred animals each month.  Additionally, Ms. Chiche partners with PetsMart, Petco, local veterinary offices and feed stores to facilitate pet adoptions in the greater New Orleans area.  By partnering with local businesses in the community, she has made them part of the solution to end pet overpopulation.  Each year, SpayMart adopts out approximately 200 animals through its adoption program.

Ms. Chiche, together with co-founder, Pam Casey, has numerous community service awards including an award from the SpayUSA Convention held in New Orleans in September of 2004 for spaying and neutering over 10,000 animals, the most of any organization in the State of Louisiana.  Ms. Chiche presented at this convention a systematic approach to reducing the number of surplus animals through aggressive spay/neuter and adoption programs.

Ms. Chiche served on the committee with the New Orleans City Council, Animal Control and the Louisiana SPCA to establish standards of care for animals in the greater New Orleans area.

Prior to Katrina, she was working to open the State’s first and only large volume low-cost spay/neuter clinic to service both dogs and cats of the general public.  These clinics, coupled with educating the public regarding responsible pet ownership, have proven to be the single most powerful method of ending pet overpopulation across the United States.  Although SpayMart’s clinic was totally destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the organization continued working with local veterinarians, as well as with other animal organizations to provide uninterrupted spay/neuter services.

Ms. Chiche received the Civic Award from the Jefferson Chapter of the Alliance for Good Government on August 14, 2006 for her heroic water rescue efforts of New Orleans animals stranded in flooded homes following Hurricane Katrina.

Ms. Chiche and husband, Dr. Gerard Chiche reside at SpayMart’s cat sanctuary in Picayune, Mississippi which is home to over 250 rescued cats awaiting adoption opportunities.

Pam Casey

Pam Casey joined the Jefferson SPCA in the early 1980’s and went on to open the first no kill shelter in Jefferson Parish.  She spearheaded a spay/neuter, foster and adoption program.  The humane education program targeted elementary grades throughout the parish, along with a syndicated column on kindness to animals.  Jefferson SPCA also
sponsored a summer camp for children to educate them on the care and needs of animals.

Mrs. Casey went onto launch a statewide spay/neuter program that enlisted over 50 veterinarians in the State of Louisiana before joining Lynn Chiche in establishing what is now Spaymart.  During this time, she was instrumental in getting the special pet overpopulation license plate offered to drivers in Louisiana to raise money for state wide
spaying and neutering.

Mrs. Casey, with co-founder, Lynn Chiche, opened a shelter several years ago in Mississippi where the rescued Hurricane Katrina and abused animals are housed.  She and Mrs. Chiche are still sheltering and adopting about 300 animals from this location, while those needing
constant vet care are housed at a second location in New Orleans. SpayMart, a non-profit humane society, continues its sterilization and adoption program to this day and has been recognized by the City of New Orleans for its unique and value contribution to the city.

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Join/Help Homeless Animals

SpayMart wants to give you the opportunity to help Homeless Animals.  Please print out this page, fill in the form and send it to us.