Barks spill out of a stone, blue-roofed building on the outskirts of Martinsburg. The sound lingers in its hilltop parking lot for a moment, then gets muffled by cars roaring along the state highway down below.
Since 1940, the Berkeley County Humane Society has housed countless adoptable animals that were rescued or surrendered. But staff say meaningfully supporting animals requires financial aid from the state.
The humane society is one of several across the state participating in the West Virginia Spay and Neuter Assistance Program (WVSNP), administered by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture. The grant program reimburses shelters, nonprofits and local governments that subsidize the cost of spay and neuter procedures for residents’ cats and dogs.
The West Virginia Legislature launched the program on a provisional basis in 2017, and its funding is set to eclipse in 2027. Pet advocates like Brandi Bender, manager of the Berkeley County Humane Society, say expiring funds put them in a bind; but several state lawmakers are eyeing ways to keep state support flowing.
A Program At Risk
All pets-to-be passing through the Berkeley County shelter get spayed or neutered, Bender said. The shelter staff considers these procedures essential to their mission; they control the local pet population, and reduce the number of animals that wind up in need of a home.
“They don’t continue to have babies,” Bender said. “Those babies have babies, and there’s just not enough homes for all of them. Then they end up in the shelters — and not just our shelter. I’m talking everywhere.”
Across the Mountain State, the Federation of Humane Organizations of West Virginia estimated that at least 160,000 cats and 145,000 dogs were left unspayed or unneutered as of 2024.
Advocates like Bender say removing the financial burden of spay and neuter procedures is essential to incentivizing pet owners to treat their animals. That is why she feels the state assistance program “helps people immensely.”
“As soon as we post that the grant is open our doors flood,” she said. “People come in and fill out the application to go through it, because it's anywhere between $600 to $900 to have an animal fixed these days.”
WVSNP grants are not funded through taxes, but instead registration fees from pet food manufacturers applying to sell their products in West Virginia. The majority of these fees are paid by out-of-state corporations, according to the program webpage.
Since 2017, WVSNP grants have funded roughly 70,000 spay and neuter procedures across the state, and roughly 18,000 in the last two years alone, according to the program’s manager, Andrew Yost.
Yost said he worries the expiration of program funds would reduce the number of these procedures across West Virginia.
That could require local shelters like the Berkeley County Humane Society to self-fund the operations. Otherwise, it could leave residents to bear the financial brunt of the procedures, or forgo them entirely.
“When the funding bill sunsets, that means our funding will go away,” Yost said. “And therefore the program will have no teeth.”
But pet advocates across the state say the program’s success in expanding access to spay and neuter procedures warrant an extension. And some of their concerns have traveled all the way to Charleston.
Photo Credit: Will Price/WV Legislative Photo
Photo Credit: Will Price/WV Legislative Photo
Finding Traction At The Capitol
During this year’s legislative session several lawmakers in both the West Virginia Senate and the West Virginia House of Delegates have backed legislation that would address financial barriers to spay and neuter procedures, and support the program already in place.
That includes a pair of twin bills that would remove the expiration date for WVSNP: House Bill 2158 and Senate Bill 578.
By removing a sunset date on the spay and neuter program, these bills would effectively make its grants a permanent fixture of the state’s agriculture department.
House Bill 2158, sponsored by Del. Doug Smith, R-Mercer, passed its chamber of origin on March 5, and currently awaits further consideration from the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Meanwhile, Senate Bill 578, proposed by Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, is still awaiting review from the Senate Finance Committee before being taken up for reading on the Senate floor.
Grady told West Virginia Public Broadcasting she was inspired to draft the bill in part because of her own experiences as a pet owner.
“I have pets, and they're not just pets, right? They’re our family, our furry family,” she said. “It's really important just to make sure that people feel comfortable and feel like they can do what they need to for their pets.”
Meanwhile, other lawmakers are exploring expansions to spay and neuter access in the state beyond the current grant program. That includes Del. Elliott Pritt, R-Fayette.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Pritt has proposed House Bill 2505, which would create a tax credit to subsidize spay and neuter costs for residents. The bill would remove the cost of the procedure from a residents’ annual personal income tax, with proof of payment from a licensed veterinarian.
Pritt said spay and neuter access affects “not only the safety of the animals,” but human interests, too.
“There’s public safety, too, and health when it comes to stray dogs proliferating disease. Cats as well,” Pritt said. Plus, “people’s property rights: If you have a lot of feral cats or dogs in a neighborhood, they could destroy personal property. It affects property values.”
Pritt said the bill was inspired by shelter capacity difficulties in Fayette County. He and local animal shelter staff see spay and neuter as a solution to pet overpopulation. The bill currently awaits review from the House Finance Committee.
Based on discussions so far, Grady says she feels relatively confident that supporting the state’s spay and neuter programs can find traction in both the House and Senate this session.
“I don't foresee it being an issue, but I guess I'll find that out when we start discussing it a little bit more,” she said. “But it should be pretty easy to get across.”
And that is something folks like Bender find exciting.
“Spay and neuter is the biggest thing when it comes to an animal shelter,” she said. “I think that's probably the biggest thing we preach, is spay and neuter.”
A version of this story was televised on The Legislature Today, West Virginia Public Broadcasting's legislative recap program, on March 5. Watch at this link.