Many Lives Are in Your Hands

This is my newest digital painting, titled "In Your Hands". I did this painting for my new organization SNIPnow.org. SNIPnow is an organization dedicated to helping those with financial difficulties get their pets spayed and neutered, as well as providing educational and informational materials about spaying and neutering and the benefits to both pets and their humans.

This painting is available on products both with and without words (Many Lives Are in Your Hands...Please Spay and Neuter). All proceeds from the sale of the products goes to SNIPnow.org.

I am also selling some matted artist signed prints of this work over on Etsy.

If you think not having a pet spayed or neutered is "no big deal", think about this...one unspayed female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in 6 years. Unspayed and unneutered animals cost taxpayers $2 BILLION a year!

When I read news articles that someone threw four newborn puppies in a trash can, that just drives it home even more just how important it is. WHAT are people thinking? They're not. They're OBVIOUSLY not because there are *clearly* other solutions!

Just this morning on my bike ride I saw a big black lump in the empty parking lot of our nearby shopping center. From a distance, it looked like a big lawn and garden leaf bag. As I got closer, I thought I saw a tail. A little closer, and I realized it was a stray Rottweiler. Sleeping. Right in the center of this empty parking lot. How sad is that? And I'm seeing more and more strays in our area as our economy worsens. For people like me, experiencing financial difficulties, the cost of spaying or neutering is just not in the budget. I have two cats myself that need to be neutered RIGHT NOW. I know this lull in the cash flow is just temporary, but in the meantime, animals can and will go into heat. Males can and will find females to mate with.

Just by spaying one dog, a person can stop the cycle of 67,000 more potential dogs on the streets and in our shelters. JUST BY SPAYING ONE. Now let's see...the average yearly cost to maintain a dog properly (food and vet bills are the basic charges) is between $700-$2,000 per year. So...if 67,000 dogs are being born in 6 years, that's 11,166 dogs per year. Cost to maintain them even at the minimal $700 per year would total $7, 816, 200 for the one year. By spending $60-$150 to have one dog spayed, it saves this economy over $7 MILLION!

SNIPnow.org was created to help the low income person who doesn't HAVE the $60-$150 to have a pet spayed or neutered. Yet, someone out there DOES HAVE $60-$150 they can donate toward having one pet spayed/neutered. Are you one of those who has it? Can you help save over $7 million this year? If so, please visit SNIPnow.org and see how you can donate. We have several different ways that *everyone* can help, from donating cash to purchasing products where every penny of the proceeds goes into the fund, to printing out and distributing our educational materials, and even simply linking to our site to help bring exposure to this tremendous need.

Thank you!

--Jai Johnson