Right Idea . . .
. . . now let’s work on that icky acronym:
Posted: May 20th, 2008 | Filed under: Grrr!, Quality Of LifeRegina Massaro is an animal-rescue worker without borders.
From junkyards in Jamaica to gritty industrial lots in St. Albans, Massaro seeks out some of Queens’ roughest addresses with one goal in mind — fighting animal overpopulation.
Earlier this month, Massaro, founder of the nonprofit group Spay Neuter Intervention Project, or SNIP, journeyed to a Springfield Gardens used-car lot, where Bobo, a 9-month-old mastiff with a tan coat and a black muzzle, patrolled the yard.
Though a giant in the making, Bobo acted every bit the attention-loving puppy when Massaro approached the gate. “He came right up to the fence, wagging his tail and licking my hand,” said Massaro, 58, of Maspeth. “He’s like a big baby.”
Working dogs like Bobo are often treated by their owners as property, not as pets, and play a large role in overcrowding at the city’s teeming shelters.
“I believe the junkyard dog is the root cause of dog overpopulation,” Massaro said before taking Bobo to be neutered at a mobile veterinary clinic operated by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Massaro, who founded SNIP (www.snipnyc.org) in 1996, travels to industrial areas in Queens and Brooklyn looking for dogs like Bobo. She does the same with feral cats, trapping them in vacant lots and seedy areas behind shopping centers.
For Massaro, who runs SNIP with three volunteers on a shoestring budget, arranging for 50 dogs and cats a month to be spayed or neutered demands sacrifice.