Official: No taxpayer funds went to neuter Tenn. dogs

House Republicans who say taxpayer funds went to spay and neuter dogs in Nashville have the story wrong, a local public health official involved with the effort told The Hill.

"There was a spay-and-neuter clinic, but it was funded by a PetSmart Charities grant to the Nashville Humane Association," said Alisa Haushalter, whose job includes directing a federally funded anti-obesity program in the city known as Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW).

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee targeted CPPW in a statement Wednesday, saying that the program gave $7.5 million to Nashville, which used the grant to provide "free pet spaying and neutering."

Haushalter said this was not what happened.

"Nashville did receive a $7.5 million grant in March 2010 under the stimulus act, and stray dogs running at large are very much an issue in our city," she told The Hill.

"But the spay-neuter clinic was paid for with a private grant."

"As a partnering co-agency, we would have had staff members that were there greeting people at the event, and so forth. But the funding was not from us," she said.  

The Energy and Commerce GOP pointed to two documents on recovery.gov, a site that tracks activities under the stimulus bill, that list the spay-neuter clinics in quarterly updates submitted by the Nashville CPPW.

The reports appear to give updates on local public health happenings in general — events Haushalter described as "of interest" to the CPPW's mission — as well as describing the group's activities.

Haushalter said it's understandable why those records could be "misconstrued" to view the spay-neuter clinics as taxpayer-funded.

She said that CPPW reports include all the group's work, "collaborative" and otherwise, and other activities of interest. 

"Nashville has been selected for an HBO documentary about 'Obesity in America,'" one entry reads. 

"Services ... occurred to provide free spay/neuter and wellness clinics for dogs and cats in order to curb animals running at large," the entry cited by Energy and Commerce Republicans states.

"The spay-neuter clinic was a project that we convened and supported, but that the Humane Association funded," Haushalter repeated.

"We can assure you no taxpayer funds were used."

A video by The Tennessean dated Feb. 9 appears to support this version of the story.

CPPW "is working on an educational campaign promoting responsible pet ownership, the importance of spay-neuter, proper pet confinement as well as the leash laws in Davidson County," a man identified as a Nashville public health worker told the camera.

"And the Nashville Humane Association, one of our partners, is working on a PetSmart Charities grant that provides free targeted spay-neuter to residents," he said. 

Updated at 10:45 a.m. Friday.