Although I'm more familiar with the pet scene in Seattle, our city seems to be cutting edge when it comes to science and research. So, if there are any dog and cat loving scientists out there, this is the blog post for you.

Earlier today, I received a press release from Found Animals regarding a recent article in Science magazine. Essentially, the magazine takes an in-depth look at the silent epidemic of millions of healthy dogs and cats killed each year in the United States and worldwide in a feature story titled "A Cure For Euthanasia?".

Science writer/editor David Grimm reports that humane organizations throughout the United States can't surgically sterilize homeless cats and dogs fast enough to control their numbers and developing countries with dangerous feral dog populations - such as China and India - fare even worse (for those of us familiar with animal welfare issues, this is something we are fully aware of...). As a result, nearly four million dogs and cats are killed (euthanized) in United States' animal shelters each year - and millions more are put to death in less humane ways around the globe.

"The amount that municipalities in the U.S. spend to catch, house, and kill our pet cats and dogs is staggering," Found Animals Foundation founder, Gary Michelson, M.D., shared with Science. "Surely we should be able to come up with a more cost-effective and humane approach."

The solution could be a program announced last October by Dr. Michelson's nonprofit foundation, Found Animals, the $75 million Michelson Prize & Grants in Reproductive Biology. The aim of the Program is to encourage researchers to develop a low cost, non-surgical sterilant, for both male and female, cats and dogs. Here's where it gets interesting: The Program offers $50 million in funding to approved researchers and a $25 million prize to the winning solution.

"There are a lot of very bright people out there who haven't applied their research direction to dogs and cats, in part because there's been no money," adds Found Animals director of scientific research, Shirley Johnston, Ph.D., D.V.M, a veterinarian and expert in animal reproduction.

Johnston, who oversees the Michelson Prize & Grants in Reproductive Biology, shared with Science "We've seen some very impressive ideas." Since last year's launch of the Program, Found Animals has received a tremendous response from the scientific community, including more than 80 letters of intent (LOIs) for Michelson Grants. Based on the high quality of these LOIs, the Foundation has invited more than 25 investigators to submit full grant applications.

To date, three Michelson Grant proposals have been approved for funding. The first approved investigator, Beverly L. Davidson, a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, has initiated work on a research project titled "Inducing Stable Infertility by RNA Interference - Proof of Principal Studies." Two additional applications have been approved for funding and more details will be released as work commences in the coming months.

Science also takes a look at how the idea of a low cost, non-surgical sterilant for dogs and cats could help reduce the number of deaths of unwanted animals not just in the United States, but globally where the statistics are even more grim and where the rate of human rabies cases from dog bites are high. India alone is home to up to 35 million street dogs which in 2004 caused the vast majority of the country's 20,000 human rabies cases, according to Andrew Rowan, chief scientific officer of the Humane Society of the United States and Found Animals Scientific Advisory Board member, in his interview with Science.

China has seen a spike in rabies cases and has responded with massive culling campaigns: City workers fan through towns, clubbing dogs to death by the thousands. There's little funding for sterilization programs internationally, added Rowan to Science, so "there's no way to take these dogs off the streets."

"We need to stop the carnage," said Rowan. "That's where the whole idea of a better contraceptive comes into play."

While researchers work on the long-term solution to this issue, Found Animals executive director, Aimee Gilbreath adds there are many ways the public can help now.

"People love their pets and we think they will be shocked to learn that nearly four million dogs and cats are dying every year in U.S. animal shelters. While we work with scientists on this issue, the public can make a difference too - by adopting their next pet from an animal shelter and making sure to spay and neuter," says Gilbreath. Here, here.

For a link to the Science article and more information on the $75 million Michelson Prize & Grants in Reproductive Biology, visit www.foundanimals.org.

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