About Our Projects
ACC&D's projects help to advance our mission and this field. In some instances, these projects have evolved from ACC&D Think Tanks concluding with such energy and tangible recommendations to enhance animal health and welfare, that we simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take them to the next level.
Current Projects
Modeling & monitoring free-roaming cat populations
This initiative was established to advance efforts to manage free-roaming cat populations using methods that are humane, economical, and effective. The team working on this flagship initiative includes experts on feral and community cats, wildlife biologists, and computer simulation modeling.
Marking & identifying non-surgically sterilized animals
How will we be able to identify and monitor dogs and cats, particularly free-roaming/community animals, who have been contracepted or sterilized without surgery? The answer to this question could also have great value for large-scale canine rabies prevention programs (to convey when an animal needs to be revaccinated) and more general population monitoring efforts.
Ethical decision-making
This project was inspired by the ethical dilemmas faced when conducting our study of GonaCon in female cats and our marking and identification studies. To address the lack of guidance and tools we discovered when facing those ethical dilemmas, ACC&D held a Think Tank on ethical decision-making in innovation for animal welfare, from which a full-fledged project for ACC&D has evolved.
Surgical Sterilization & health
ACC&D is collaborating with Banfield Pet Hospital, the leading provider of preventive veterinary care in the U.S., to enhance knowledge about the benefits and risks of spay/neuter surgery in dogs.
public policy
Non-surgical fertility control is an area where science, animal welfare, and public policy cross paths. As non-surgical products become available, it is essential that they can succeed not only from a scientific standpoint, but also a public policy one. We are working to ensure that when non-surgical sterilants become available, use of these lifesaving products will not be hindered by ambiguous laws or outdated policies.
Past Projects
Drug development is a marathon, not a sprint. Over the years we’ve supported Kitty Birth Control Clinics, field studies on Zeuterin/Esterilsol for male dogs, and evaluated the potential of Gonacon for female cats. While these projects have concluded, the lessons learned from them remain relevant as we help pave the way for a future for new methods of sterilization that are faster, easier, and less expensive than surgery.