2002 37c Neuter & Spay

This 37-cent stamp was the first U.S. postage stamp ever issued to address the problem of pet overpopulation, and it almost did not happen. The push for a spay and neuter stamp began in the mid-1990s, when animal welfare advocates launched a grassroots letter-writing campaign aimed at the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee. Humane societies, veterinary colleges, and individual citizens joined in, and by 2001 the committee was receiving more than 300,000 letters a year on the subject. The sheer volume of public support ultimately persuaded the committee, and the Postal Service issued the stamps on September 20, 2002, at the 125th annual conference of the American Humane Association in Denver, Colorado.

The puppy on this stamp was photographed at a Connecticut animal shelter while awaiting adoption. After the photo session, he was neutered and adopted into a permanent home. The close-up photograph fills the stamp face almost entirely, giving the design an immediacy that a more formal illustration would not have achieved. The companion stamp in the set features a kitten photographed under the same circumstances at the same shelter.

The stamps were issued at a moment when an estimated 70,000 cats and dogs were being born in the United States every day, far outpacing the number of available homes. Animal shelters across the country were managing the consequences of that gap, and the Postal Service worked with the American Partnership for Pets, the ASPCA, and other organizations to use the stamp release as a public education moment.