From left, Valerie Sands and Carole Zwigart prepare for another round of bingo at Paw Print Basket Bingo. The event at Highfield Hall on Saturday raised money for Operation Spay Neuter.

BUTLER TWP — Annual all-you-can-bingo festivities drew a large crowd Saturday in the name of better caring for the local pet population.

Operation Spay Neuter, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to subsidizing spay and neuter procedures for area cats and dogs, held its fourth Paw Print Basket Bingo on Saturday. The event brought about 150 people to Highfield Hall for lunch and 16 rounds of bingo.

Lesley Bachman, a founding member of the nonprofit, said the group was launched in 2005 to serve a need still haunting Butler today.

“We started to prevent unwanted litters,” Bachman said. “If you prevent unwanted litters, that keeps unwanted animals from going to shelters.”

Since 2005, the group has subsidized 7,075 spay or neuter procedures. In 2018 alone, they helped cover 700.

The group works with partner veterinarians in the community. Pet owners qualify for funding based on financial need.

The team of about 20 volunteers also puts on mobile spay and neuter clinics at the East Butler fire hall and the Unionville Volunteer Fire Company fire hall. At those, volunteers such as Connie King check in animals and run operations while a mobile clinic performs procedures. Those clinics are specifically for cats.

“We need to control the population, especially for cats,” King said. “There's a big stray cat problem in Butler County.”They have one last mobile clinic for the year next week, but it's already booked full. The group will resume regularly hosting the clinics in April.Bingo-goers seemed pleased to play the game for such a cause.Carole Zwigart and Valerie Sands said they didn't have much experience playing bingo, but the pair loved the event. They were both attending for the first time.“I'll come every year,” Zwigart said. “It's a great reason for donating. It's a good cause.”Both women have cats, and were glad to support fellow cat owners. Sands said her two cats were both found in church parking lots.The event's organizers hoped to raise about $5,000. Bachman said she thought they might hit the goal, as the crowd was larger than last year's event. They raised about $4,000 last year.“Our attendance seems to go up every year,” Bachman said.

Lesley Bachman, one of Operation Spay Neuter’s founding members, mans the prize booth at Paw Print Basket Bingo.