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by Laura Camper/Times-Georgian

Just more than two years after opening, the West Georgia Spay and Neuter Clinic operated by the Carroll County Humane Society will perform its 10,000 surgery on Monday, a milestone to celebrate because of the service itself but also because of the euthanasia it has curtailed.

A conservative estimate shows that in two years, an unspayed cat and its offspring can produce 67 kittens while an unspayed dog and its offspring can produce 128 puppies. Dr. John Mullins, the veterinarian filling in at the clinic for the month, has worked at emergency veterinary clinics and knows what the result of not spaying or neutering can be: unwanted puppies and kittens.

“The last weekend I worked (at the emergency clinic), I put down half the animals I saw for one reason or another,” Mullins said. “If you think about how many offspring weren’t born, you can figure half that was female, so you’ve prevented a lot of unwanted animals.”

The clinic was opened in March 2007, but had to close for a couple of months because it had no vet. It reopened in July 2007 and has worked non-stop on its mission of spaying and neutering. The veterinarian at the clinic usually performs between 25 and 30 surgeries a day, four days a week.

Office Manager Kristi Bossert has been working at the clinic since it reopened.

“When people call, they can’t imagine that we do that many surgeries in a day,” Bossert said. “It just shows how much it’s needed in the community.”

She has worked for humane societies for more than 10 years. It’s work she loves and feels good about because of the good it does. She has worked in Boston, where the pet laws are stricter and pet owners are much more likely to spay and neuter their animals. There, the animal shelters don’t routinely euthanize as many animals because it is not needed.

“You see the result; it’s out there and it can be done,” Bossert said. “To open this clinic is very progressive in the animal field and you see how this clinic is needed in a community like this.”

Originally, the clinic was opened with $110,000 the Carroll County Humane Society raised through fundraisers, grants and $50,000 of its own capital. The society considered opening a shelter, but decided the clinic was a better option.

“The idea was to stop that flow into the shelter because you can never adopt your way out of all those extra animals,” said Tina Buechner, executive director of the clinic and president of the Humane Society Board of Directors. “The only humane way to stop that flow is by spaying and neutering.”

The society did its fundraising and planning for two years before opening the clinic. Since then, it has been self-supporting and non-profit. The clinic does apply for grants for larger expenditures and to offer free surgery to low-income clients who can’t afford even what the clinic charges. It also requests donations for consumable supplies it uses, such as paper towels.

It is able to charge well below what a veterinarian would charge for the surgeries because it keeps its overhead down by focusing only on spaying and neutering.

“We don’t have humongous x-ray machines to work on other diagnostic problems,” Bossert said. “We don’t have the shelves of medicine that treat other issues.”

That keeps people coming in and Buechner is happy to see them. She is hoping to expand the services to more people. Right now the clinic offers transportation to shelters that have at least 15 animals. It also offers transportation from Pet Supplies Plus when needed.

“We want to expand our transports, help more rescues and animal control agencies to use the clinic, make it more accessible to more people,” Buechner said. “Our ultimate goal is to spay and neuter more and more.”

One issue the clinic has faced is a turnover in veterinarians. Since Bossert has been at the clinic, there have been more than five different veterinarians working there and many of them have traveled from different states to work there. For instance, Mullins lives in Tennessee and travels to the clinic for the four-day week. The clinic would like to hire a permanent veterinarian, but it’s hard to find one who wants to do such specialized work.

“This is a very different operation than your full-service vets,” Bossert said. “You have to have a different heart and a different focus just to come in here and do spay and neuters constantly. ... It’s a special vet that it takes to work here.”

However, it keeps bringing people in and keeps working to reduce the population of unwanted animals in hopes of seeing a reduction of euthanasias. Buechner hopes that maybe some day there will be no more need for euthanizing animals.

“That’s our ultimate, ultimate goal – to stop the killing at the shelters,” she said.

CCHS awarded $7000 grant! 

Thanks to the Two Mauds Foundation for their award of $7000 to the West Georgia Spay Neuter Clinic.   The funds will be used to help low-income families afford surgeries, help with our transport program, and to send our staff to training and conferences to keep them up-to-date on the newest training in high-volume spay/neuter.

4,175 SURGERIES DONE IN 2008!   WE HAVE SURPASSED 6,800 SURGERIES SINCE OPENING IN 2007!! 

Thanks for everyone's support and getting the word out that spaying & neutering saves lives.  It is the only humane way!   Our goal will be to surpass 5,400 surgeries in 2009.   Please keep spreading the word.

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