Low Cost Spay Neuter Clinic

Spay/Houston - Low Cost Spay Neuter Clinic

There is a huge lack of resources available to north Houston and Montgomery County for high quality/low cost spay neuter. Visit our new clinic website!

Adopt A Cat is in the planning phases for a clinic to service this area. If you would like to be involved with the planning and/or fundraising for a clinic, please contact Deana Sellens at 713-822-4368 or dsellens@charityworkshop.com. If you would like to make a donation to our group to help with this endeavor, please click here.

We are also looking for a transport van so that we can reach the outskirts of our communities. The van must be air conditioned in the back.

Where is the project at…

Adopt A Cat has finished our community assessment. We have published our findings at the end of this summary.

Adopt A Cat has officially been accepted into the National Spay Neuter Response Team “NSNRT.” We are being mentored by the Humane Alliance Clinic in Asheville, NC. This fine group of people have helped open over 50 clinics nationwide!

Some of our Board members traveled to the Humane Alliance Clinic and the Richmond SPCA to review the clinics in action and we have made corrections to our budget and business plans.

We have applied for grants to Petsmart Charities and the Petco Foundation.

We are looking for corporate sponsors for naming rights to the clinic rooms and van.

We have spoken to SNAP and they are going to also help mentor our clinic.

We are working with the City of Houston Health Department to build bonds and relationships between us and the city.

Community Assessment Findings:

Lack of Affordable Spay/Neuter Resources Accessible to the Public

Exhibit A is a map showing the location of the proposed clinic as well as the locations of existing low cost spay/neuter services. The closest resource is the Montgomery County Animal Shelter located 21 minutes north. This animal shelter as of December 1, 2008 was reporting their next available appointment at the end of March, so they are booked out for over 3 and a half months. The drop off and pick up times for all available low cost spay/neuter resources are in the middle of rush hour traffic, so they are between 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes in drive time from this area.

The Spay Neuter Assistance Program “SNAP” and Montgomery County Animal Shelter appear to be the only high volume clinics in Harris and Montgomery Counties. We have identified 10 additional resources for low cost spay/neuter, but none handle a high volume of surgeries to the general public. They span from 6 to 20 per day. We could not retrieve data from the Houston Humane Society on their daily volume, so they may be a third high volume clinic.

The only resource providing transport/outreach to the public is SNAP. This program requires the proof of public assistance. This program does not outreach to Montgomery County. Many north side residents simply cannot make the drive into town due to gas prices, shared rides, and conflicts with work schedules.

The scarce resources available for low cost spay/neuter do not correlate to the number of residents in North Harris and Montgomery counties. The proposed service area is home to 579,633 residents. Of these residents 100,294 or 17.3% fall below the poverty level. That number is almost 5% over the national average of 12.4%. We have estimated the number of animals in the primary and outreach service areas based on the 2007 US Pet Ownership and Demographics Sourcebook republished at www.avma.org. The estimated number of animals within our service areas are 612,788.

We polled 20 veterinarians in the surrounding service area and found a cat neuter ranges from $120 to $400, a cat spay ranges from $127 to $500, a dog neuter ranges from $127 to $800, and a dog spay from $131 to $800. If we exclude the highest and lowest, our averages are about $150 for a cat neuter, $175 for a cat spay, $200 for a dog neuter, and $250 for a dog spay. By providing an affordable and high quality solution, we can reach the portion of the public who simply cannot afford the surgery.

Lack of Early Age Spay/Neuter

We queried the same 20 veterinarians to determine who did early age spay/neuter. None of them would perform spay/neuter on a cat before the age of 5 months. It would appear that this issue will be difficult to change in the mindset of veterinarians. As we performed the survey, we found that the main focus of the vets was to get the animals in as many times as possible. They would not alter the animals without all of the kitten/puppy boosters. The spay/neuter appeared to be a device used to ensure they could get all of the revenue for vaccines and office visits possible. Many even stated that it was better to spay before the first heat cycle, but unfortunately the animals often went into heat before they could get all of the booster shots. In the state of Texas, the rabies vaccine is the only one required by law, so this is clearly a tactic to generate revenue for the veterinary clinic.

Primary Marketing/Education Outreach Targets

Hispanic Community

42.3% or 245,192 of the 579,633 residents in the service area are Hispanic. Efforts will be made for bilingual campaigns and it will be necessary to recruit help from leaders in the Hispanic community. The Hispanic community in Houston tends to culturally not agree with spay/neuter.

Rural Montgomery County

There are many low income areas in Montgomery county who do not believe in spay/neuter. These areas are typified by trailer parks and farms where letting animals have 3 and 4 litters per year is acceptable. Clipped Ear Cat Sanctuary (one of our partner rescue groups) has identified it as a hot spot. CECS has found that it is not uncommon to find 60 or more cats in a colony being fed but not fixed. We identified a population of approximately 43,951 in these hot spots. 19.3% or 8,472 of these residents are below the poverty level. Transport to and from these hot spots will occur 1 or 2 times a month and will be coordinated with local rescue groups such as CECS.

Low Income Areas of Harris County

The location of the clinic also allows us easy access to some of the lower income areas of Houston. Transports to and from these areas will occur on a regular basis. We identified 203,266 residents within these outreach zones. 18% or 36,966 are below the poverty level.

Working with Rescue Groups

It is critical that the clinic work with rescue groups to ensure its success. For this reason, we have budgeted reduced rates for rescue group program animals. We will also be relying on rescue groups to help coordinate outreach transportation pick-ups and drop-offs. Adopt A Cat is already networking with groups to begin building these key relationships. Eventually Adopt A Cat would like to issue vouchers to participating rescue groups which can be passed out to customers and then invoiced to the rescue groups as the vouchers are redeemed.

Climate

The Houston climate is beyond our control, however it is worth mentioning as an obstacle. The South Eastern Texas climate provides a year round breeding season for pets due to the fact that there are very few lows reaching below freezing. The lowest average month is January at a 45 degree low. Houston has the same problems to overcome as many large cities, however our mild winter climate intensifies the need to implement better spay/neuter resources for the general public.

Adoption Times & Locations

Special Needs Kitties

Emergency Medical Care