Because I work with rescue animals every day, I am quite aware of spay and neuter programs like The Big Fix and Beat the Heat, and I applaud their efforts to reduce the animal overpopulation which results in around 4 million animals being destroyed each year. These programs offer low cost, or no cost, spaying and neutering on special “clinic” days. This morning I was able to volunteer in one of these major clinics. This one was hosted by the Dr. Carol Hood Memorial Animal Clinic in Newport Tennessee.
I was to show up at 7:00 AM, and I did so. Though it was barely light outside, there was already a table set up outside the front door, manned by volunteers, and a line of folks bringing their pets in to be “fixed”. My role was to help get the animals inside, weighed, and crated to await their surgery.
The shelter’s Director and staff had everything well organized and it seemed to go smoothly. I heard several of the other volunteers comment on how well organized this clinic was. Reservations had been taken ahead of time, crates and neckbands had been labeled with each pet and owner’s names, files had been set up with all the pertinent information. As patients arrived they were ticked off a master list, neck banded, weighed, and crated. Cats went into small crates in the hallway, 
dogs in larger crates in the laundry room. Files went into the medical room so they could start drawing up drugs by each animal’s weight.
In addition to the shelter’s own medical staff: Dr. Gill Conklin DVM and vet tech Alicia Payne, working diligently in the shelter’s operating room, a mobile unit from Lowell Michigan run by Dr. Bruce Langlois arrived to help out. Continue reading “Inside a Free Spay and Neuter Clinic”