Above: Sarah, Veterinary Assistant, preps one of the clinic's first patients for surgery. Would you like to:

• Help support this life-saving project with a gift to the SPCA? Donate Now >
• Make an appointment for your pet? Call 919-772-0211.
  Call between 1pm-5pm Monday through Thursday. 
  Due to a large amount of interest, the lines may be busy for extended periods of time and we apologize in advance. Please just keep calling.
  
• Purchase a spay/neuter voucher to redeem at a participating veterinary clinic? Visit here >
• Read more about this new clinic? See below.
• Take a virtual tour of the clinic. View photo album >

This clinic is open to anyone, anywhere, regardless of income or residency! The prices for surgery will continue to be under $45. This is not a limited offer, this is an important new community program to help the public and the pets they own! We are grateful for SPCA supporters who make it possible to provide this important, on-going service.

SAVING LIVES Spay/Neuter Animal Clinic in the Susan & Randall Ward Center To make an appointment for a pet call 919-772-0211. Location: 300 Petfinder Lane in Raleigh, NC next to the SPCA Pet Adoption Center, see directions on Google Maps> Surgery Costs: MALE CAT $30 FEMALE CAT $35 MALE DOG $40 FEMALE DOG $45 Lower fees are available to people on public assistance, call for details.  Basic vaccines and disease testing are available for a small additional fee at the time of surgery. Licensed veterinarians will perform all spay/neuter surgeries. Spay/neuter surgery follow-up appointments must be done at the clients’ primary care veterinarian. Between 20-35 surgeries will be performed per day, four days a week.

SPCA of Wake County Proudly Announces the Opening of a Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinic to Help the Public Fix Their Pets

(RALEIGH, NC) -- The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) of Wake County's efforts to stop the euthanasia of homeless animals intensified on January 5, 2009 with the opening of the Saving Lives Spay/Neuter Animal Clinic, which will provide spay/neuter surgeries to the public at a very low cost.

The goal of this clinic will be to reduce the number of unwanted animals killed each year by spaying and neutering -- or “fixing” -- thousands of pets at a low cost (between $30-$45) to the public.

In both national and local surveys, the cost of spay/neuter surgery is consistently listed as the main reason why people choose not to alter their pets. The uncontrolled breeding of owned pets and stray and abandoned animals creates an enormous number of unwanted animals that are killed by the thousands each year in North Carolina animal shelters. By providing spay/neuter surgeries at a low cost, this veterinary clinic will help pet owners who are unable to afford the spay/neuter surgery, which can cost hundreds of dollars.

“Pet overpopulation is the leading cause of death for companion animals in North Carolina,” said Hope Hancock, SPCA Executive Director. “Nothing else -- not disease or cars or cancer -- kills more pets than the use of euthanasia as a means of decreasing the pet population.”

Euthanasia has been the traditional way to deal with the overwhelming supply of dogs and cats. “The SPCA of Wake County believes that euthanasia is not the answer to solving pet overpopulation, prevention is,” said Hancock. “If pet overpopulation can be compared to a disease killing our community’s animals, then the SPCA has the cure, and it’s the Saving Lives Spay/Neuter Clinic.”

The clinic building and equipment are funded 100% through private donations. “This clinic will save tens of thousands of animal lives, as well as the hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars which are currently used each year to round up, shelter and kill these animals,” said Hancock.

> In North Carolina, the law does not allow humane societies like the SPCA of Wake County to provide veterinary services to the public. Consequently, the SPCA owns the clinic building and equipment and leases the clinic to two licensed veterinarians who are committed to reducing pet euthanasia: Kristin Foley, DVM and Alice Marie Hunsucker, DVM.

> The SPCA was founded in Raleigh in 1967 and is a private, non-profit animal welfare organization. The SPCA of Wake County is not funded by any other organization, including the ASPCA which serves New York City. The SPCA Pet Adoption Center and the new Spay/Neuter Clinic receive no tax dollars or government funds.

> The clinic building and equipment are funded 100% through private donations from a community of people who believe that prevention, not euthanasia, is the community’s answer to pet overpopulation.

> Currently, in Wake County alone, the government spends over $2 million to round up, house and destroy more than 10,000 animals each year.  The SPCA’s spay/neuter efforts will not only reduce the number of animals killed, but will reduce the amount of money tax payers shoulder for this.

> Numerous studies point to the tax savings of the preventative efforts of spaying and neutering.  One study from the Minnesota Legislature demonstrated that every $1 spent on public spay/neuter assistance programs saved $18.72 in future animal control expenses over a ten year period.

 Facts About the Clinic’s Impact on the Community:

> The model of a low-cost, high-volume sterilization clinic is so effective because it tackles two major hurdles in solving pet overpopulation. It provides affordable access to veterinary medical services otherwise unused by low-income pet owners and it addresses the need to sterilize a large enough number of animals to make an impact on the breeding population.

> Offering low-cost spay/neuter services is crucial to reaching the pet owners most at risk for letting their pets reproduce. It’s estimated that 80% of pet overpopulation comes from as few as 3% of pet owners who can’t afford the cost of spay/neuter surgery.

> This clinic will target pet sterilization services to lower-income pet owners and owners at risk for relinquishing or abandoning their pets.

> The goal of the clinic is to reach a segment of the population that never has seen a veterinarian for pet care prior to their visit to the Spay/Neuter Clinic.  

Common Veterinary Medical Terms:
Spay: A surgery that prevents a female cat or dog from becoming pregnant by removing the ovaries and uterus.
(Also called an ovariohysterectomy.) 

Neuter: A surgery that prevents a male cat or dog from being able to impregnate a female cat or dog by removing both testicles.

Common terms for animals that have been spayed or neutered: desexed, fixed, altered, sterilized
Common terms for animals that have NOT been spayed or neutered: Intact, unaltered, fertile

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