08/29/2023
There was opportunity in the 1980's for our country to pivot away from responding to animal overpopulation by sheltering and dispersal, (either through euthanasia or adoption), to a prevention based approach by expanding spay/neuter access in conjunction with public animal shelters. While spay/neuter was normalized in parts of the U.S., it remains very far from normalized in the south and the southern Midwest U.S., especially regarding cats. Now, due to private equity interests and the veterinary shortage, affordability is waning.
Instead of pivoting toward prevention forty years ago, larger and pricier public shelters were built…almost all without operating spay/neuter services for the public.
Spay/neuter access could have, and should have, been incorporated into public shelters by simply building another 600 square feet or less. No matter how small the shelter, this bit of infrastructure could have enabled a relief veterinarian to provide services; there are endless possibilities.
Keeping spay/neuter out of the public domain diminished the overall access.
To illustrate the absurdity of this, imagine if the 1952 emergence of the Salk vaccine had been greeted by a lukewarm shrug and a decision to build more polio wards while asking non-profit organizations to hold bake sales to support anti-polio vaccine drives. Food Stamps, HUD assistance and health departments are structured to help people nationwide; privatization of spay/neuter programs left large swaths of the U.S. to go without.
Municipal animal shelters are fairly ubiquitous. Non-profits that have the means to acquire real estate that is zoned for animal use and to then manage a clinic are not. For example, Oklahoma has over 130 municipal dog impoundments and around a dozen low-income accessible spay/neuter clinics. Each with far more overhead costs than adding a space at a public shelter. If each impoundment had a space for a relief veterinarian to come in and spay…
Private equity investments that have driven up costs, a dramatically tightening real estate market and a shortage of veterinarians have combined to place a stranglehold on veterinary care for low income homes. The United States has the highest per capita number of dogs of any developed nation. Dogs are being stuffed into every corner, including into thousands of homes that cannot afford to care for them while the large humane organizations do little beyond throwing crumbs at the problem and providing emotionally charged verbiage.
A public health approach would have helped equalize the playing field. It’s not too late.
The burden falls on a small number of private clinics, including Planned Pethood International, of Conifer, CO to which people drive from hundreds of miles away to get services that are basic to an animal remaining in his/her home.
It's not too late to look outside of the box.
