This week I have been seeing a lot of pittbulls.  About 1/3 of the dogs taken in at the Kent County Animal Shelter are pitts.  They for the most part are great dogs, its just that there are way to many to find homes for.  So, the idea was thrown out there to do a spay/neuter clinic for specifically Pittbulls, owned by people who cannot afford to pay for the surgery.  This week, I teamed up with Vicky from Vicky's Pet Connection and the Kent County Animal Shelter to see what we can do to help reduce the number of pitts coming into the shelter.  I agreed to do 100 surgeries, supply all anethesia, medications and materials.  Vicky, agreed to cover the cost for Rabies vaccinations and license for all the dogs.  The shelter supplied all the volunteers and provided me with their new surgical suite in the building.  On Tuesday and Thursday night, we started at about 7:30 and worked until midnight.  We did 30 surgeries each night.The volunteers were great, and we really moved right along with the surgeries.  We did all the males first, so they could go home at 10pm, and the girls stayed overnight.  Today, Saturday, I will be headed there at noon, and we will do 40 surgeries this afternoon, sending them all home tonight.    It makes for some long days, and short nights, especially when I get up at 345 most mornings to go run, but it is really great to accomplish so much, with the help of others.  The owners have for the most part been very nice and appreciate of the service we are providing.  

Channel 3 from Kalamazoo came out and did quite a bit of taping and interviewed myself and some volunteers.  

This weekend was the grand opening of the Spay Neuter Express at the Pet Expo, which was held in the Deltaplex.  It was a great weekend for it, as there were over 5000 people who came to the expo.  The Spay Neuter Express is a project that I have developed to help reduce the number of healthy adoptable pets that have to be put to sleep because of the lack of homes.  It is a mobile veterinary clinic in which spays and neuter surgeries will be performed for pets from low income families, rescue groups and shelters.  It is also for feral cats, barn cats and cat colonies.  I had 51 patients on Saturday.  I did not have any plans to do surgery on Sunday, but one of the local rescues, Safe Haven Humane Society, in conjuction with Ionia County Animal Shelter adopted out all of its dogs on Saturday.  They then spent Saturday evening raiding some kill shelters and rescuing more dogs.  I agreed to spay and neuter them first thing on Sunday, so I ended up with 14 surgeries.  All of these pets then found homes on Sunday.  

 The Spay Neuter Express is currently working on booking a schedule of regular stops.  Right now we are going to Newaygo on Mondays, and will be going to Ionia on Tuesdays, and Allegan on Thursdays.  Once I get some more vets hired, and get the logistics of the locations worked out, I will likely be sending it to Muskegon and Montcalm counties also on a weekly basis.

My long term goal is to get the first unit up and operating smoothly, and then to add additional units, expanding the area of coverage.