Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Animal Service: Dr. Gabrielle Vale neuters a 1-year-old male cat at the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley. It takes approximately two minutes to neuter a healthy male cat or dog and about 10 to 15 minutes to spay a healthy female.
Humane Society encouraging pet owners to alter their animals
Spay and neuter clinic helps reduce pet overpopulation
By Kate Carter
Pets are best served when they have good homes and loving families. But the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley knows that there are too many animals without the homes they need. That's why the society offers low-cost pet spaying and neutering and encourages as many pet owners as possible to take advantage of the service.
"That's what we're trying to stop," says society spokeswoman Leslie Baikie-Khavari of the many animals the society shelters, its best-known program. "[The spay and neuter clinic] is kind of the heart and soul of the Humane Society--to get those numbers down."
The society's primary goal is to improve animal welfare, which involves reducing pet overpopulation, and is using Spay Day USA, Feb. 26, as an opportunity to get out the word about the importance of spaying and neutering pets. It also offered the services of its spay and neuter clinic at half price throughout the month of February. More than a dozen local veterinarians also honored the reduced prices, including one in Campbell, the Cat Hospital at 137 E. Hamilton Ave.
The society, located at 2530 Lafayette St., in Santa Clara, is the largest shelter of its kind on the West Coast. It is a nonprofit organization that receives stray, lost and abandoned animals from the cities it serves: San Jose, Milpitas, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Campbell, Los Gatos, Saratoga and Monte Sereno.
Baikie-Khavari says it received about 28,000 animals last year, more than 100 a day. But eight years ago it received 45,000 animals a year, and she says the reason for the drop is pet spaying and neutering, also known as "altering," which prevents animals from reproducing.
Neutering, or castration, is the removal of male animals' testicles through two incisions on the scrotum and tying off the vessels that supplied those organs. Spaying, or ovariohysterectomy, is the removal of female animals' ovaries and uteri through an incision in the abdomen and tying off the vessels that supplied those organs.
Baikie-Khavari says that one male cat that impregnates one female cat can have 420,000 descendents in seven years, and one male dog that impregnates one female dog can have 67,000 descendents in seven years.
That is too many pets for the Humane Society to handle, she says. Of the animals it receives, about 60 percent must be put down due to medical or behavioral problems, she says. Most of the rest are adopted by families, and animals are kept in the shelter until they are adopted, as long as there is room, she says. But there are instances when the shelter cannot house all the animals that need homes and must put some down to make room for other adoptable pets, she says.
Spaying and neutering animals can reduce those instances, Baikie-Khavari says, which is why most veterinarians offer reduced fees for altering pets. San Jose also offers low-cost vouchers to have cats altered, she says.
"It's really good because people will bring in that neighborhood cat to get it spayed or neutered," Baikie-Khavari says. "That one spay, that one neuter, it does make a difference."
All pets adopted from the Humane Society are spayed or neutered before they are sent to their new home, she says. Animals aren't altered when they first arrive, however, as the owners may prefer the animal that way, or the animal may not be adoptable.
In addition, altered animals tend to live healthier lives, as they are at lower risk for cancers of the reproductive organs and less likely to incur health problems from mating behavior, such as fight injuries and contagious diseases. Altering can also make pets less aggressive and less likely to mark territory.
The society's director of animal care, Beth Ward, says it is best to spay female pets before their first heat, and animals should be altered after they weigh 2 pounds but while they are still young--as young as eight weeks--to reduce the likelihood of illness and surgery complications.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Animal Control: Molly, a 5-month-old female Border Collie, starts to bob her groggy head while waking up from her spay surgery. The Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley tries to spay and neuter at least 600 animals every month.
The surgeries takes about 10 minutes and are done while the animals are under a general anesthetic. Animals are awake soon after the surgeries, are feeling relatively normal in a day, but need to recuperate for about a week to 10 days, Ward says.
Pets older than three months should not be fed after 10 p.m. the night before the surgery; surgeries must be rescheduled if pets do eat. Animals are dropped off between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. the day of their surgery and picked up between 2 and 4 p.m.
Dogs and cats may be drowsy for 24 hours after the surgery. Water should be given in small amounts, and if the animal is more than three months old, it can be fed after 6 p.m. the day of the surgery, although the animal may not be immediately interested in food.
Dogs may need to wear Elizabethan collars to prevent them from licking or irritating incisions. Incision must be kept clean and dry, and animals should be kept indoors for three to five days, and restricted from intense activity that could stretch or tear the incision.
The society does provide animals with some pain medication at the clinic but doesn't encourage its use at home, Ward said.
"You want them to have some discomfort," she said, "so they'll restrict their activities."
Animals that are lethargic, lose appetite, have nausea or pain or whose sutures break need to see a veterinarian.
While under the anesthetic, pets can also be injected with an identifying microchip. Each chip is coded with a unique 10-digit number that is registered with the Humane Society and the American Kennel Club's Companion Animal Recovery Program. The number can be identified by holding a scanner over the location of the chip, usually between the shoulder blades, and helps reunite lost pets with their owners, Ward says.
The society also sponsors programs for volunteers, senior pet adopters and therapeutic pet contact. It also provides lost and found services, animal foster care, animal education, cruelty investigation, an animal behavior help line and pet vaccinations.
Willow Glen resident Jayne Butterfield is studying to be a registered veterinary technician, the veterinary equivalent of a registered nurse. She has worked in the society's spay and neuter clinic for about a year, preparing animals for surgery, helping the surgeons when necessary and moving the animals into the recovery area.
"I like working with animals," Butterfield says. "It's very fast-paced and very intense."
She says the clinic performs an average of 25 surgeries a day and as many as 36.
"We have an overpopulation of animals," she says. "There're too many, and not enough loving families. We're the last resort for the abandoned animals. In a way, it's almost like being Mother Teresa."
For more information or to make a surgery appointment, call 408.727.3383, ext. 827, or visit www.scvhumane.org. To contact Campbell's Cat Hospital, call 408.866.6188.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
