Vacant dress shop in Galveston County to the FIX UR PET Spay/neuter Clinic
How did a shuttered Dress Shop become a Spay/Neuter clinic? In 2020, with so many low-cost resources for spay/neuter services closed due to Covid 19, the number of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens exploded.
It wasn’t that people didn’t want to fix their pets, the services were not available. SAVE Rescue had been a founding partner of THE EMPTY SHELTER PROJECT - HOUSTON in 2017, so our volunteers had some experience in what it takes to set up a large, MASH-style veterinary clinic to do spay/neuter surgeries. But the health situation at the time precluded these events because of the large number of people necessary to provide the services for hundreds of animals at one time. So we thought SMALL! What if a small space with limited volunteers could provide the services to the community safely and effectively? Thinking SMALL would help to fix a BIG problem.
A vacant dress shop in a local strip center became FIX UR PET-Galveston County during the peak of the health crisis. With equipment purchased with Facebook Fundraisers, donations from other rescue groups and animal loving individuals, the clinic had its first real clinic in October of 2020. Using a Facebook page and word of mouth, people poured in and the clinic altered, vaccinated and microchipped 2052 animals in the first 15 months of operation for FREE to local residents. Most of the volunteers for the clinic currently come from the community, cementing our relationship with the people we serve. The veterinarians and vet technicians we employ are skilled at providing high quality, high volume surgery for all the animals we treat.
Several weekends each quarter animals belonging to low income Galveston county residents enter the once dress shop, to be vaccinated, microchipped and altered. These services are offered free of charge for our most needy residents; Medicaid, SSI, disabled veterans and SNAP recepiets
Volunteers take on many roles from checking animals in for surgery to monitoring the pets after surgery, to cleaning instruments. Our volunteers allow us to treat more animals at a lower cost because of the time they give to Fix UR Pet.
For many pets, this is their first time ever seeing a veterinarian. We treat some minor medical issues as well and provide flea treatment and antibiotics if needed at the time of surgery. We educate about proper pet care and refer to local clinics to provide ongoing care. The number of people signing up for services proves that people care about their pets, but services need to be affordable and accessible.
Our clinics are primarily on the weekends so residents do not have to take off work to get our services. We offer our services for free to qualifying residents but for many surgeries, we receive a small donation as a token of thanks. Each clinic provides services for 45-50 animals. Galveston County benefits from fewer strays and healthier owned animals. The shelters can return more animals to their owners because of the microchips. And most importantly, the number of unwanted animals is reduced.
January 2024 we have expanded our services to include a low cost, no frills wellness clinic open Tuesday-Friday. Our clinic will offer affordable spay/neuter services, vaccine and microchip packages, wellness services, dental cleanings and extractions and minor surgeries for mass removal, amputations and minor injuries. Our goal is to offer pet owners an affordable option to provide good, basic care for their pets and improve their quality of life.
As part of our mission to reduce the number of unwanted litters, we have partnered with Lifeline of Galveston County to address the community cat/feral cat problem in the county.
Keeping these unadoptable cats out of local shelters (where they are likely to be euthanized) frees up space for adoptable animals, saves taxpayers money, and allows for the cats to be fixed and returned to the area they came from, or join other colonies where possible.
Using technology to identify the location of each colony, our volunteer cat trappers target specific areas to get all cats fixed and the population stabilized.
This program received a $20,000 grant from Best Friends and The Rachel Ray Foundation as part of their “Save them All” grant in 2022. Each month upward of 60 community cats are altered and returned to their habitat, stopping the cycle of unwanted kittens, and allowing shelters to spend scarce resources on adoptable animals
FIX UR PET Clinic free services
Each month we provide free services for the underserved residents in our community. These services are limited to low income residents of Galveston County and require a true need. We spay or neuter their pets, give vaccines and microchip each animal at no cost to the owners. Each surgery has a value of up to $150 and is provide through donations from our SAVE supporters, local businesses and organizations and from grantors.
We are providing an excellent value to the community by having volunteers do everything from data entry to taking out the trash and cleaning cages.
You can see how even a small donation can make a difference.
Would you like to help be part of the solution?
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Volunteer
Volunteer to work at the clinic or work from home with our date processing team.
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Gather Supplies
We use puppy pad, bleach, Dawn dishwashing soap and tons of other items in the every day operation of the clinic.
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Create a fundraiser
Let people know how you are helping FIX UR PET and why. Create a birthday Facebook fundraiser or a donation/supply drive at work or school.
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Donate
A direct way to make an immediate difference. Don’t forget to inquire about matching donations from your employer.