Although animal homelessness and overpopulation are not unique problems to the Twin Counties, the Twin County Humane Society brought in the big dogs May 16 and 17 to help alleviate the problem.
In this case the big dogs were represented by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who brought two mobile clinics approximately five hours from Norfolk to Galax to offer area residents free spay/neuter surgeries for 229 dogs and cats. Following the success of last year’s event, during which 150 companion animals were sterilized locally, appointments were fully booked on PETA’s two mobile clinics coming in from Hampton Roads. Staff was on site Thursday working tirelessly to vaccinate and microchip the animals, too — all free of charge.
“There is a veterinary workforce shortage across the nation so it’s especially difficult and more expensive than ever to get an animal fixed. And so it’s really important for people to get their animals spayed or neutered because we have an overpopulation crisis that is flooding our animal shelters with homeless animals,” said Daphna Nachminovitch of PETA. “We have three puppies here in a crate looking for homes. The Humane Society is perptually overwhelmed with calls. We are as well. And so we are also in the field today. We brought our truck full of dog houses we build to help dogs who are relegated to the outdoors have appropriate shelter from the elements. So our field workers are out with our dog house delivery truck canvassing, but also working some calls the Humane Society shared with us.”
Nachminovitch said what is unique to the Twin Counties is a humane society that is active in the community, making spay/neuter services widely available along with veterinary partners in which it collaborates. For instance, the Twin County Humane Society rescued over 2,000 animals in 2023 from hunger, disease, suffering, or homelessness. Those figures include 303 owned cats that were spayed/neutered, 286 dogs spayed/neutered, 834 community cats that were TNVR’d, 559 dog and cat transports, 604 dogs and cats rescued, 271 pets vaccinated, 320 dogs and cats micro-chipped, 268 pets in foster care, and more than 1,400 calls for help answered.
The PETA rep said Delphine and Liam Carnes are donors from Norfolk who make the traveling mobile clinics possible.
“This is called high volume/high quality spay/neuter and that is one thing my clinic is focused on. We can do other things, minor procedures, but that is what we focus on and the goal of it, to reduce the number of animals who flood our nation’s shelters,” Nachminovitch said. “We have done 227,000 animals since our inception in 2001.”
In particular, Dr. Rosalind Zayas, who was in Galax working during the event, has spayed or neutered more than 70,000 animals for PETA clinics during her 14 years with the organization.
“We are making a difference of life and death for animals who would otherwise be flooding shelters or end up homeless on the street, and we are helping people who can’t afford to have this life-saving surgery done otherwise. And so for us it is a matter of advancing the cause, but also helping individual animals. We really want people to spay or neuter and adopt,” Nachminovitch said. “All of our regional shelters here are flooded with homeless animals. The Twin Counties Humane Shelter, they have three different litters they need help with, and so we know a lot of the people who have brought us animals today, they are animals who have already had a litter and our goal is to ensure there are no unwanted births. We want to prevent animals from being homeless, we want to prevent abandonment, we want to prevent euthanasia in animal shelters. Prevention is the most effective way to prevent animal homelessness and overpopulation.”
PETA is the only organization that will perform spay or neuters for free. Nachminovitch said its also the only organization that won’t limit people because they can’t afford the procedures.
“We even transport for people so our field workers will go out to people’s homes, pick up their animals, bring them to us and take them back home because for us the most important thing is saving lives through prevention,” she said. “And if people in the community want to get involved they can donate, they can volunteer, they can adopt, but most importantly please spay or neuter. An accidental litter is just the same as an intentional litter in the big picture. You have one animal born and another animal loses a chance to find a home.”
The late David Reuben also donated one of the mobile clinics that came to Galax for the clinic. The mobile clinics also serve as a bit of a moving billboard, featuring pictures of actual pet owners after their pets have been returned to them from a clinic.
“There are all happy clients, people who we transported their animals, and we always get a picture when they get back home. That is who we serve, the community. You can see the love,” Nachminovitch said. “And we know in low-income areas, impoverished areas, studies have shown that those are the animals most likely to reproduce and have unwanted litters, so it is wonderful to have a mobile clinic that we can take to the community. It is really important. We feel a lot of shelters are under fire for euthanasia, and the thing is it is not the shelter’s fault. It is people allowing the animals to breed. Services across the country, there is also a corporate buyout, so they are raising prices and making veterinary care so expensive. Most of the animals we normally see have never seen a vet, have never had a vaccination and our clinic is the only one they ever will. So if they have ticks, fleas, hair loss, whatever, we will treat them. There is less vet clinics and less emergency services. Services are more expensive and it is hard to get an appointment, so it is extra important for us to be here.”
Allen Worrell can be reached at (276) 779-4062 or on X@AWorrellTCN
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