Alyssa Shade and Carrie Curtis had been working together to rescue animals in north-central West Virginia for several years when an ongoing problem inspired them to make a change and start the Spay Neuter Incentive Program of West Virginia (SNIP WV).
The duo said one of the biggest problems facing local rescues and trap-neuter-return (TNR) groups was getting spay and neuter appointments that are affordable and timely. Some rescuers were driving the animals for almost two hours to get to a high volume spay and neuter clinic.
On July 18, 2022, Curtis and Shade opened the first high-volume, low-cost clinic in the region, at 1470 Earl L Core Road, in the Sabraton area of Morgantown. Since then, they have exceeded all of their expectations in a big way.
Curtis said the clinic initially estimated around 3,000 surgeries in the first year. At the one-year mark, the clinic has spayed or neutered 4,889 animals and should be at 5,000 within the next week, exceeding their goal by 2,000 surgeries. Of those, 892 were unowned stray and feral community cats through their no-cost trap and release (TNR) program.
Through their grant- and donation-funded Feral Free Program they have performed 580 no-cost procedures during the clinic’s monthly Feral Free Days. They were even able to coordinate bringing in an entire colony of 27 community cats to get them all spayed, neutered and vaccinated in one day.
“I’m really proud of what we have done as a clinic,” Shade said. “We’ve grown a lot of programs like our TNR program for feral and stray cats. That’s something that we’ve really expanded upon, and I think continue to grow with.”
Curtis said the surgery numbers are quite remarkable considering they have not had a full-time staff veterinarian since Jan. 1 of this year.
“We weren’t sure at that time if we were able to keep up at all, but a lot of vets in the community rallied around us and we actually have two vets that travel three hours to get to us to volunteer to work on the weekends, and we have another that comes from Maryland and travels about an hour and half. So, it’s really been fantastic,” Curtis said.
“We have had the job posted with no luck due to the national veterinarian shortage, but once we do get a full-time veterinarian onboard, we will be able to double, if not triple, our numbers.”
Despite being understaffed, Shade said she was extremely proud of the staff and volunteers that come in to help at the clinic.
“We couldn’t have done any of this without them.” she said.
In addition to performing the surgeries, the clinic has also been able to provide over 4,500 vaccinations to area dogs and cats.
Earlier this week, the clinic held its first vaccination clinic, partly in response to the recent rabies cases found in Monongalia County. That day alone, 118 animals were brought to the clinic and 154 vaccines were offered at a discount. Curtis said more clinics will be held in the future.
The clinic relies on grants and donations to keep costs down for those in need of affordable spay, neuter, and vaccination services.
“The support that we’ve gotten not only from the other high-volume veterinarians in the state, but also the community is wonderful,” Curtis said. “They have been great at providing supplies as donations, a small dollar fund which has added up to a good amount of money. That has allowed us to offer our free feral program.”
Recently, the clinic was awarded grant funds of $50,000 from the Best Friends Animal Society, specifically to help Harrison County, which currently has the highest euthanasia rate in the state. The Mon County clinic will work to help trap feral cats in Harrison County and get them spayed, neutered and released.
Shade said the clinic is always in need of donations including puppy pads and cleaning supplies. They also always need volunteers for a variety of jobs including cleaning and sitting with the animals while they wake up from surgery.
To find out more about SNIP WV, the services they provide, or how you can help, visit their website snipwv.org or check out their Facebook page SNIP WV.
