Mobile pet clinic to help low-income families spay and neuter pets

Having pets can be expensive, but adding in the cost of spaying or neutering your cats and dogs, the expense can add up quick.

The East Village Animal Hospital or EVAH is an animal hospital in southern Ontario that helps make pet ownership more affordable for people on low-income and social assistance.

There's a real need for more accessible, lower-priced spaying and neutering for dogs and cats in northern Ontario, says Laurie Ristmae, the executive director at EVAH.

The animal hospital will be setting up a mobile, low-cost spay and neuter clinic in Sudbury for five days in mid-April. They are planning 25 surgeries over the five days.

Ristmae says the response was astounding, the clinic is already completely booked with a wait list of about 100 people. 

The cost is $100 to spay a female dog or cat and $75 to neuter a male. However, Ristmae says customers will have to show that they are low-income or on social assistance to receive the service.

She says the need for a low cost clinic is important, people can fall on hard times losing their jobs or their marriage is ending.

"Regardless of what that story is or how their life has changed, that has not changed the love they have for their pet and in fact, what it may have done is actually increased the emotional value and the value that that pet has for that family's mental health," she said.

However, not all vets in Sudbury agree with a mobile pet clinic that comes and goes so quickly.

"For a clinic to come in and to leave very shortly after the procedures are done. These are major surgeries in some cases and complications arise and our concern was who is going to take care of those complications," said Andrea Danyluk, a veterinarian at the Barrydowne Animal Hospital and president of the Sudbury and District Veterinary Association.

"In a bricks and mortar practice... those clients can just call us and come back in and be reassessed by the doctor who did the procedure and have treatment done as necessary depending on what's required."

Ristmae says that EVAH did reach out to local veterinarian's in Sudbury but they were not able to make it work with a local animal clinic.

"Truly I do hope that that is going to change... any area that we go into and the cities that we've opened clinics in we end up being such a fantastic resource for the other veterinary clinics in the area, we're seeing people who wouldn't necessarily ever have sought veterinary care out," she said.

The City of Greater Sudbury and the Sudbury and District Veterinary Association also offers reduced rates to low-income residents to get their cat spayed or neutered.

More information about that program is available on the city's website.