Dogs and cats in the cities served by Animal Care Services (ACS) have another no-cost option for avoiding paternity suits and the joys of motherhood as well as being bred to exhaustion. Beginning Sunday, February 21, residents of the cities served by ACS—Long Beach, Signal Hill, Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Cerritos—will be able to obtain spay/neuter procedures at no cost for their pets as well as such services as flea control; microchipping; and treatment for eye, ear, skin and tooth infections. The clinics are funded by ACS through funds appropriated to the shelter by the City Council when the Mandatory Spay/Neuter Ordinance, which went into effect October 1, and the shelter’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget were passed. The wellness and spay/neuter clinics are provided by the nonprofit Society for California Veterinary and Vaccine Care (SCVVC); a description of the services offered is available here.

Long Beach presently is home to another nonprofit free spay/neuter clinic at which free microchips, flea medications and low-cost inoculations are offered. Now entering its third year, Fix Long Beach has altered nearly 4,000 pets and has been credited by ACS as having been a factor in reducing the euthanasia rate by half since it was founded in 2013. [Disclosure: I support and volunteer with Fix Long Beach.]

“What Fix Long Beach is able to do is incredible,” ACS Manager Ted Stevens said. “I want to augment what they are doing and help increase resources for the community, especially now that we require spay/neuter for dogs over 6 months of age. I think what Fix Long Beach has been able to prove out is that if you provide the services conveniently by bringing them to the community, people will take advantage of them. And ultimately, it helps fight pet overpopulation and reduce our shelter population.”

With a second opportunity for no-cost spay-neuter procedures, it bodes even better for falling euthanasia rates and shelter overpopulation. It will also give Long Beach residents who cannot afford the procedure another opportunity to comply with the Mandatory Spay/Neuter Ordinance (it’s been a requirement for several years that cats over 4 months old must be altered).

Appointments for the new clinic are made by first selecting a date on SCVVC’s calendar page, reading the requirements on this link, filling out the patient intake and release forms for each pet to be fixed, and reading the pre- and post-surgery instructions, all located at the bottom of the page. Clients will need to provide vaccination records or get the pet vaccinated at the clinic. Pets will need to be healthy and flea and parasite free and have had nothing to eat or drink eight hours before the surgery.

ACS will continue to provide vaccine and microchip clinics through SNP/LA. The schedule will be expanded from the first and third Thursdays to three times a month, not to include the SCVVC clinics. A full schedule for the rest of the year is available here.

Courtesy of City of Long Beach Animal Care Services. Art above, left by Jonathan Cooke.

“Nothing gives me quite so much joy as when people tell me they’ve had their pets spayed or neutered.”
~ Bob Barker