Spayed Club doing its part
By KATHLEEN E. CAREY
kcarey@delcotimes.com
Dr. Sarah Alexander, right, and veterinarian technician Sarah Mercer, give a checkup to ‘Chef,’ a miniature schnauzer inside the Spayed Club in Sharon Hill.
SHARON HILL — Chef the schnauzer stood on the steel table in the Spayed Club’s spay/neuter clinic as his legs shook wildly.
Headed to a shelter, a person responded to a Craigslist request.
“He turned out to be a little older than he expected,” Tabatha Green, operations manager for the Spayed Club, said. “He actually has a heart murmur. (The new owner’s) really being gracious. He’s doing all the necessary testing.”
Dr. Sarah Alexander, the veterinarian, leaned over and kissed the dog.
Chef was one of 30 to 50 animals the Spayed Club usually sees in a day’s period. Since it opened six months ago, the clinic has performed 2,000 spay and neuters on cats and dogs as young as 10 weeks old.
Green said they can spay/neuter animals up to 7 years old without bloodwork and older ones if an evaluation is performed.
The clinic’s mission is to reduce and eliminate the unwanted extermination of animals in the area through spay and neutering, she explained.
“Our goal,” Green said, “is to do 200 animals a week.”
The fee is $60 for cats, $100 for dogs under 40 pounds and $135 for dogs over that, but the inexpensive nature is only one part of the service equation, Green said.
She explained that the cost includes pre- and post-surgical care, pain medications, vaccinations and an overnight stay option.
“All of our animals receive quality care, not just low cost,” she said, highlighting Alexander, who was named the Humane Alliance’s “Best Spay/Neuter Veterinarian in the Nation” and has performed more than 50,000 spay/neuter surgeries in her eight-year career.
“Her spay incision is 1 centimeter long,” Green said. “(Alexander’s) amazing. she really is.”
Tucking her hair beneath a multi-colored surgical cap in between surgeries, the veterinarian explained her motivation.
“I love it,” she said of her work. “I love spay/neuter. I think I found my niche. I love surgeries and taking care of these animals.”
Earlier that day, Chris Hayes of Ridley was entering her blue Jeep Cherokee recently after dropping off two kittens and a cat for tests and shots.
Having previously used the Spayed Club, she returned to the facility for treatment of additional animals.
“It’s state-of-the-art here,” she said.
Inside, visitors enter a waiting room offering bowls and litter boxes from Buzzy’s Bow Wow Meow in Narberth, Pa. They can check their dog or cat into the facility and the animal is soon taken to the holding area, where up to 25 dogs and a maximum of 40 cats are housed.
The facility also hosts two surgical rooms, with the space for a third, if needed.
There’s a trap-neuter-release room for the feral cats who are trapped for surgeries, separate from where the domesticated animals wait.
“We really want to see our community take part in trap/neuter/release,” Green said, explaining that the process helps feral colonies stabilize while allowing the cats to maintain their role in the ecosystem. “It’s just about being a good steward of the Earth.”
After surgery, the animals are placed on a recovery blanket, which can be viewed on the site’s Webcam. Volunteers sit with the animals, petting them and placing warmed rice bags on them.
The animals are transferred to the holding areas after they are able to sit unassisted.
Green said getting a dog or cat spayed or neutered is part of being more humane and fiscally sound.
“We all have to do our part,” she said, adding the cost of an animal that goes through the animal control system costs taxpayers $176 each, or $700 million a year, based on statistics from the Humane Society of United States.
In addition, the Spayed Club features a low-cost wellness clinic on the third Saturday of the month. in January, 100 customers with 109 animals arrived for the event.
“It is our way of helping people keep their animals in their homes,” Green said. “We want to keep these animals in their homes and stable.”
The Spayed Club is at 800 Chester Pike, Suite B, in Sharon Hill. its telephone number is 484-540-8436 and the Web site is www.thespayedclub.org. On Feb. 23, it will feature a free spay/neuter clinic for Sharon Hill residents only. Appointments are required for this event.
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