Volunteers and partner group hold first-ever spay/neuter event at city's animal shelter

Bright and early on Labor Day, a small army of volunteers met at Indianapolis Animal Care & Control (IACC) to spay and neuter some of the shelter's animals. The shelter routinely spays and neuters animals that are being put up for adoption. Normally this is done by taking the animals from the shelter to a veterinarian under contract with the city. But on this day, the spay & neuter surgeries were happening within the shelter itself. In what is being described as a pilot program, local animal welfare partner Feral Bureau of Indiana (FBI) brought their own expertise to create a new team of shelter volunteers and accomplish something that would've never been envisioned or welcomed prior to the arrival of Administrator Doug Rae in January.

While the FBI's volunteers have years of experience with high-volume spay/neuter events, the group's mission focuses on providing surgery for traditionally under-served stray, feral and barn cats, as well as working with other shelter and rescue groups throughout central Indiana providing cost-effective spay/neuter for cats. But anyone who has visited the city's shelter will know that they have more than just cats.

Fortunately, Dr. Marcie Short, member of the IACC advisory board has ample experience with dogs in private practice. The real challenge was converting a large room used partly for isolation of sick cats into a surgery and recovery suite for dozens of animals. Through the incredible work of the volunteers, this was accomplished in just a few hours while the shelter was closed to the public over a holiday weekend, and surgeries began first thing Labor Day morning.

All the experienced people involved volunteered their time – even Dr. Short. Specialized surgical equipment was loaned courtesy of Allisonville Animal Hospital in Fishers, and the cost of the medications and supplies to conduct the surgeries was underwritten by FBI. At the end of the day, 8 dogs and 18 cats had been through surgery. For a group that routinely “fixes” 100-130 cats in a day, the IACC spay/neuter count isn't impressive. But the consequences of this day could be far-reaching.

Beyond the initial and obvious benefit of the shelter's animals having surgeries at no cost to the city, and being available for adoption sooner, the entire event is being carefully analyzed by the group. The result will be a report discussing how this event can be re-created on a regular basis at the shelter by developing on a corps of specifically trained volunteers.

A somewhat less obvious, but no less important benefit is that getting more volunteers into the shelter also brings in more people to interact with the animals housed there. As was evidenced at this event, volunteers interacting one-on-one with the animals creates a bond that can often result in animals being taken into foster care by the volunteers, or even adopted.

Feral Bureau's CEO, Greg Brush comments that it is much too early to even begin to completely understand the full significance of the event. “It might seem to be simply about cost savings of spay & neuter, but the reality is that it enhances awareness and involvement of more people with the shelter's animals. People will see what those of us who work closely with the shelter are seeing – unique and wonderful things are finally beginning to happen at the shelter under Administrator Rae's leadership after too many years of mismanagement.”

Photos from the event can be seen by following this link