The University of Tennessee has opened a mobile spay/neuter clinic for unowned dogs and cats with a $260,485 grant from PetSmart Charities, Inc. The Mobile Spay/NeUTer Clinic will operate in a 29-county area surrounding Knox County. Photo by P. Snow, courtesy UTIA.

KNOXVILLE — The University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine has opened a mobile spay/neuter clinic to serve the 29 counties surrounding Knox County. The mobile unit will be used to help reduce the surplus of homeless dogs and cats.

The 36-foot unit includes three surgery tables, holding cages and an oxygenizer and was made possible with a $260,485 grant from PetSmart Charities, Inc. (PCI). Karen Walsh, LVMT, a field program manager with PCI, says “We look forward to a time when a lack of available locations where people can get their pets spayed and neutered is a thing of the past. This mobile spay neuter clinic, and others like her, are bridging so many gaps by bringing spay neuter to areas where there are no veterinary hospitals and providing students with hundreds of surgical opportunities where they not only perfect their surgical skills, but save countless lives in the process,”

Dr. Jim Thompson, dean of the UT College of Veterinary Medicine (UTCVM), says the mobile unit allows the college to provide its veterinary students with hands-on experience beyond that of the basic required curriculum. “Our students have shown great interest in this opportunity because they know it will help them develop their surgical skills and help save lives in our communities,” said Thompson. UTCVM veterinary students will receive experience in pediatric spay/neuter, and they will be exposed to animal welfare issues including an understanding of how unplanned and uncontrolled breeding produces millions of homeless animals who will end up in shelters and face euthanasia.

The estimated shelter intake for the service area was more than 81,000 animals in 2012. The spay/neuter surgeries performed in the unit will only be offered for unowned animals. Teresa Fisher, program director for the veterinary college’s Companion Animal Initiative of Tennessee (CAIT), was the driving force in bringing the mobile unit to the college. “I want UT to help reduce pet overpopulation in Tennessee, starting now and continuing into the future when our students graduate and become part of the solution in whatever community they choose to practice,” said Fisher.

The mobile Spay/NeUTer unit is dedicated to the memory of Dr. John New, a veterinary college faculty member who fought tirelessly to keep animals out of shelters and in homes. He died in October 2013.

Published November 6, 2014