April 21, 2022
Another Welcome Return
There has been a very welcome sight outside our shelter the past week: our mobile spay/neuter vehicle. In preparation for rolling our Mobile Spay/Neuter Services out into the community, we have been engaging in a series of dry runs — sterilizing OHS animals for adoption, rather than owned pets. We want to make sure that everything runs smoothly and safely for both animals and staff.
Over the past two years, the OHS has provided sterilization services in the shelter clinic for our rescue partners from time-to-time, and of course we have continued to spay and neuter all OHS animals before adoption. Sadly, our Mobile Spay/Neuter Services had to be shelved during the pandemic. The close quarters and risk of COVID transmission simply made working on the vehicle too dangerous.
The popular program provides heavily subsidized sterilizations for cats of low-income Ottawa residents. We launched the program in 2016 as a part of our strategic plan to address cat overpopulation in our community. In its first four years, the program sterilized close to 6,000 cats. Without the program, estimates are that in just seven years, those cats and their offspring would have gone on to produce more than one million unwanted kittens.
As the pandemic slowly subsides, there have been many welcome reopenings in our community. Most programs here at the OHS have reopened or will shortly. For me, our Mobile Spay/Neuter Services is one of the most important as it reduces animal suffering for years to come.
Bruce Roney
President & CEO