Summary: The Seattle Animal Shelter’s spay/neuter clinic has faltered in recent years due to a lack of veterinary staff. This deficiency led to a temporary closure of the clinic for public clients, although procedures for in-shelter animals continued. The clinic has reopened for members of the public who qualify as low-income and, according to shelter representatives, is on track in 2024 to return to pre-2020 service levels. SAS is currently attempting to assess the public’s needs for these services, but is limited due to staffing, funding, and physical space.
The Seattle Municipal Code established a spay/neuter clinic (the Clinic) for the public in 1978 via an initiative approved by the voters. The Seattle Animal Shelter’s veterinary staff currently administers this program under the management of the shelter director. The clinic is meant to provide a public service, as well as to spay and neuter internal shelter animals. How well is it functioning?
Spay/Neuter Services, 2016 to 2023
After COVID, shelters across the country experienced a steep decline in animal services staff and a corresponding increase in animal surrenders. These two factors have contributed to a decrease in services provided to the public in many jurisdictions, including Seattle. The graph below shows how spay/neuter services for cats and dogs at the Seattle Animal Shelter significantly decreased since pre-COVID and have struggled to return to those levels.
According to Melissa Mixon, communications officer for the Seattle Animal Shelter, the number of animals served by the Seattle Animal Shelter’s spay and neuter clinic dropped in 2022 (relative to the previous year) because the clinic was temporarily closed between April and July. During this time, the shelter had only one veterinary technician on staff and so public surgeries were postponed until veterinarian staff could be hired starting in July 2022. The veterinarian team became fully staffed in May 2023, and public surgeries formally reopened in July of 2023. According to Ms. Mixon, SAS is halfway into 2024, and on track to exceed numbers from 2019.
Spay/Neuter Services, Public vs. In-Shelter
SAS data also shows how the lack of veterinary staff affected procedures for in-shelter animals as well, although they were clearly still prioritized. In 2019, public procedures were more than twice in-shelter procedures; in 2023, we see the reverse with in-shelter procedures more than doubling the public procedures.
Spay/Neuter Services by Species
There are three primary species that receive SAS spay/neuter services: canines, felines, and rabbits. (Guinea pigs occasionally undergo these procedures, but the numbers are de minimis and are excluded from this analysis.)
All three species-specific graphs show the declines, with rabbits exhibiting the greatest loss in public services.
Spay/Neuter Services for Community Cats
SAS has historically provided spay/neuter services for community cats (aka feral cats). The post-COVID impacts are not as clear as for in-shelter and public animals because of the inconsistency in the number of the procedures performed. We are calling these numbers out separately. They are not included in the above graphs for public or in-shelter services.
Spay/Neuter Needs Assessments
Seattle Animal Watch asked Ms. Mixon about any needs assessment currently in process. The City will be experiencing significant population growth and more people will result in more animals. In particular, a new policy adopted by the Washington State Veterinary Board of Governors has modified rules requiring municipal shelters to offer only low-cost spay/neuter services.
Below is Ms. Mixon’s response:
With respect to the question on whether the shelter has conducted a needs assessment related to the increasing population of animals needing spay and neuter and other services, we very much recognize this as a need and that’s why earlier this year we launched the first ever free pet vaccination clinics in the shelter’s history. These clinics happen monthly and are targeted toward residents and communities that have historically not had resources or access to veterinary care services. We’re carefully tracking the response to these clinics, as well as looking at other data, such as the number on our waitlists for services, to better understand future needs and respond.
We also recently launched the shelter’s two-year roadmap (the first since 2014), which consolidated over 245 action items from three outside, independent reports that looked at everything from our adoption process to our foster program, and we’re confident that many of the items within the roadmap will help us build a more community-centric shelter that can respond to growing needs and changes within our animal population.
Regarding the question on how the shelter determines the level of public demand so it can evaluate the spay and neuter clinic’s performance, we determine this through requests for service and how quickly appointments fill up. At present, the spay and neuter clinic is actually booked out two months in advance. Other factors include the number of animals coming into the shelter, requests for support and other anecdotal information from partner shelters and private veterinarians. We do face some limits to our ability to expand services, primarily due to limited staffing and funding and physical clinic space itself.