Fix the problem! by Ruth Steinberger, founder, SpayFIRST!

We do not need to have overcrowded shelters,  growing numbers of homeless dogs and cats at large,  and rescuers at the ends of their ropes.  We know what to do about it.  So why is the humane community not doing it?

Companion animal overpopulation is the driving cause of overfilled shelters and overwhelmed rescue organizations.

Dog and cat overpopulation creates a steady stream of victims for hoarders and results in abandonment and neglect as well.

Simply put, cats and dogs are born four to ten at a time,  and are adopted one at a time:  do the math.  Preventing litters is the only pathway to the goal post of genuine compassion.

Sadly,  that goal post seems to be moving further away.

Shrinking access to the two most needed services

A convergence of seemingly unrelated factors over the last four decades,  especially in the last decade, have left at-risk animals in the U.S. with ever shrinking access to the two most urgently needed services:  open admission sheltering that includes spay/neuter before release,  and spay/neuter services made accessible to low and middle income homes,  in order to prevent unwanted litters from being born in the first place.

The convergent factors include,

1. Private equity buyouts of veterinary clinics from 2015 through now have resulted in a dramatic increase in the cost of basic veterinary services, including spay/neuter,  at U.S. veterinary clinics.  Aggressive hiring practices with long range (and wide ranging) non-compete contracts have deeply affected the ability of non “corporate” clinics to hire veterinarians and maintain services.
2. Limited admission shelter policies, starting in the early 2000’s,  have expanded the rehoming of intact animals in urban,  suburban and rural areas to levels not seen in over two decades.
3. Following abrupt leadership changes at two major funders in 2014, non-profit spay/neuter programs experienced a sharp downturn in available grant dollars.

   The ASPCA pays president Matt Bershadker more than $1 million a year.
   (Beth Clifton collage)

   ASPCA promoted intact release

4. Referencing COVID 19, on March 31, 2020 the American SPCA [ASPCA]  took the lead in encouraging shelters and non-profits across the U.S. to feel comfortable cutting back or halting spay/neuter of shelter animals.  The ASPCA emphasized that in their official view,  intact release was better than euthanasia, ignoring the likelihood of an increase in unwanted litters.   The ASPCA should have received the prestigious, “When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles and scream and shout,” award.

(See COVID-19: animal shelter “experts” circle back toward pet overpopulation.)

5. Over the past 40 years,  the animal welfare community itself has prioritized rescue, sheltering and interstate transport over spay/neuter, largely sidelining the demand for the public infrastructure needed to create a paradigm shift from rescuing to spay/neuter.

“Veterinary shortage” does not explain the crisis

Timely access to reduced cost spay/neuter clinics is decreasing due to unprecedented demand;  indeed waiting lists at spay/neuter clinics of three or more months are not uncommon.  Growing numbers of homeless, intact dogs and cats remain in need of sheltering,  while an ever growing portion of the population is turned away from their local shelter.

A timely spay is life and death for the female stray who gets a home only by proxy of her showing up at the right persons’ back door and being able to be spayed before her next estrus cycle.

A ‘veterinary shortage’ has been tagged for the biggest role in the crisis,  and there is indeed a veterinary staffing crisis,  but opening and filling more seats in veterinary colleges will not abate the crisis at hand.

The number of small animal practitioners has increased by 29% during the last decade.  At the same time,  the number of veterinarians employed in government positions has increased by just 12%,  and the number of veterinarians in academia has declined slightly.

“Veterinary shortage,”  in short,  is a compelling lament,  but a lot more is at play.

Year	Companion animal, (under 10% are in mixed animal practice).	Academia	Government (excluding the uniformed services).   This includes local governments (shelters), federal veterinarians (USDA APHIS inspectors).  Roughly 2/3 in this category are federal employees in all years posted below.
2014	48,881	6,505	2,845
2015	49,931	6,596	2,862
2016	50,788	6,702	2,897
2017	53,913	6,878	2,967
2018	55,270	6,889	2,991
2019	55,952	6,951	2,987
2020	56,640	6,948	2,965
2021	57,805	5,986	2,956
2022	62,453	6,202	3248
2023	68,434   (+29% since 2014)	6,453  (-0.99% since 2014)	3,236  (+12.9% since 2014)

https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/reports-statistics/market-research-statistics-us-veterinarians

America’s unwanted dogs and cats pay their pound of flesh for private equity’s profits. 

During the last decade private equity investments have made responsible pet ownership difficult to impossible for most middle income households.  A widening wealth gap in the U.S. means this affects more animals than even a few years ago.

According to “Why Your Vet Bill Is So High,”  in the April 25,  2024 issue of The Atlantic (see link below),  data provided to author Helaine Olen by PitchBook (a venture capital database),  showed,  “Private equity poured $51.6 billion into the veterinary sector from 2017 to 2023,  and another $9.3 billion in the first four months of this year,  seemingly convinced that it had discovered a foolproof investment.  Industry cheerleaders pointed to surveys showing that people would go into debt to keep their four-legged friends healthy.”

Indeed,  gouging people because of their attachment to their pets knows no bounds.

Unbridled greed

Dramatic 300% to 400% increases in the costs of veterinary services over the last five years were not caused in large part by supply chain issues,  COVID 19 or actual staffing shortages.

The dramatic price increases were largely caused by unbridled greed among corporate consolidators,  including JAB Holdings,  Shore Capital Partners,  Mars,  and others.

Now,  approximately 25% of all first-opinion veterinary clinics,  and 75% of specialty and emergency veterinary clinics in the U.S.,  are owned by corporate consolidators.

Notably,  corporate consolidators are estimated to control around half of all US veterinary hospital revenue.

Bad legislation

Instead of addressing unfair business and labor practices,  including aggressive non-compete agreements along with price gouging,  a bill that would enshrine excessive profits for the private equity industry called the People & Animals Well-being (PAW) Act of 2024 (H.R.9508),  was introduced in the 118th Congress.

Instead of popping the balloon of greed that artificially (and dramatically) inflated veterinary care costs, PAW would have expanded the use of tax-advantaged health care spending accounts to include veterinary expenses.

The PAW Act would have stabilized excessive profits for venture capitalists,  normalized exorbitant veterinary bills,  and possibly worsened the crisis facing low/middle income households trying to get a pet spayed or neutered.

Fortunately the PAW Act attracted only four cosponsors and died with the 118th Congress.

Unfortunately,  author Claudia Tenney was re-elected in November 2024 to serve in the 119th Congress,  and is very likely to bring it back.

Non-compete clauses trap veterinarians

A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA),  also linked below,  tabulated a total of 896 responses from associate veterinarians working full time.  While 286 (31.9%) reported working in private practice and 610 (68.1%) in corporate practice,  an overwhelming 55% of participants indicated a preference for working in private practice compared to 12% preferring corporate practice.

Despite the fact that many veterinarians express dissatisfaction in working for ‘corporate’ employers, once employed by a corporate employer many veterinarians become bound by non-compete contracts that prohibit them from taking other employment opportunities in their area.  In fact,  the geographic range of the non-compete contract may prevent a veterinarian from easily changing jobs without moving.  And that is precisely the point of the contract.

Price inflation drives pet keepers & rescuers to overwhelmed nonprofit clinics

On April 23, 2024 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prohibited the overreaching contracts favored by corporate veterinary providers,  but corporate interests are appealing that decision.

On August 20, 2024,  a Texas federal court judge ruled against the FTC,  holding that the agency lacks authority to issue the rule,  which would have banned most non-compete covenants with employees and other workers.

Record high prices for basic veterinary services have sent pets who were historically seen at full service veterinary clinics to low cost services.   Seeing an unprecedentedly large client base,  spay/neuter clinics that struggle to hire adequate numbers of staff now have months’ long waiting lists.

While available space has tightened, service requests now include households that never used or needed low-cost options before.

[i] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/vet-private-equity-industry/678180/

[ii] https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/javma/261/12/javma.23.06.0326.xml

The movement that slammed shelter doors on animals also slammed the doors on spay/neuter.

Bereft of common sense or compassion, the anti-sheltering,  or so called ‘no-kill,’ movement has dramatically increased the public circulation of intact dogs and cats by encouraging shelters to refuse entry to animals who previously would have entered shelters and been spayed or neutered prior to rehoming,  or humanely euthanized.

Historically,  hundreds of thousands of shelter animals were spayed or neutered prior to adoption each year.  Now uncounted thousands of those remain intact as they are denied shelter access.

Dismantling animal welfare services,  then offering the animals best wishes on Facebook,  is not to be confused with an actual solution.

Naked emperors

While the Best Friends Animal Society and Maddie’s Fund self-congratulate,  and their leadership struts as naked emperors,  many “no-kill” city shelters now make it difficult to impossible for taxpayers to release animals to the public shelter,  including animals found on the streets.  Perversely,  making a service request “dissipate,” by denying service,  and not knowing what happened to the animal,  is considered successful.  Callers who are turned away are not counted,  because in the scheme of no-kill,  those animals truly do not matter.

Closing services to a needy population is not an effective strategic plan for any public health,  safety,  or welfare need,  and it is not working now.  Indeed,  if closing municipal services in order to resolve social problems was effective,  closing domestic violence shelters or substance abuse rehab facilities would resolve domestic abuse and addiction cheaply,  once and for all.

Anti-sheltering movement

The anti-sheltering movement shifts the costs for helping unwanted animals from the public shelter to private entities including citizens on the streets.   Denying food,  water,  shelter and spay/neuter service to homeless animals does not change the number desperate for help;  it simply starves the most unfortunate and leaves others to reproduce.

Decreased euthanasia rates do not reflect successful rehoming or compliant or timely spay/neuter.

Warehousing animals for months or years in order to avoid euthanasia,  while turning away intact animals who ultimately produce more unwanted litters,  defies decency and logic.

Releasing intact animals to be spayed or neutered after adoption adds significant cost and logistics to their “rescue,”  and adds significant demand to already overwhelmed local spay/neuter services (whether at non-profit or for profit clinics).  It is not in the animals’ best interest.  The anti-sheltering movement is not about the animals’ best interest;  it is about making smoke and mirrors look successful and ensuring that those currently raking in major funding take in even more.

Intact release leads to litters

Former animal control officer Beth Clifton,  spay/neuter clinic vaccination manager,  vet tech,  and ANIMALS 24-7 co-editor,  recently noted that “Once the ‘no-kill’ movement gave its’ blessings to deprioritizing sterilization and to simply turning people away,  it became way too much work to spay/neuter their way out of the problem.  It is easier to simply close the doors to the animals,  reduce their responsibilities, ask for a bigger shelter,  and get more money and praise for being no-kill.  Citizens and animals be damned.”

Although caseloads two decades ago were five or more times the numbers seen now,  no-kill proponents encourage citizens to worry far more about shelter workers mental health than about the well-being of homeless animals.  This is a further effort to refocus the lens on anything but the animals’ needs.

In order to “get them out of the shelters,”  shelter medicine advocates who previously supported spay/neuter-before-release jumped on the bandwagon with PetSmart stores in 2023,  supporting intact release despite all the reasons to double down on spay/neuter before adoption.

Homeless animals are not purebreds

Most adult homeless dogs and cats are born into unintentional/unplanned litters.  If this were not the case,  most homeless animals would be purebred.

The average adult shelter dog or cat started out unplanned, was acquired at low to no cost and likely spur-of-the-moment.  Their homes were marginal;  in the south,  the Midwest,  and rural areas overall, most are still intact when they enter shelters.  Spay/neuter before the adoption of a shelter pet is no longer an option in cities that have anti-shelter (no-kill) shelter management because the animals are not allowed into the animal shelter.

Funding shifted focus from spay/neuter to rescue,  with growing rewards to in-store partners

In the very early 2000s,  the main funders of start-up spay/neuter programs included the D, J & T Foundation,  funded by game show host and animal rights proponent Bob Barker,  the Two Mauds Foundation,  and the Summerlee Foundation,  with combined annual giving of under three million dollars.

By 2005 PetSmart Charities and the Petco Foundation,  the latter under the leadership of Paul Jolly,  granted a combined total of over five million dollars a year,  mostly supporting spay/neuter in both urban and rural settings.

(See Petco Foundation founding director Paul Jolly, 57.)

The humane community went the right way,  once

PetSmart Charities and the Petco Foundation supported innovative programs to bring spay/neuter to underserved areas and report first time data.

Spay USA Southern Leadership Conferences,  organized by Esther Mechler,  provided a platform for dialog and sharing.

Quita Mazzina of the Humane Alliance articulated the concept of using high volume surgeries to create financial sustainability in non-profit spay/neuter programs.  Mazzina shared a detailed breakdown of how high volume, low cost spay/neuter programs could bring spay/neuter services into reach for millions of households that did not historically use veterinary care.  Spay/neuter organizers made pilgrimages to Asheville,  North Carolina to see the Humane Alliance model in action.

PetSmart Charities & the Petco Foundation

From 2005 through 2015,  PetSmart Charities and the Petco Foundation granted an annual combined total exceeding $15 million a year,  overwhelmingly to open,  operate,  and expand spay/neuter programs.  Large grants were made to rural programs that served the neediest homes, despite not being close to the large pet supply sellers’ box stores.

From 1999 thru 2013,  under Paul Jolly’s leadership,  the Petco Foundation alone raised and donated more than $110 million to U.S. animal charities.  The overwhelming focus of his generosity was spay/neuter programs.  During that time,  PetSmart Charities provided over ten million dollars annually to support innovative spay/neuter programs all across the U.S. as well.

Following the tragic March 8, 2014 death of Paul Jolly and the December, 2014 sale of PetSmart, Inc., the majority of grant funding from both entities pivoted from spay/neuter to rescue programs.

The ASPCA used COVID as a pretext for burying the Humane Alliance

In August 2015 the Humane Alliance was acquired by the ASPCA and the bold grass roots message the Humane Alliance taught about how to open and operate self-supporting low-cost spay/neuter services all but disappeared.

On March 31, 2020, the ASPCA issued a press release imploring shelters to normalize the intact release of shelter animals.   Instead of recommending work-arounds to support continued spay/neuter of owned and shelter pets,  and offering grants for supplies and equipment to enable spay/neuter clinics to safely remain operational,  the ASPCA promoted intact release of shelter animals in order to prevent euthanasia.

The ASPCA press release made no mention of follow-up care in order to ensure these animals ended up spayed or neutered.

(See COVID-19: India feeds stray dogs; ASPCA says “don’t fix them”.)

Conversely,  in response to COVID closures,  in early 2020 the Oklahoma State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners (OSBVME),  declared spay/neuter to be an essential service.   Planning and the generous sharing of resources could have prevented shelters from being emptied intact.

Priorities have overlooked prevention

Over the last 40 years, a paradigm shift could have and should have moved the publicly funded response from sheltering to prevention.  That did not happen.   Instead sheltering and rescue stayed center stage among most animal advocates.

To illustrate the absurdity of this,  imagine if the 1952 emergence of the Salk polio vaccine had been greeted by a lukewarm shrug,  a decision to continue to build hospital wards for polio victims,  and telling volunteers to hold bake sales to support polio vaccination campaigns.

That sounds unthinkable,  but the equivalent is exactly what happened to dogs and cats.

While spay/neuter programs grew mainly within the purview of the private,  non-profit community,  municipal animal shelters have continued to collect and adopt out,  or euthanize,  for the third century in a row.

Follow the dollars

Large animal welfare organizations have prioritized emotionalism over prevention, raising hundreds of millions of dollars each year while,  at the same time,  grass roots animal advocates have often ignored the urgency of preventing the leading cause of companion animal suffering:  overpopulation.   Since spay/neuter services provided for a nominal fee break even,  and thereby do not require ongoing financial support, the tragedy is even more profound.

	Column 1 Assets 2022	Column 2 Total revenue 2022	Column 3 2022 Revenue less expenses line 19 (surplus over expenses)
ASPCA	$575,741,210	$3 7 6 , 4 1 6 , 3 1 6	$3 6 , 1 0 9 , 0 4 9
Best Friends	$216,306,392	$1 4 1 , 4 8 8 , 1 7 8	$2 5 , 3 5 2 , 3 8 5
HSUS	$454,727,590	$2 5 9 , 5 1 9 , 7 3 8	$1 2 1 , 3 4 5 , 8 7 5
Petco Foundation	$3 3 , 4 1 8 , 6 5 8	$3 9 , 5 8 2 , 4 1 8	$2 , 8 4 7 , 7 3 2
PetSmart Charities	$7 3 , 5 7 7 , 0 13	$7 3 , 0 9 8 , 8 2 1	$4 , 6 5 7 , 6 0 3
Total	$1,353,770,863	$890,105,471	$190,312,644

Local programs starve while the big five gorge  

What goes to New York stays in New York.  The nearly one billion dollars a year donated to the ASPCA,  Best Friends Animal Society,  Humane Society of the U.S.,  Petco Foundation,  and PetSmart Charities has minimal impact in most of the U.S.

A mere ten percent of the budget surplus (column 3 above) devoted to affordable spay/neuter programs could subsidize tens of thousands of spay/neuter surgeries at low-cost clinics,  provide equipment grants for hundreds of spay/neuter clinic additions to shelter buildings,  and assist veterinarians to open non-corporate spay/neuter and wellness services.

Publicly supported animal sheltering could and should have evolved into publicly supported spay/neuter programs.

Prioritize prevention

Organizations clamor for vans for transport, not to open clinics.   Helping a limited number of animals, transport is a top heavy use of volunteer time and funding.

Be wise.  It is not the responsibility of poor areas to provide merchandise (puppies) to affluent areas of the U.S.  Some rescues remove pregnant dogs,  often pit bulls and pit mixes,  from shelters in order to make puppies available in northern states,  literally moving pit mix puppies from southern states to compete with homeless pit mixes already languishing in northern shelters.

Implementing a health department model to provide spay/neuter services to dogs and cats in low-income and rural homes (documented to have the most unplanned litters) can support a paradigm shift.  Currently, multiple rescue organizations exist for each non-profit spay/neuter program, and far too few spay/neuter programs have developed within the public domain.

The methods & the means to stop the suffering exist

In the 1980s,  private veterinary practitioners began to include spay/neuter in their basic health care recommendations.

According to author and ethicist Peter Marsh, the earliest dramatic drop in shelter intakes reflected changes in recommendations of private veterinary practitioners;  indeed,  though a few low-cost,  high volume spay/neuter clinics existed,  this approach was still a decade away from widespread access and high visibility.  The public was catching on.

Speaking often to animal welfare conference audiences,  Marsh explained that the sources of most unwanted litters included low income households,  shelters that release animals intact,  and intact free roaming cats.  Marsh pointed out that this was a matter of common sense, as animals do not fall out of the sky.   That information has changed very little.

Intact release of puppies & kittens could have been halted 35 years ago

At that same time, high volume spay/neuter techniques were pioneered by veterinarians including Marvin Mackie, Jeff Young and others.  Pediatric spay/neuter techniques were developed before 1990,  meaning that intact release of puppies and kittens from shelters could have been halted then.

Currently,  while a limited number of spay/neuter programs still exist in all states,  municipal animal shelters and rescue organizations remain ubiquitous,  while sterilization services do not.

For example,  Oklahoma has over 130 municipal dog holding facilities and hundreds of rescue organizations or rescuers,  but fewer than 20 spay/neuter programs to provide year-round affordable or sliding scale spay/neuter surgeries.

At this point,  a reckoning with the crisis will not bring back lost opportunities,  but refocusing the lens can help prevent the further escalation of unwanted litters. Nothing less than a paradigm shift will do.

Spay/neuter programs that are as widely accessible as animal shelters are needed

As with Food Stamps and the Women,  Infants,  & Children Nutrition Program,  public services must reach the homes that have historically produced the most unplanned litters and are the most likely to release animals to shelters.

Financial support for veterinarians who choose to offer non-profit spay/neuter services can fast track the opening of spay/neuter services.  Among models to follow:

Globally famous Planned Pethood International (PPI) of Conifer, CO, was founded by “Dr. Jeff” Young to further the mission of providing highly affordable services to the public and,  at the same time,  cost-free training to veterinarians who serve impoverished regions of the globe.  PPI provides the only cost free veterinary training for veterinarians from the global south.

Planned Pethood

Through their training programs and high volume international campaigns, PPI brings all the players to the table to solve animal suffering.   Jeff Young,  DVM,  has proven that providing high volume spay/neuter services in even the poorest communities empowers people to care about the animals in their lives,  and that once empowered,  most people indeed take steps that show they care.

Under Jeff Young’s leadership,  Planned Pethood has provided the premier global template for compassion for over two decades.

Kerstin Martin Del Campo,  DVM,  opened the non-profit Southwest Florida Spay Neuter Service (SFSNS) in 2024.  The Southwest Florida Spay Neuter Service provides self-sustaining,  low-cost services in a clinic model others can follow.  Upon opening the clinic,  Kerstin Martin Del Campo said,  “We are ready to be the change we want to see in our community.”

Publicly available spay/neuter services operated within public shelters offers veterinarians municipal positions,  something that may be more attractive than working for a non-profit due to pensions, benefits and stability.  Placing clinics at municipal animal shelters eliminates rent or mortgage payments, precludes zoning issues and incurs only the cost of utilities on days the clinic does not operate.

Demand open admission sheltering

Make your opinion known.  If taxpayers are denied access to their local shelter,  contact city councilors.    If taxpayers are denied public services based on Best Friends and Maddie’s Fund directives,  use the Freedom of Information Act and similar state legislation to obtain communications to learn who calls the shots.   Be a pest.

Show support for ordinances that promote spay/neuter,  including differential pet licensing to discourage keeping intact pets.

Demand enforcement records.

Be the voice for the animals that prevents the suffering.

About the author:

Ruth Steinberger,  founder and executive director of Spay FIRST!,  has coordinated rural pet sterilization programs since 1993,  with a focus on at-risk animals in chronic poverty.  Her programs now provide over 25,000 surgeries annually.

http://www.spayfirst.org/

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