A Full-Time Free Clinic in El Prado, NM Serving All of Taos County
Since the COVID pandemic, when our local vets had to reduce spay/neuter appointments and people were staying home and not getting animals fixed, Taos County has been overwhelmed with litter after litter of excess births, many of which are now homeless strays. As the community leader in spay/neuter for cats, Taos Feral Feline Friends knows that spay/neuter activity must significantly increase in order to address the problem. However, the number of practicing local veterinarians in Taos County has not kept pace with the surge in demand for spay/neuter - in fact, vet capacity in the county is lower now than at any point in the past twenty years! Spay/neuter vet appointments are often booked-up three months in advance, an inconvenient disincentive for many pet owners. And delays in getting appointments often lead to 'accidental' litters.... cat and dog moms give birth when they're ready... not when it's convenient!
Yes, spay/neuter is the answer to over-population! But it won't succeed without an ample supply of affordable spay/neuter appointments in Taos County. That's why we started TFFF Spay/Neuter Sevices - to build veterinary capacity, to insure every cat and every dog in Taos County benefits from free spay/neuter. We are planning on a March opening for a brick-and-mortar spay/neuter vet clinic in El Prado, just north of the historic town of Taos. Everyone can participate: residents of the town of Taos, county of Taos, Taos and Picuris Puebloes... all are welcome! But it's not just spay/neuter... vaccinations, disease screenings and micro-chipping are all part of the program and included for free!
This program represents a major expansion to the original proposal to use a mobile veterinary van staffed by visiting vets. With a brick-and mortar clinic and a full-time vet staff, we will be open three or four days every week, 140 to 190 days per year, far above the 30 days that the van could support. We expect to handle 20 to 25 spay/neuter cases each day of operation.
This program is our top priority. Effective 12/31/2023, we are discontinuing our current spay/neuter programs, Pays To Help Strays and TNR, and channeling all of our resources to the new venture. All donations from 9/1/2023 through 12/31/2024 will be assigned to TFFF Spay/Neuter Services - every dollar, every penny we receive. To accumulate and segregate spay/neuter donations, a new bank account has been established, separate from our general account and we will report separate, detailed financial data for TFFF Spay/Neuter Services. As always, full transparency is not just our goal... it's our guarantee!
Opening a full-time veterinary clinic is a big undertaking. To enable our success, Donna Karr, former head of the Board of Directors and Executive Director of Stray Hearts, has joined our all-volunteer management team as TFFF Spay/Neuter Services Program Director. Donna's many years of experience running Taos' largest animal shelter, including its in-house veterinary clinic, will be invaluable in guiding our new venture from concept to realization.