Pet Allies opened its subsidized spay-neuter clinic July, 2009. Since then hundreds of animals have received services, primarily spay and neuter or wellness, thanks to its hard working staff, paid and volunteer.

According to Pet Allies Spay-Neuter Coordinator, Rebecca Bloomquist, “I’ve been working on our statistics for spay/neuter the past few months. It has been an interesting project.

Just looking at spay/neuter for the past eight years shows just how much our program has grown and matured. When I started as Spay/Neuter Coordinator way back in 2003 we only gave out $25 certificates to be used at local vet’s offices toward spay/neuter. I also remember sitting out in front of Safeway in sunshine and blizzard! I’m not so sure they were the ‘good ‘ole days’, if you know what I mean.

We started with $25 certificates and then moved to grants that much of the time paid for all of the spay/neuter costs for clients using local veterinarians. Then, we paid for entire days with mobile clinics such as Plateauland and AZ Humane to come to our area, stepping up with running our own clinics. Moving on, we turned to Dr. Helzer utilizing her clinic and equipment every other week on Tuesday to hold our spay/neuter clinics. In late July of 2008 we purchased the property located at 4050 S White Mountain Rd. in Show Low and began the odyssey of investing in our community through property ownership with our eye on the ultimate prize: our own clinic. The first days operating our own spay/neuter clinic were July 28-29.

From the very first days of operating the Pet Allies Spay/Neuter Clinic to today it has been an ongoing education to provide best practices medicine for spay/neuter and the many new services we offer. We continually reinvent ourselves in order to meet the many needs of our clients. I fell blessed to be able to have a hand in guiding this vital mission program. As a group, this is such a proud accomplishment to help so many pets in our community.

As a sneak peek for 2011, pending some final numbers, it looks like we’ve altered approximately 518 pets from January through March. Pet Allies intends to increase the number of days the clinic operates, adding one additional day May through September this year.