LUBBOCK, Texas –The Lubbock Animal shelter broke their record for spay/neuter operations done in a day Tuesday with 46 operations done. Steven Greene, the Director of Operations for LAS, said by law every animal is required to be fixed before being adopted.
“Being in a municipal shelter or anything that is adopted has to be spayed or neutered before they leave or leave with the voucher, “Greene said. “A lot of people just never would get their animals fixed. So now every dog and cat that leaves here is altered and fixed before it leaves here.”
Gabrielle Richetti, an LAS officer, was one of the three members on the crew to spay and neuter the batch of dogs and says despite the large number, it went smoother than expected.
“We pretty much just had a lineup of dogs just coming in one after the other, but since they were puppies, they go pretty quick,” Richetti said. “We’ve been trying our hardest to beat that number for a long time so that we were able to finally do that, and it was amazing.”
Greene said the shelter spayed and neutered 2,500 dogs last fiscal year and are nearing 900 since this past October.
Greene and Richetti agreed spaying also benefits the dogs’ health and prolongs their life.
“If you’re trying to get the stray population down, it’s vital that we spay and neuter these animals and at least to a healthier lifestyle too so they have less trouble later in life,” Greene said.
“Just decreasing the population and then it also has a lot of health benefits that come along with spay/neutering such as cancer and things like that, prolonging your animal’s life,” Richetti said.
Greene said although they’ve got a small staff, their job has a tremendous impact, that could give pets the fresh, healthy start they deserve.
“I’m very proud of our staff. We have one vet, and we have two officers that are assigned to this room, and they do a really good job and I’m really proud of them and they’re just helping the overall pet population in Lubbock.” Greene said.
For more information on adoption, volunteering, and donating, visit the LAS website at City of Lubbock – Departments | Animal Services
