116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Iowa Humane Alliance celebrates 100,000 spay, neuter operations
The milestone will be celebrated with an open house Wednesday evening
Cleo Westin
Jul. 3, 2024 5:30 am, Updated: Jul. 3, 2024 7:50 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — The Iowa Humane Alliance performed its 100,000th spay/neuter operation Tuesday afternoon on a cat named Jolene following more than 10 years of surgeries. The nonprofit organization is planning an open house to celebrate the milestone Wednesday, from 5-8 p.m.
The alliance’s Cedar Rapids clinic, which opened in 2013, could have met the goal sooner, had there not been a veterinarian shortage crisis, said Kathlee Schoon, IHA’s director of philanthropy.
Schoon said the clinicdid not have a veterinarianfor “at least three months” in 2023 and offered only a few days each week for operations, missing IHA’s annual goal for the first time.
Today, the clinic has nine part-time veterinarians who operate on 30 animals a day. They hope to complete 6,000 surgeries by the end of 2024. IHA’s goal is to reach 10,000 surgeries a year after a full-time veterinarian is hired.
IHA opened as the only high volume spay/neuter clinic in Iowa with a mission of ending companion animal overpopulation. It is again the only high volume clinic in the state after the last remaining other clinic closed because of its inability to find a full-time veterinarian, Schoon said.
While IHA is celebrating its 100,000th operation, Schoon said the main cause for celebration is that IHA has persevered through struggles.
“We are here to stay, we have outlived many a crisis now and I think we have a really strong foundation and I think we're gonna be here for a long, long time in this community,” Schoon said.
Currently, the clinic is performing “as many surgeries as we can” without compromising the health and safety of the animals and the comfort of the operating veterinarians, Schoon said. That means scheduling appointments no more than one week out and allowing the part-time veterinarians to adjust to the high volume of surgeries.
“High volume surgery really does take a skill set and these guys are diving right in and they're doing a fabulous job,” Schoon said, “but it takes some time to get into that comfort zone of doing that high volume of surgeries. Eastern Iowa or Iowa could certainly use two or three more of this style clinic.”
Schoon said it will take time to get back to the number of surgeries the clinic was performing before the veterinarian shortage, but she said she doesn’t know when that may be.
There also are programs IHA hopes to begin or, in some cases, restart programs that were suspended because there wasn’t capacity to do them without a full-time veterinarian.
“We would like to develop a wellness program for under resourced clients and for our shelter rescue partners, and we had a transport program where we could do low cost spay/neuter within like 50 to 100 mile radius of our clinic,” Schoon said.
About 35 percent of IHA clients need help paying for services, which is the primary use of donations to the organization, Schoon said.
“That's also difficult for us to provide right now because of our situation, we're not doing the volume that we want to be doing ultimately to be able to sustain that,” Schoon said. “But really our programs support our donations and our fundraising support.”
Wednesday’s open house will serve as a celebration and fundraising opportunity. IHA will have a silent auction and give attendees the opportunity to meet some of the part-time veterinarians.
“... it'll be a party because we're ready to party,” Schoon said.
Iowa Humane Alliance Open House
When:Wednesday, July 3, 5-8 p.m.
Where:Iowa Humane Alliance, 6540 Sixth St. SW, Cedar Rapids
What:The open house will provide information about the Iowa Humane Alliance, and it will include activities, food and a silent auction.
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