Vets Skip Class by Donating Surgery

Veterinarians in New Jersey may soon be able to earn up to 10 of their required 20 or more credits for continuing education by offering free spay/neuter services.

Sounds like a win-win for everyone: Less time in lectures and seminars for veterinarians, and more spay/neuter to reduce numbers of homeless animals that end up in public shelters. 

Under a bill that has now passed the legislature, S.B. 515, veterinarians could earn one hour of continuing education credit from the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners for every two dogs or cats that are spayed for free, and one hour credit for every four dogs or cats that are neutered, also free of charge. Pet owners who receive certain types of state and federal assistance and feral cat Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs operated by municipalities or nonprofit organizations would be eligible for the free surgeries.

If you want to know why spay/neuter is so important, look at the numbers: Two unaltered cats and all their descendants can number 420,000 in just seven years. Two unaltered dogs and all their descendants can number 67,000 in just six years. Among the top ten reasons people surrender their cats and dogs to shelters is because they can't find homes for the "littermates" and they have too many pets. Even now, most dogs and cats that end up in public shelters are euthanized.

The availability of free, or even low cost, spay/neuter for pet owners is key to reducing the number of dogs and cats that end up in public shelters with little chance of finding a home. There is plenty of clever advertising telling the public the importance of spaying or neutering their pets, such as PETA's partnership with "Octomom" Nadya Suleman to put a spay/neuter sign in her yard. But in low income and rural communities, there are simply not enough free or low cost spay/neuter services, and the number of animals that end up in shelters remains high.

New Jersey veterinarians looking to satisfy continuing education credits could also be a substantial help to TNR programs working to save feral cats. What we call "feral cats" are often a mix of abandoned or lost pets forced to fend for themselves and cats that have never been socialized to live with humans. In TNR programs these cats that freely roam are first trapped, then spayed or neutered and provided vaccinations and other veterinary care. Kittens and adults that can be socialized are adopted out to live as pets. The cats that are truly feral are released to live free, usually in colonies that are provided food, water, shelter and veterinary care by volunteer caregivers.

Studies show TNR  — along with education about an owner's responsibility to care for cats and not abandon them — reduces the number of feral cats over time. TNR is, in many places, replacing the catch-and-kill approach where these cats are trapped and taken to shelters and euthanized. New Jersey is one of the places where TNR programs are catching on.

It would mean a lot to these efforts to have veterinarians open their clinics just 10 hours each year to help out low income community members and TNR volunteers. Over time, and as more veterinarians participate, it could mean that substantially fewer dogs and cats end up in public shelters. It could mean fewer animals euthanized.

I'm betting New Jersey veterinarians would much prefer to spend 10 hours a year ultimately saving lives by providing free spay/neuter than to spend that same time in continuing education classes.

Photo credit: Close to Spectacular