Volunteer Vet and Vet nurse neutering days at our two London clinics

The animal welfare sector is facing a crisis struggling with rising numbers of unwanted pets and increased costs. Pet owners are struggling to afford to care for their pets and to provide even basic veterinary care. The plight of unwanted, abandoned and stray pet cats and dogs in 2024 is once again desperate, it is as though we have stepped back in time 30 years and once again the solution lies with mass neutering.

When CHAT first opened our two London neutering clinics in 1995 and 1999 the problem we sought to humanely solve was large numbers of unwanted cats and dogs many of whom were being euthanased as there were simply not enough homes to go around. Many pet owners could not afford to neuter their pets and animal charities who had facilities to neuter had very long waiting lists. We were neutering 100 cats and up to 50 dogs a week at each clinic and within 2-3 years we started to see large reductions in unwanted animals in the areas surrounding our two clinics. In the following years the availability of affordable and free neutering increased in the London area and so whilst we continued to neuter animals we also expanded the range of veterinary services available at our centres to provide other much needed treatments for pets belonging to owners on low incomes.

The cost of living crisis has seen donations to charities fall and a reduction in the availability of neutering schemes to help cats and dogs. We too are experiencing huge financial challenges ourselves as we struggle with rising costs. However our determination to help the plight of animals in need is unwavering. Cats and dogs are suffering and the most important first step to resolving the current pet over population crisis is birth control – i.e neutering.
With a lack of funds but the veterinary clinic facilities available at our London clinics we have appealed to vets and vet nurses working in private practice to donate their time to help with volunteer neuter days at our clinics to neuter cats. The good news is that we have received some offers of help! We are starting with cats but if we have sufficient help we hope to extend this scheme to include dogs.

We will also need more help – so not only vets and vet nurses but also vet nurse assistants and volunteers to help with admin, tidying up etc .

Here are some photos of Volunteer vet Anna Minoli, accompanied by volunteer RVN Kerry Flynn and Nicky Brew RVN at CHAT helping on our first volunteer vet day. We would also like to thank volunteer vet Helen Spencer and hopefully many more at our upcoming volunteer neuter days.