Programs Overview

Spay/Neuter Clinic

Humane Alliance of WNC, Inc. began as a small spay/neuter clinic in Asheville, North Carolina in 1994. Today, it has grown into a regional clinic, serving over 40 agencies in 23 counties through our innovative transport system.

With a staff of four full-time veterinarians and sixteen support staff, our clinic sterilizes more than 23,000 companion animals each year. We sterilize an average of 120 animals per day – about 70% of these arrive via our transport system and 30% arrive via our front door.

The clinic is the core of all of our programs. While our training programs attract a lot of attention, it is our daily work in the clinic that makes a huge difference in the lives of companion animals in Western North Carolina.

We are privileged to work with a wide variety of shelters, humane societies, and other animal welfare organizations in our community. Without their tireless efforts to sterilize animals, we would not be able to do nearly the volume of surgery that is needed in our area. Our clinic really belongs to these organizations.

NSNRT

Just four years ago, we created the National Spay/Neuter Response Team (NSNRT), a mentoring and training program to help other organizations learn how to open and operate self-sustaining clinics in their communities.

The Vision Is a National Coalition

The NSNRT is a strategic training program designed by Humane Alliance Spay/Neuter Clinic to address a national epidemic identified by Janet M. Scarlett, DVM, MPH, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology at Cornell University: “There is no disease or condition of companion animals that takes more of their lives than euthanasia.” The vision is the strategic placement of this spay/neuter model across the nation. Clearly, our nation’s best defense against all the sources of shelter intake is targeted, aggressive, high-volume, high-quality, low-cost sterilization. This is an urgent need that requires a skilled, dedicated and well-organized team to train organizations to open and operate strategically placed high-volume, high-quality, low-cost spay/neuter clinics across the nation. We can shorten the learning curve and help groups establish best practices to achieve a higher volume of surgeries right from the start.

Humane Alliance assembled a team of facilitators to develop comprehensive guidelines for mentoring best spay/neuter practices. These guidelines were needed to launch the initiative. The mentors had to determine how to manage and implement the many elements of our spay/neuter program. Four years later, we continue to fine-tune and analyze elements of our program so that we can ensure effective procedures to meet the established objectives of the program. Humane Alliance has developed a complete curriculum that encompasses both the goals and the processes to achieve these goals.

Specifically:

Humane Alliance defined the mandatory components to ensure sustainability and transfer of skills (a complete manual)
Humane Alliance structured the mentoring program so that organizations would operate stand-alone spay/neuter programs
Humane Alliance determined the sequence of steps that lead to the final three-week mentoring process
Humane Alliance manages a protocol that assures that our mentors maintain regular contact with the mentees
Humane Alliance selected the management team
Established policies and procedures
Developed financial plan
Developed program budget
Determined amount of funding needed to start and sustain program
Established internal controls and auditing requirements for end of the year reports to funders
Humane Alliance recruited mentors from existing staff
Humane Alliance screens potential mentors and mentees
Humane Alliance orients and trains mentees
Humane Alliance matches mentors and mentees
Humane Alliance provides ongoing support
Humane Alliance recognized the contribution of all program participants

We train an average of fifteen organizations annually, and expect to have trained 120 organizations by 2014. To date, June 2010, Humane Alliance has trained 81 organizations in 30 states (and Canada!) to open and operate high-volume, high-quality spay/neuter clinics. We currently have 31 additional organizations seeking admittance to this highly specialized training program, and new inquiries weekly.

Vet/Extern Training

The veterinary student externship program is available to veterinary students who have completed at least the course and clinical surgery portion of their veterinary training. Externships are provided for 2-3 week rotations. The externship site will evaluate the student, if required by his/her university. The students have an opportunity to work with the veterinarians who perform surgery at the clinic and also participate in anesthesia, peri-operative care of patients and surgery. The student functions as a spay/neuter veterinarian-in-training. Housing is available on-site during the externship.

We also provide training in high-volume, high-quality surgical technique to private veterinarians. We have secured approval from the North Carolina Veterinary Medical Board to provide CEU credit to private veterinary practitioners and registered veterinary technicians.

The curriculum has been designed and a complete training manual is available. Michelle Amtower, DVM and Melissa Saxton, DVM, have written the surgical sterilization curriculum, which has been edited by and received positive reviews from veterinarians at Cornell University, UT-Knoxville, University of Florida, and Texas A&M veterinary schools. We anticipate participation by all of the major veterinary programs. We are also working with the LVT programs to involve their participation.