The spay and neuter struggle: Have A Heart steps in to help

The Humane Society located here in Tehachapi known as Have A Heart has been well-known for years and we have been your “go to” organization when you adopt a pet, lose a pet, find a stray pet, or need to alter your pets, so they don’t contribute to the dreadful overpopulation here in Kern County.

Have A Heart includes the concept of spay and neuter as just about the most important facet of our vision, and not one that we could let go of when things got tough! Instead, the “tough” (that’s us!) got going, and we located a way to continue the spay and neuter process when all the other clinics disappeared primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We had to beat the bushes, because there were months when even veterinary offices were closed and on limited access — clinics seemed to be becoming a thing of the past. Our numbers of spay and neuter plummeted from 125 animals per month for a span of four straight years to almost none for a prolonged period of time.

That was 1,500 animals a year to almost zero! We’re not sure that everybody knew how many pets were actually taken out of the population merry-go-round!

Now that things are opening up a bit, we have found a service called the Snip Bus. The Snip Bus travels all over Southern and Central California and they are in charge of registering the clients with pets to spay and neuter, and we are not in charge of any of the proceedings, except for writing them a healthy check when it’s all over.

People ask us when the next clinic is, and all we can say is, “Follow our Facebook page (Have A Heart) and watch for the Snip Bus flyer and date, then call them up FAST!”

We don’t feel as involved as we used to when we signed up our own patients, but that’s how it is currently done.

The good news is, it is a very reasonable co-pay for you, ($25) and we absorb the rest of the costs as our community outreach!

We have been told that if we had a “patron” or a sponsor, we could lessen the amount that we owe the Snip Bus at the end of the clinic. If anybody would like to be a cash donor, we would welcome your tax-deductible financial support to further our cause, which is to stop pet overpopulation, and this furthers NO KILL! That is the ultimate goal.