San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
New Excelsior veterinary clinic fills void
A community veterinary clinic aimed at providing low-cost services to residents of San Francisco’s southeast neighborhoods — considered a “vet desert” by officials — has opened its doors in the Excelsior district.
The new clinic is part of ongoing efforts at the San Francisco SPCA to fill a void of veterinary care in the Excelsior, Bayview-Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods by providing low-cost services to underserved pet owners and their animals. For example, a routine visit that typically ranges around $90 at animal hospitals will be offered at about $50.
“There’s a giant proportion of the city who have pets who never received care before,” said Dr. Jena Valdez, chief medical officer at SF SPCA. “We really want to be their first interaction with veterinary care providers, and really serve a population that historically has not been served.”
In March, the nonprofit announced that it had sold its Pacific Heights animal hospital to divert its resources to communities that lack veterinary clinics. The Pacific Heights hospital was sold to a group of Bay Area veterinarians who have since opened a new clinic under the name San Francisco Animal Medical Center.
The Excelsior clinic, at 4527 Mission St., opened this month and currently offers its services only on Thursdays and Fridays because of a shortage of veterinarians impacting hospitals in the region and across the country.
SF SPCA officials said the goal was to expand to four days a week, although it was not immediately known when that would happen. It was created as an extension of the walk-in wellness clinic that SF SPCA officials have been piloting at its hospital in the Mission District, about 4.4 miles north of the Excelsior location, for the last three years, officials said.
An official ribboncutting ceremony for the Excelsior clinic is scheduled for Oct. 20, Valdez said.
Plans to open the Excelsior clinic have been in the works for about 10 years, after the nonprofit found a high number of animals with parvovirus infections were coming from households in the 94124 ZIP code, which is in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, said Valdez. The virus mainly affects unvaccinated puppies, and treatment can cost up to $2,000, she said.
SF SPCA also learned that a large number of pets surrendered to the city’s Animal Care and Control were from the Bayview-Hunters Point area — 14% in 2020 compared to 1% from the Cow Hollow neighborhood and 3% from the Richmond neighborhood, according to data provided by San Francisco Animal Care and Control.
Over the last 10 years, SF SPCA has set up free clinics in the Bayview and other nearby neighborhoods — often seeing more than 400 animals in about three hours, said Valdez. Through those clinics, officials heard from residents that transportation, high costs and the lack of cultural competency discouraged them from seeking veterinary care for their pets — which led officials to choose the Excelsior location.
“This is supposed to be a very hyperlocal resource,” Valdez said.
In response to residents’ concerns, the clinic made it a priority to have providers and staff members — the majority of whom are women — who speak Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin. While there are no income requirements to receive services at the Excelsior clinic, Valdez emphasized that it was meant to be a resource to the neighborhood.
Since the clinic opened its door Sept. 1, the response from the community has been “overwhelmingly, unbelievably positive,” Valdez said. Staffers posted flyers around the immediate neighborhood and held local events, such as an open house, for residents and local business owners.
Jerry Tonelli, owner of the Central Drug Store across the street from the clinic, attended a recent open house and was happy that it was bringing in more foot traffic to the area.
He said many residents in the neighborhood have dogs and other pets, but veterinary hospitals were scarce. “Out this way, I can’t think of any place” besides the new SF SPCA clinic, he said.
Augustina Arellano, a pharmacy technician at the Central Drug Store, said, “I love that there’s a service for this community where there are lower-income families.”
The clinic has five exam rooms, a pharmacy and a treatment area. Inside the clinic entrance, a large mural covers an entire wall, showing the landscape of the neighborhood with dogs and cats in the center. The mural was made by students from the Youth Art Exchange, an arts organization in the Excelsior, SF SPCA officials said.
Robert Abedi brought in his 1-year-old goldendoodle, Happy, for her annual checkup and vaccinations on a recent Thursday. Happy, whose personality and energy live up to her name, jumped back and forth from Abedi’s lap to Valdez’s feet as the doctor asked Abedi general questions about the dog’s eating habits.
Though he doesn’t live in the Excelsior district, Abedi said he has been taking Happy to SFSPCA since she was a puppy and is “very pleased” with the providers and care there. He came to the Excelsior clinic because appointments had been booked at SF SPCA’s other locations.
“I’m happy they’re looking at the community’s needs,” he said.