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Event #50 Details
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Event # 50
Livingston, Montana
The Fixer Upper
September 12-14, 2003
Three day event
11 veterinarians: Dr. Mark Francis, Dr. Dave Weinandy,
Dr. Terry Yunker, Dr. Diana Scollard, Dr. Kristin Hollemans, Dr.
Sue Geske, Dr. Doug Rains, Dr. Connie van Luchene, Dr. Keith Farquar,
and from Livingston Dr. Duane Colmey and Dr. Jeff Dickerson
Total Dogs 178 (102 male, 76 female)
Total Cats 396 (168 male, 228 female)
Total Rabbits 4
Grand Total 578
Waiting List: over 69
Summary of the Count
Event # 50
Park County Fixer Upper
Livingston Montana
Park County Fairgrounds
September 12-14, 2003
3 day clinic
11 veterinarians: Dr. Mark Francis, Dave Weinandy, Terry Yunker,
Diana Scollard, Kristin Hollemans, Richard Dickerson, Sue Geske,
Doug Rains, Connie van Luchene, Duane Colmey, and Keith Farquar
Veterinarians for Day 1 : Drs. Mark Francis, Dave Weinandy, Terry
Yunker, Kristin Hollemans, Richard Dickerson(AM)
Day 1 Dogs 26 male 24 female Total 50
Cats 35 male 68 female Total 103
__________________________________
Day Total 153 + 4 rabbits
Veterinarians for Day 2 : Drs. Francis, Weinandy,
Yunker, Hollemans, Scollard, Rains (PM)
Day 2 Dogs 30 male 23 female Total 53
Cats 70 male 88 female Total 158
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Day Total 211
Veterinarians for Day 3 : Drs. Yunker, Weinandy,
Hollemans, Scollard, Sue Geske, Doug Rains, Connie van Luchene (1/2
day), Farquar (1/2 day)
Day 3 Dogs 46 male 29 female Total 75
Cats 63 male 72 female Total 135
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Day Total 210
Total Dogs 178
Total Cats 396
Total Rabbits 4
Grand Total 578
Waiting List: over 69
Not all owners answered all questions:
Litters past / present 87 (from 1 to 10 litters)
Animals whose Owners never sp/n before 202 (35%)
Sources:
Home Bred 115,
Originally stray 97 (20%),
Given 227,
Bought 55,
No Answer 84
Ages 1-4 months 177, 5-7 months 119, 8 months- 1 year 35, 1-3 years
116, 3-5 years 42, 6 years and older 22, 2 weeks 11, No answer 56
Towns represented by Animals
Belgrade 37
Big Timber 42
Bozeman 46
Gardiner 30
Grey Cliff 1
Harlotown 7
Clyde Park 22
Cook City 3
Deer Lodge 3
Emigrant 21
Gallatin Gateway 1
Three Forks 5
White Hall 2
Livingston 331
Manhattan 6
Pray 17
Roy 3
Springdal 3
Wylsall 9
Surgeries
Francis 43
Hollemans 48
Yunker 127
Weinandy 140
Dickerson 11
Geske 13
Farquar 10
Comey 5
Van Luchene 12
Scollard 99
Rains 12
Surgeries not signed 54
These photos were taken at Event #47 Missoula,
and Event #50 Livingston:
Set Up: The
"Stop Pet Over-Population Today" Van arrives with
the supplies |
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The van usually arrives the night before the
event.
The Task Force provides the supplies and equipment to set
up a spay / neuter clinic with up to 6 surgical tables! |
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When they arrive, the Task Force decides where to set everything
up.
The community provides plenty of clean bedding for the recovery
stations!
Note all the Thank-You posters recognizing the local businesses
who have supported this event. |
The Clinic Begins! |
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After being met in the parking lot by Greeters, pet owners
are directed to:
Check-In
Every animal must be signed in.
At the station, all animals are collared with permanent ID
tags, assigned tocrates, and put in line. All the dogs are
weighed.
(Feral cats are collared after knock-out!) |
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The Line -Up begins.
These volunteers keep the animals in the proper order on
their way to the Pre-Op Station. |
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Supervised children make excellent volunteers.
They will learn from this experience and fondly remember
"Pet Care Week".
This little girl worked her pants off! |
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Many people like to stay with their pets during the wait. |
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As they go down the line, volunteers clean the wait-crates,
to get them ready for the next animal.
This is Sandy Gibbs, a volunteer from Durango, Colorado.
She and her husband Dick spent their 40th wedding anniversary
volunteering at "The Fixer Upper" in Livingston!
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Pre-Op |
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In Pre-Op, the cats and dogs are knocked out by experienced
veterinary technicians and volunteers.
Jonathon Vernwald, shown here, has been working on Task Force
events since he was 12 years old. The first MTSNTF Clinic
was held at his home in Blackfeet County, Montana! |
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When the animals are unconscious, they are shaved, and
special eye drops are put in their eyes so they don't dry
up.
The cats are taped on to special operating "boats"
which they stay on from knock-out thru prep and surgery. |
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Next they are "scrubbed" several times with products
that sterilize the incision area.
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Elastic collars with ID tags are put on the wilder cats
at this time.
The paper work is kept with the animals at all times. When
you are fixing 100 cats a day, you don't want to forget who
is who,or mix up the black cats! |
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Once they are shaved and scrubbed, the animals are delivered
to the waiting veterinarians. |
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Bunnies await snippage. |
The Surgeries |
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The cat vets hard at work. |
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The dog vets hard at work.
Dr. Kristen Hollemans is being assisted in surgery by Livingston
City Commission Chair Vicki Blakeman. |
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The veterinarians work openly, in the same room where recovery
takes place.
This is what makes the clinic an educational demonstration.
People are welcome to observe the operations.
The vets are also nearby to assist if there are questions
in the recovery section. |
Sterilizing the Surgical
Instruments |
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Between surgeries, the surgical instruments are sterilized.
First, they are scrubbed and cleaned in a special solution. |
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After being washed, they are laid out and made up into packs
that contain these instruments and some surgical gauze. |
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The packs are then sterilized in an autoclave.
This is a non-stop job.
Autoclave volunteers are constantly collecting the used instruments,
cleaning them, re-packing them, putting them in the autoclave,
and delivering them to the vets! |
Recovery |
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Animals under the effects of anesthesia can not regulate
their body temperature, so they must be kept very warm. (Or
cool in very hot weather.)
This boy is laying "hot socks" (microwaved socks
filled with rice) along each side of the cats.
Then each cat is covered by a towel or blanket. |
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Animals in recovery get one-on-one attention.
These volunteers are under the supervision of an experienced
"Team Leader".
When they wake up and are breathing well, the cats are returned
to their crates. |
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The bedding is changed for every new animal. That is why
there is SO much laundry!!
Many pet owners assist in the recovery of their own animals.
Just look at this family!
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This cat had ear mites, so a volunteer is giving it ear drops. |
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Supervised children make excellent volunteers. They take
their jobs very seriously.
This Girl Scout troop observed a dog surgery, and then spent
the morning assisting in cat recovery. |
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Dog recovery takes place on the floor, where they can be
observed from head to tail.
It is a good idea to have a strong guy in dog recovery to
carry the unconscious dogs from pre-op to surgery, and from
the vet tables to the recovery area. |
Check-Out |
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When the animal is awake and the owner is ready to take
it home, the owner is given special after-care instructions.
This volunteer is making sure the owner understands the important
after-care information.
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What else is going
on? |
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Some of these clinics go 12 hours a day!
It's important to keep the vets, techs, and hardworking volunteers
fed.
The kitchen volunteers fix 3 meals a day, and keep snacks
out all day. |
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This lovely volunteer is Hillary Johnson. She not only
helped in the kitchen, she also designed and hosts this web
site!
Thanks Hillary!!
Hillary specializes in virtual tour web sites. Visit her
online at www.starweb360.com |
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It's great to have a massage therapist on hand to give
the veterinarians and vet techs breaks through out the day.
Fixing animals 12 hours a day can really be a pain in the
neck!
Sara Gibbs Cook, owner of Peace Thru Touch Massage Therapy
in Big Sky, donated one full day of her time at The Fixer
Upper.
Thanks Sally! |
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At the end of each day, a volunteer crew cleans up. |
Last Day -Tear Down |
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When all the gonads have been removed, and all the animals
have been taken home, there is still a lot of work to do!
Volunteers are needed to tear down the tables, clean the
building, and REPACK the van! |
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LIVINGSTON/PARK COUNTY, MONTANA - STAFFORD SHELTER
IMPACT STATISTICS
FOLLOWING ONE MONTANA SPAY/NEUTER TASK FORCE VISIT
May 10, 2004
I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS:
A large community pet care/spay/neuter event was held September
12-14, 2003 at the Park County Fairgrounds. One hundred seventy-eight
dogs and 396 cats were sterilized. A total of 574 animals were spayed
or neutered. Most cats and dogs were taken into the local Stafford
Shelter from May to October each year. From time to time, there
were sharp increases in animals taken in when many cats from one
source (hoarder cases) were delivered to the Shelter, and some variations
in intake were noted from month to month (see figure 1).
For these reasons, any comparisons of the impact of the clinic
should take into account seasonal variations in both animals taken
in or destroyed, random variations in monthly totals, and a correction
for the arrival of an especially large number of cats in October
2002. The Shelter began taking in animals in early 1999. Our analysis
is based on monthly records from January, 2000 to March of 2004.
II. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
In the years 2000 to 2003, the average number of cats and dogs taken
into the Stafford Shelter was 993 animals. Fifty-two percent of
the animals taken in were cats. In 2003, a drop of 10% in animals
taken in was observed when compared to the 3 previous years. A drop
of 13% was observed between 2002 and 2003. These differences were
significant at beyond the .001 level. Whereas the intake of dogs
and cats were similar, the number of cats destroyed outnumbered
dogs by 4 to 1 ( 79 to 21). Of the 3,972 animals taken into the
Shelter from January 2000 to December 2003, 710 were destroyed (18%).
In 2003, a 15% drop in the number of animals destroyed was observed
compared to the three previous years. However, the number of animals
destroyed varied considerably from month to month and year to year.
III. IMPACT STATISTICS
A. The impact of the spay/neuter event
on the number of animals taken in and destroyed at the Shelter was
quite significant. In comparing the immediate impact of the animals
taken in one month and two months (combined) after the spay/neuter
event compared to one month and two months before the event, a drop
of 34% and 25% respectively was observed. (P>.001 in both instances).
B. Correcting for both seasonal and random variations in
intake, a significant decrease was found over the six month period
after the event. If we compare only the year immediately before
the event (2002) with the 6 months after the event, we see a marked
decrease in intake after one month of 48% and an average drop of
33% from 2 to 6 months. However, if we compare the average of the
3 years before the event with the 6 months after the event, we find
the drop in intake, though impressive, is less. After one month,
the drop is 37% and from the 2nd to the 6th month an average drop
of 23% was observed. Some of the effect is due to the large influx
of cats in October 2002. In that month about 110 cats were brought
into the shelter from the same source (a court case) resulting in
a larger than typical drop in intake for succeeding years. Therefore,
by averaging the number of cats for the other 11 months in 2002,
we arrive at a conservative, lower and a more reliable estimate
of the impact upon the intake of all animals. Corrected for seasonal
and random variations and an influx of cats from one source, the
decrease in intake is still quite substantial (see figure 2).
At one month, the drop is 27.6%; at 2 months, 19%; at 3 months,
18%; at 4 months 21%, at 5 months and at 6 months after the event,
the drop is 18%. (P>.001 and P>.01 in all cases)
C. The number of animals destroyed is quite variable and much smaller
in total. Correcting for seasonal and random variations only (cats
destroyed varied widely from month to month), the number of animals
destroyed shows no drop for the first month. At 2 months, the drop
is 21%; at 3 months, 19%; at 4 months, 13%; at 5 months, 24%, and
at 6 months after the event the drop is 21%. None of the changes
(decreases) for the months one to four reached significance (P>.05)
due to a low number of cases and large variability. At both 5 months
and 6 months after the event, the number of animals destroyed reached
significance (P>.02). (See figure 3)
D. There are no estimates of the costs of handling and destroying
animals at the Park County Shelter. However, the costs of handling
one animal is estimated to be $125 per animal at the Billings Animal
Shelter and the cost of destroying one animal was $55 per animal.
For the 6 month period after the spay/neuter event, compared to
the averages of the 6 month period from 2000, 2001, and 2002, there
was a drop in intake of 80 animals and a drop in animals destroyed
of 22 animals. This would result in an estimated cost saving of
$11,210 for 6 months.
E. In summary, the impact of the large,
community spay/neuter event in September 2003 brought about a significant
decrease in the number of animals taken into the Shelter. The immediate
impact was a 34% to a 25% drop in intake. When corrected
for attenuating circumstances, after one month the decrease in intake
was 27%, and over the remaining 6 month period after the event,
the drop in intake averaged 19%. At six months the drop was 18%.
Due to the small number of animals destroyed and the variation each
month, the impact on the number of animals destroyed is not reliable.
However, the decrease in animals destroyed follows a similar pattern
as animals taken in, dropping for the 6 month period after the event
on the average of 19% to 20%. At 6 months, there was a significant
drop in the number of animals destroyed of 21%. An estimate of the
cost-savings for the 6 months period after the event was approximately
$11,000.
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