Crowd welcomes Spay & Neuter Clinic

It's just as well there weren't actually any pets at the Middle Tennessee Spay & Neuter Clinic's ribbon cutting and open house Thursday afternoon -- even a teacup chihuahua would have had a hard time finding room.

Hundreds of people, including County Mayor Eugene Ray and State Sen. Jim Tracy, turned out for the event. The opening marks more than a year of hard work, dedication, donations and volunteerism to bring spaying and neutering services to low-income families.

"This is so needed," said one visitor.

The guests came from as far as Alabama. One woman who is hoping to open a similar service in Toney, Ala. was there with friends from SAAW -- the Southern Alliance for Animal Welfare. The founder, Sue Nylund, was there with the current president, Addie Hodges.

"We spay and neuter for people who can't afford it and we provide transportation." said Nylund. "They pay $20. We pay the rest of it and take the animals to the clinics for them." The opening of the Shelbyville clinic has been a godsend for the Fayetteville-based group, she said.

"We get pets from Coffee, Lincoln, Moore -- even from Alabama," she said. "We've been having to take them all the way to Lebanon,"

"They've already booked eight cats with us," said Michael Gregory of the Bedford County Animal Shelter, one of the driving forces behind getting MTSNC started. The clinic's veterinarian Megan Betzelberger, also a primary mover and shaker in the clinic's evolution, said they may soon be able to open Thursdays as well as Tuesdays.

Visitors at the open house were treated to refreshments, as well as a tour of the facilities, donated by Anna Wilhoite of Bookkeeping Express. The rooms which house the clinic are attached to her office at 738 North Main and comes with plenty of parking in the rear.

The clinic has a large waiting room, the walls filled with prints and paintings of animals, then a primary examination room, where Betzelberger looks at the animal to be spayed or neutered and determines if it is healthy enough.

"We had one with a heart murmur," she said in an earlier interview. "We couldn't do that one -- we don't want to put them at risk."

The tour led to a long, narrow room filled with cages. The dog cages are kept in one area, separate from the cat cages, to keep the stress level as low as possible for the animals waiting for surgery or recovering from it. The surgery itself is another long, narrow room, well lit and clean.

Creating the clinic has been a labor of love for all those involved, and couldn't have been done without community involvement, said Kimberly Warren, MTSNC president. Fundraising efforts will continue to help provide services to low income families, as well as to anyone adopting from a shelter who can provide papers verifying it.

"We are having a Chamber coffee on Feb. 23. That is Spay Day USA and we have scheduled the second annual 'Paws for a Cause' 5K Run/1 mile Fun Walk on March 20," she said. "It will start and end at the Courthouse. Animals are welcome to walk or run with those signed up. The cost is $20 a person."

For more information about the clinic, visit www.mtsnc.org or call 684-5353.