Sarah, a 5-year-old retriever mix, watched as the Veterinary Community Outreach Program revealed a mobile service to help dogs like her at shelters in North Florida.
The program, run by UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine, revealed a mobile surgical trailer Monday. Veterinary students will travel to shelters in rural North Florida to spay and neuter animals for free.
Brian DiGangi, a faculty clinician with the program, said the trailer was funded with $283,000 from PetSmart Charity and $80,000 from Petco Foundation, which provided a year’s worth of surgical supplies.
The mobile program will reach shelters that cannot bring animals to Gainesville, he said.
“It’s a huge burden for them to bring all the animals here,” DiGangi said.
For dogs like Sarah, getting spayed or neutered can help them get adopted, said Jenny Applebaum, the veterinary care manager for the program. She brought along the retriever mix to show how the service will help animals in shelters.
“Here’s one of our patients,” she said.
Ashley Benson, a third-year UF veterinary student, will be part of the first group of five to perform surgeries in the trailer. She said there’s no official start date for the services, but the trailer should be operational in the coming months.
She said she’s excited to participate.
“It allows us to go to shelters and assist them with procedures and operations that they otherwise don’t have access to,” the 29-year-old said.
