(Photo courtesy of Street Dog Hero)
This past weekend, Bend-based nonprofit, Street Dog Hero (SDH) hosted their largest low-cost spay and neuter clinic yet — providing services to 50 animals here in Central Oregon. Street Dog Hero, opened their first-ever veterinary suite at their facility in Bend in 2023 and has since opened their doors to the public by offering monthly low-cost spay and neuter surgeries for families seeking care in the Central Oregon area.
Since they opened these services to the public, over 300 families have registered their pets for low-cost services, showing an increased need for reduced cost veterinary services in Central Oregon.
Street Dog Hero’s Medical Manager Jaymie Friesner says, “With the cost of veterinary care going up every year, families are struggling. When it costs $700 to neuter a dog and you’re barely able to afford to pay your bills, it can be easy to put it off. But with shelters at the state that they are currently in, we can’t afford for people to put it off, especially due to money.”
Spaying and neutering is important because it keeps dogs and cats off the streets and out of our increasingly stretched thin shelter system. Nobody wants to continue to see the overcrowding crisis getting worse in our shelters and the only way to prevent that is by people spaying and neutering their animals.
Street Dog Hero is committed to making sure money isn’t a factor when deciding whether to spay or neuter their pet. Which is why they are offering these services at a low-cost to the public. These services are able to be provided thanks to the support and donations from the community.
Since they first began offering these services to the public in 2023, SDH has performed over 700 surgeries for local animals.
Any resident of Oregon can apply to sign up for their monthly low-cost spay/neuter clinics. If you are interested in signing up your dog or cat, you can register at streetdoghero.org.
About Street Dog Hero:
For over seven years, Street Dog Hero has been fulfilling its mission of helping end animal overpopulation by spaying and neutering owned and street dogs and cats around the world. To date, the organization has provided more than 9,142 free or reduced-rate spay/neuter and other wellness services to animals in Mexico as well as locally. They have also rescued over 3,655 dogs from more than a dozen countries like Mexico, South Korea, China, India, Bahamas, Armenia and right here in the United States and have found them forever homes. Street Dog Hero is making lasting positive changes in the lives of animals and their humans, working towards a world where all dogs are healthy, safe, cared for, and wanted.
SDH envisions a world where all dogs are healthy, safe, cared for, and wanted. Through this work, SDH makes a lasting impact on owned and street dogs and cats and the families that surround them.