Animal Welfare Professionals

We're in a rural area, and although we have two vets they are very expensive and many in our community work for minimum wage.  We do have a very low-cost option about an hour away, and we have plans to team up with that organization to bring an animal transport vehicle to our area.  The idea is that people would sign up in advance, would meet the transport van and team in the morning at a designated location, then we'd take their animals down and return them the next day. 

We have already discussed possible challenges:  People not picking up their pets on return day, surgery complications, no-shows, etc.   

Has anyone else done this before?  Most importantly, was it successful and sustainable?  Any major issues?  Would love input and advice!

I have not had personal experience with a transport program but two of the spay/neuter clinics in my area do run transport programs and I'm sure they would share with you what challenges they have seen.  One is the Feral Cat Project in Lynnwood, Washington, Phone: 425-673-CATS (2287), email Questions@feralcatproject.org.  The other is Northwest Spay Neuter Clinic in Tacoma, Washington, (253) 627-7729 (SPAY), email info@nwspayneuter.org.  Hope this helps and good luck with your transport program. 

Thank you everyone for your input.  I will definitely be reaching out to the two organizations above to see what advice they can offer .  We're hoping to do our first run the end of June so I'll update then   Wow, we think an hour away to get to vet was a long distance, but I guess we should be thankful we have that....

We too live in a more rural area, and our present vet is 70 miles away.  So we usually wait until we have enough pets to make the trip worth our time and funding.  The drives is usually a person who works at the shelter and understand the necessary paperwork that is completed at the time of vaccinations, spays/neuters, etc.

However, as our vet nears retirement, we are especially concerned with the cost of the procedures as our current vet has given us very good rates.  Not sure what others do in this situation?

We handle no-shows and short notice cancellation in a way that we fill the opening with shelter animals that are awaiting surgery. I actually established the relationship between the clinic and the shelter. In return the shelter vet helps to fix TNR cats that can not be timed with a clinic date.