Thank you so much for the encouragement! It's just the tip of the iceberg, but better than nothing. And thank you for your offer as support or advice to our vet team! I may take you up on that. :) When we pick up our cats, our vets often tell us they speutered 50 cats that day. That's not counting the dogs!
I once approached a local low cost spay/neuter group about the possibility of asking the vets, on a voluntary basis, once a month or a few times a year to spay/neuter at no charge. We would purchase or through donations acquire surgical equipment/supplies, disposables, medications, ask manufacturers to donate the vaccines, anesthesia, etc. and utilize the more expensive equipment they already have, covering whatever costs. I was baffled at the chilly response as we asked them to join us in what we as volunteers do every day with zero compensation and at personal expense. Any thoughts? THANK YOU!
Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2026 12:02 PM
From: Brian DiGangi
Subject: Community Conversations - 03/16/2026 - Supporting Pediatric Spay Neuter
Wow - glad you found that...you are doing incredible work, under some very challenging circumstances. And, it's clear you are making a difference. Please feel free to reach out if I can provide any support or advice to you or your hard-working vet team that might help enhance efficiency on the medical side of things!
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Brian DiGangi
Director of Professional Development
EveryPet
Jacksonville
Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2026 08:17 AM
From: Jan Leonard
Subject: Community Conversations - 03/16/2026 - Supporting Pediatric Spay Neuter
Hello everyone! I apologize for joining the conversation a bit late. I've been catching up on my email subscription to Maddie's Pet Forum. I've had the chance to review the PDF of your PowerPoint presentation, and I'm grateful for that. I'm looking forward to watching the actual presentation soon. Thank you so much for sharing this valuable presentation and topic with us. I'm happy to connect with all of you!
Thanks to Sheila with Maddie's for helping me find my post I saved as a draft & then couldn't find. Awesome lady!
I'd like to share some background information from the South, specifically Louisiana: I've been volunteering as a TNR trapper for 8 years. I'm based in Clinton, Louisiana, in the small, rural parish (="county" to the rest of the USA) of East Feliciana. I founded BACKWOODS TNR, an all-volunteer 501(c)3 nonprofit on February 9th, 2024, to try to tackle the significant community cat overpopulation challenge in our area. Our mission is to leverage our nonprofit status to secure discounts and funding that will support our TNR efforts. Unfortunately, our parish government, the Police Jury in Clinton, lacks the resources to fund animal welfare initiatives due to our limited tax base.
According to the Census Bureau, as of July 1st, 2024, our parish has a population of 19,112 with a poverty rate of 18.4%. Google's AI tool, Gemini, indicates that Louisiana's poverty rate was 18.7% in 2024, with Louisiana and Mississippi ranking among the highest poverty rates nationally for 2023-2025.
Our parish has very limited resources, with only two veterinary clinics available. We have no animal shelter or dedicated animal services. Our two veterinarians are exceptional and committed to their work, but they primarily serve companion animals. They're not equipped to handle feral community cats, and their costs are prohibitive for our needs. Additionally, there's a practical limit to how many spay and neuter surgeries one veterinarian can perform daily. East Feliciana borders East Baton Rouge Parish, home to Louisiana's capital. Baton Rouge is a large metropolitan area with abundant animal resources, and the surrounding parishes are similarly well-equipped. However, we're unable to access most of these services due to residency requirements that limit assistance to parish residents. Ironically, even areas overflowing with animal welfare resources and often, tax dollars, are also overwhelmed with animals, running at and often significantly over capacity. TNR wait times can be weeks or months. BACKWOODS TNR's preferred clinic often operates with a 2-3 month wait time during peak periods.
There are two other non-residency spay and neuter clinics in nearby parishes with reasonable pricing, but they require significant travel distances. Fortunately, BACKWOODS TNR has secured discounts from a nonprofit low-cost spay and neuter clinic in Baton Rouge, located 45 minutes away, which is our preferred partner. We've established a standing appointment for 16 cats weekly on Mondays and Thursdays, weather permitting. Our capacity is limited by competition with other animal shelters seeking spay and neuter services for larger numbers of animals. A new animal shelter recently opened in nearby Livingston Parish, complete with another nonprofit low-cost spay and neuter clinic offering free TNR services. We're hopeful that a city animal shelter in Livingston will utilize these new facilities, potentially freeing up spay and neuter appointments at our current clinic if they transition their services. Last year, BACKWOODS TNR TNR'd 329 cats, bringing our total to 742 cats. Our goal is to TNR over 400 cats in 2026. We've received two grants so far: $850 from the Louisiana Pet Overpopulation Advisory Council through animal-friendly license plate sales and $800 from Walmart in Zachary, Louisiana. Our community support has grown, and we're pleased to report that we're self-funded so far in 2026. When we lack funds of our own, we utilize TNR vouchers from a Baton Rouge based nonprofit covering 6 surrounding parishes. Although eternally grateful, we're limited to the number of vouchers we can receive at one time. Self funding removes those restrictions an allow us the flexibility needed to TNR as many cats per week as we can. Due to our nonprofit status, we've been approved for a no cost Google Workspace and are in the process of creating a website using Google Sites. Currently, we're only on Facebook.
I'm sharing these detailed insights to illustrate the real challenges of community cat TNR and animal welfare in our southern parish. While I'm not an expert, I hope my time in the trenches allows me to offer meaningful perspectives from the South.
We have a huge problem with stray dogs and cats. We're overwhelmed with free roaming, breeding animals. East Feliciana is very rural with large swaths of undeveloped areas: gravel roads, often without street lights, wooded areas & agricultural areas. Homesteads can be small lots up to acres of land. Many residents report animals being dumped as well as people moving and abandoning both cats and dogs. I see community cat colonies from a few cats, 10-15 up to 60 in many areas. Sightings of stray dogs are a daily occurrence. We have no place to take them. Exacerbating the problem are "free kittens" on Facebook. I try to intervene when I can begging to let me speuter before adoption. I'm mostly successful, but can't monitor so many posts for "free kittens". Those "free kittens" inevitably breed in numerous new locations because they are not speutered, adding significantly to existing overpopulation and increasing our costs.
Large groups of kind and compassionate residents feed & care for our community cats. Typically, it is a stray cat or two that shows up, often tame as well as feral and next thing you know, there are 10-15+ cats, where early intervention would prevent breeding. The problem is a lack of resources for spay/neuter as well as affordability. One problem I see, which is a problem we all face, is that people will "rescue" the kittens, but not spay the mama cat, who is often already pregnant again. There are far more animals than we'll ever find homes for. Another glaring problem is the number of companion animals that are not speutered, which inevitably reproduce too quickly to keep up and the result is our overpopulation of feral and friendly feral community cats. When I began TNR, and the reason I did 8 years ago, is a neighbor fed a stray cat, giving birth to a litter of kittens. I found out when cats started showing up at my house. When I intervened, there was a colony of 40 cats, mostly calicos (groan).
BACKWOODS TNR operates regularly with 200+ cats on our wait list & now, mostly by referrals. We promote and advocate heavily for TNR/spay/neuter, attempting to reach as many as possible to spread the word. Our community cat caretakers are grateful for TNR and continue to care for the cats after. We see many low income families caring for the cats as well.
Other surrounding parishes receive Bissell grants and fly both dogs & cats out to northern states, but this doesn't help us at all because those facilities won't take out of parish animals. Some residents will send animals to these facilities by using an in parish address, even though the animals are from out of parish. Personally, I don't approve of this practice. Here are a few reasons why: 1) It's discriminatory in nature. Because these folks fly "under the radar", not all our residents know or can participate. They can't exactly advertise they're sneaking in out of parish animals 2) It increases the number of animals in another parish, increasing their chances for grants & donations. 3) The needs in East Feliciana parish are hidden. The animals are counted toward an outside parish. 4) It's unfair to the outside parish residents, who often donate and provide tax dollars to support their shelter. They end up paying for outside parish's animals too without their knowledge. As a side note, I once trapped for a qualified resident in a Parish offering TNR to residents and couldn't get in. That day's TNR of 50 cats was 75% out of parish, while my in-parish resident was shut out of a service his tax dollars supports. A direct result of other areas, like mine, without resources siphoning off from qualified residents in another Parish.
In closing, and on a very high level, our challenges are due to: 1) Lack of resources 2) Lack of funding 3) Lack of affordable spay/neuter. Even low cost spay/neuter can be unaffordable if you've got 50-60 cats or even just a handful for some low income residents. BACKWOODS TNR offers our services at no charge to our residents, but we still need funds to pay for speuter 4) Lack of animal welfare awareness/education, especially spay/neuter. Is this a cultural thing? Aggressive TNR/spay/neuter is THE SOLUTION! If all animals are speutered, we wouldn't have huge community cat and dog overpopulation. I know I'm preaching to the choir here.
Back to the original topic: We speuter at 2 months 2 pounds. Our kittens trend toward undersized for their age, so we rely on our vets to determine whether to speuter. Why? Nutrition, inbreeding, genetics?
Thanks again for sharing this valuable presentation and topic! I really appreciated the comments mentioning the challenges we face here in the rural south as we often feel unseen in our spay/neuter work.
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Jan Leonard
President/Chief Cat Wrangler
Backwoods TNR
LA
Original Message:
Sent: 03-16-2026 02:36 PM
From: Brian DiGangi
Subject: Community Conversations - 03/16/2026 - Supporting Pediatric Spay Neuter
Hi @Julia Clodfelter!
Interesting question - I'm not sure I know the answer definitively. However, I will make an educated guess that it has to do with a few different factors.
There's generally less access to veterinary care and spay-neuter overall in rural areas and the South has a lot more rural spaces than other regions of the country. This region also historically (and compared to other regions) has a greater proportion of people living in lower socioeconomic brackets, which we know is associated with decreased proportions of sterilized pets. Additionally, particularly in the North and Northeastern parts of the country, spay-neuter has been a key component of animal welfare efforts for a lot longer and at a much greater volume than it has been in the South. There could also be some cultural differences as well - perhaps historically more working dogs (herding, guarding, etc.) whose caretakers want to keep them intact to perform "better" (whether that's real or perceived :). Some of those ideas probably spill into a lot of these dog families today, contributing to some hesitation, even if the animals are more typical pets.
Would love to hear from others who may know more or have better ideas on this!
-BD
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Brian DiGangi
Director of Professional Development
First Coast No More Homeless Pets
FL
Original Message:
Sent: 03-16-2026 01:11 PM
From: Community Conversations
Subject: Community Conversations - 03/16/2026 - Supporting Pediatric Spay Neuter
Unanswered question from the chat:
"Do we know what it is about the southern region that results in less spay/neuter? Is it law-related?" - @Julia Clodfelter
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Community Conversations
Community Conversations Committee
Maddie's Fund
CA
Original Message:
Sent: 03-09-2026 04:55 PM
From: Sheila Kouhkan
Subject: Community Conversations - 03/16/2026 - Supporting Pediatric Spay Neuter
Updated 3/16/26 at 12:53 pm - Recording now available to watch on-demand!
Enter here for a chance to win the March Community Conversations giveaway after watching live or on-demand.
Please note: All views expressed on these calls are not necessarily endorsed by Maddie's Fund.
We hope to see you on the next Maddie's Community Conversation on Monday, March 16, 2026 at 11am PT / 2pm ET for a conversation on "Supporting Pediatric Spay Neuter" with Dr. @Brian DiGangi.
In this conversation, we'll explore the current state of spay-neuter and its relationship with animal shelters and accessible veterinary care. This session will review what we know about the impact and safety of pediatric spay-neuter and highlight operational tips and tricks for success in the clinic.
Led by Dr. Brian DiGangi, a veterinarian board certified in Shelter Medicine Practice with over a decade of experience teaching and performing HQHVSN, this speaker brings both expertise and compassion to the discussion.
This session is ideal for animal welfare professionals, veterinary staff, and community outreach teams who want to deepen their understanding of spay-neuter, why it's important to prioritize pediatric patients in spay-neuter programs, and how to handle these most vulnerable patients with skill and safety.
🔑 Key Takeaways:
Focusing on pediatric spay-neuter services is a key component of a successful community animal welfare improvement plan.
Pediatric spay-neuter can be conducted safely in a shelter or HQHVSN clinic setting.
Don't forget! Maddie's Fund will be giving away up to $10,000 in grants each month! You can enter for a chance to win each time you attend a call or watch it on demand during the month by completing the monthly giveaway drawing entry form.
Register for Community Conversations hosted via Zoom.
🧠Got Topic or Speaker Suggestions?
We want to hear your ideas! If there's a topic you're curious about or a speaker you'd love to hear from, please share your suggestions with us on our Community Conversations Suggestions thread.
Looking forward to being in community with you!
#AccesstoCare
#EducationandTraining
#Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization
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Sheila Kouhkan
Senior Education Specialist
Maddie's Fund
CA
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