A S.A.F.E. Haven for Unwanted Pets
Volume 2 Issue 1
April 1, 2008
Author: Dr. James Ziegler, Wolf River Veterinary Clinic
The Wolf River Veterinary Clinic is, for the most part, a general service companion animal practice. They see routine appointments, perform general surgery, see a variety of sick and injured pets, and try to meet the basic needs of their clients' companions.What makes them different from other clinics is that they also act as the local animal shelter for New London, Manawa, Shiocton, Hortonville and variety of local townships in Wisconsin. While every clinic deals with stray pets in some capacity, the Wolf River Veterinary Clinic has made it a major mission to help the local strays.
The clinics involvement with strays really began with a dog named Cece - a herding breed mix who had been intentionally shot twice in the face and left for dead. She was found by a local couple who tried desperately to get her help, but could find no resources to assist a severely injured stray. Cece ended up at the Wolf River Veterinary Clinic where she underwent extensive surgery and rehabilitation, and was ultimately adopted by a caring local family who went on to use her for a pet visitation program at a local nursing home.
The realization that stray pets in the area had few resources led to a cooperative effort with the city of New London to act as a shelter for their strays. As the clinic grew, so did its involvement with rescue work for homeless and unwanted pets.
About five years ago, realizing that the adoption program needed its own entity an employee named the project S.A.F.E. - an acronym for Stray Animal Fund Endeavor.
A separate account was set up for S.A.F.E., and any donations the clinic receives, adoption fees, etc. are put into this account and used for the care of strays. In an effort to maximize the use of the money S.A.F.E. receives, only material costs are billed to the account. All professional services are donated by the clinic staff.
Compared to other rescue organizations and humane societies, the number of animals S.A.F.E. cares for is relatively modest. It is, however, the clinic's mission to do their best at giving every pet a chance for a new life. This means utilizing the clinic's ability to do things other rescue organizations may not have the ability to do. For example, the clinic recently took in a young dog with both hind legs badly broken. Two hours of surgery were preformed to apply an external fixation system to the legs to align and stabilize the fractures. The dog faces about eight weeks of care and rehabilitation before he will be adopted out. Very few rescue organizations have the resources to care for special needs cases like this. In reality, cases like this are not unique to the clinic, and they often take on "projects" that otherwise may have resulted in a euthanasia.In addition to running the S.A.F.E. program, the clinic works closely with the Humane Society of Waupaca County and a variety of breed rescue organizations. Dr. James Ziegler, the owner of the clinic, also spays and neuters animals for the Oshkosh Area Humane Society in exchange for their help in placing some of the clinics strays. The clinic has a website (www.wrvet.com) that is regularly updated with information on pets that are ready for adoption.
The S.A.F.E. program is fortunate to have a number of people who regularly contribute to the need of the area's unwanted pets. Without this help, it would be difficult to make the program work.
The Wolf River Veterinary Clinic is proud to make rescue work one of their priorities. Dr. Ziegler points out that with all of the advances in veterinary medicine, we still cannot address the number one killer of pets - the senseless euthanasia of adoptable, but unwanted pets. Current technology allows us to do almost anything in veterinary medicine that is done in human medicine, and yet endless millions of pets are euthanized every year. Dr. Ziegler firmly believes that if veterinarians are not part of the solution then they are part of the problem. Good-will work and volunteerism, while seemingly on the decline, are essential to remedy the problem of unnecessary euthanasia. In the meantime, the areas strays have a S.A.F.E. HAVEN at the Wolf River Veterinary Clinic...