A desire to save animals has led to a lower-cost way to keep the animal population under control.
It's a quiet day at Spay N Save. These cats are the lucky ones. They have owners who brought them in to be fixed.
Executive Director Phyllis Ayoob knows others aren't so lucky.
"Our mission is to save healthy animals from being killed at shelters by doing high-volume, low-cost spay neuter," Ayoob said.
When we visited, the 3-year-old Longwood clinic was performing spay-neuter No. 21,000. The clinic has a full-time veterinarian and a part-time veterinarian.
"We do anywhere from 35 to 40 a day, sometimes as many as 50 depending on how many employees we have that day and how many animals come in," Ayoob said.
Ayoob has been involved with animal rescue for more than two decades and knows adoptions alone can't solve the problem of animal overpopulation. Since the clinic opened, there has been a noticeable drop in the number of animals coming to the county shelters, but many animals are still being put down.
"Animal services is still putting down about 75 percent of the cats that go in there and 25-30 percent of the dogs, so there is still a big issue in our area," Ayoob said.
Spay N Save is funded primarily by grants. A portion from the sale of each spay neuter license plate goes back to local organizations, like Spay N Save.
To keep medical costs affordable, the clinic runs monthly specials and partners with 25 to 30 rescue groups trying to make sure that any animals born will have a home and not a death sentence.
"We knew it was a necessary thing that was needed, but we are kind of amazed that we've been this successful," Ayoob said.
The nonprofit organization charges fees well below most vets, and there are programs to help low-income owners, too.
For more information, go to www.spaynsave.org.