Without hesitation, Jennifer Brent says spay and neuter is the most important service the Sacramento SPCA offers the community.
“I think it’s the most powerful tool we have to limit pet overpopulation,” says Brent, who was recruited last year to head the SSPCA after CEO Kenn Altine retired.
Brent says the SSPCA is a national leader in spay/neuter, calling its 10,000-square-foot Zoe K. McCrea Animal Health Center “phenomenal.” The center performed more than 18,000 low- and no-cost spay/neuter surgeries in 2024.
Cinnabon is a cinnamon-colored pit bull, all muscle with a tongue that dangles from a smile stretching the limits of her wide jawbones.
Okapi, a solid black German shepherd, has gigantic puppy paws that, at 4 years old, she has yet to grow into. Tom is a senior—an 8-year-old mix of rottweiler, shepherd, perhaps a little pit bull.
All three dogs are gentle, calm and curious. They are ideal candidates to get out of the county animal shelter and walk a park trail, lounge on shaded grass, sneak favors on a restaurant patio—even for just one day.
The dog stood in front of a used tire shop in an industrial section of town. His gait was slow and weary over dirt and gravel. A cardboard box on a cement pad by the front door was his makeshift doghouse.
Filth gripped his ratty black and white fur. Twisted mats hung from his torso.
A passerby called 311 to report a loose dog in poor condition. A city animal control officer went out. He spoke to the dog’s owner and left—without the dog.
“We did go out and while it’s not the best setup for him, he does have access to the back area of the shop,” says Phillip Zimmerman, manager at the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter.
It started in the Galapagos 20 years ago. The first spay/neuter clinic was on Isabela Island. The first patient was a dog named Luna.
Today, Animal Balance deploys high-volume temporary MASH clinics (Mobile Animal Sterilization Hospitals) in 10 countries, including the United States.
In March, Sacramento hosted its first three-day MASH in partnership with Sacramento County’s Bradshaw Animal Shelter, converting a county-owned building at McClellan Park into a spay/neuter hospital.
A whale harpoon hangs on the reception area wall. A relic to prove a point: To change something bad, create something better.
“For thousands of years we harpooned whales to light our homes,” says Paul Shapiro, CEO of The Better Meat Co. “We didn’t stop because we care about whales. We stopped because kerosene was a cheaper way to light our house.”
Humans whipped horses to get from one place to another. That ended when cars were invented. Feathers were plucked from live geese for writing, until the metal fountain pen came along.
