LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Woodstock Spay and Neuter Clinic is offering crucial services at an affordable price to help alleviate overcrowding in shelters.

What You Need To Know

  •  Animal shelters and rescues are facing overcrowding issues

  •  Neutering and spaying animals helps to reduce the amount of animals that end up in shelters

  •  The Woodstock Spay and Neuter Clinic offers this service at a lower cost than several other vet clinics

  • Staff and volunteers are working to help with the overpopulation problem

Linda Gafranek, the clinic manager, spends her days at the clinic completing several duties.

“Between doing my clinic tasks, I’m also checking emails, checking Facebook, processing adoption applications, talking to foster parents if they have any type of medical issues with their fosters, I’m the main contact for that,” said Gafranek.

Gafranek has always been an animal lover, and that love transformed into a passion for helping animals in need. She stays busy throughout the day, and even works from home after her shift is over.

“I absolutely adore them and I would do anything in the world for them,” said Gafranek.

She started volunteering at the clinic ten years ago and was hired on after a few months. The clinic offers several services.

“Two days a week, we do have volume spay and neuter,” said Gafranek. “Five days a week, we see clients. We do both sick and well visits. We also have one day a week that we do vaccine only appointments to try to make vaccines more affordable for those in the community.”

The spay and neuter services at the clinic are considerably less expensive than many other clinics in Lexington.

“Unfortunately, there are not a lot of places that offer affordable spay and neuter and so there are a lot of animals that are not fixed, and the result is unwanted litters of puppies,” said Gafranek.

Because the cost of spaying and neutering animals can be a hefty bill, people avoid taking their animals in for the surgery. It is for this reason that shelters and rescues are at max capacity.

“Evrerybody’s full, everybody is overwhelmed,” said Gafranek, “and they just keep coming out of the woodwork.”

Gafranek believes there is a solution to this problem.

“Spay and neuter is absolutely the only way that we will ever get on top of the overpopulation here in Kentucky,” said Gafranek.

However, dealing with this issue is a marathon, not a sprint, but Gafranek believes animals deserve love and care.

“These babies didn’t choose the life that they get,” said Gafranek, “and that makes me sad for them. All we can do is do our best by them.”

Each staff member and volunteer sets out to do just that every day they report to the clinic.

For information on volunteering and donating to the Woodstock Spay and Neuter Clinic, check out their website. 

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