In October 2023, Peggy McCarthey was driving home from Nashville to Atlanta with United Spay Alliance's virtual conference playing in the car. Four and a half hours later, she knew she wanted to bring USA's hands-on wet lab training to Georgia. In this episode, she sits down with USA Executive Director Brianna Lovell Myers to talk about what happened next. A question card she turned in at a DeKalb County event led to a phone call. That call led to county funding. Within a year, a long list of partners was working together: Commissioner Michelle Long Spears, LifeLine Animal Project, the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association, and expert surgeon instructors Dr. Mary Elizabeth Ellard and Dr. Emi Kooyman. Together they launched Georgia's first wet lab, followed by the nation's first canine wet lab.

Seven trainings and 26 veterinarians later, the idea has spread well beyond DeKalb, with clinics across the state hosting their own labs and waitlists growing. Peggy describes how the Georgia Pet Coalition is taking on the veterinary shortage from three directions: training the vets already practicing, passing student loan relief for shelter and nonprofit vets, and easing licensing for out-of-state vets. She also explains what she's learned as a volunteer advocate. Lawmakers don't need you to be an expert. They need you to be a resource. The episode ends with a powerful example of upstream prevention paying off: DeKalb County is increasing its free spay/neuter vouchers sixfold.

• How listening to a virtual conference on a road trip turned into a statewide training program
• "Getting another inch out of an opportunity," and how one county meeting led to both an ordinance and wet lab funding
• The partners behind Georgia's first wet labs, and why the instructors are the linchpin
• The story behind the first-in-the-nation canine wet lab, including a 100-pound patient
• The domino effect: how other clinics around Georgia have adapted the model for in-service training, relief vet recruitment, and public sessions
• Georgia Pet Coalition's three-part approach to the veterinary shortage
• Why passing a law is only half the battle, and what implementation really takes
• How post-surgery debriefs teach vets about shelter overpopulation and the best age to spay and neuter
• A quick look at USA's Feline Fix by Five campaign
• Peggy's advocacy recipe: collaborate, educate lawmakers, make incremental progress, and let opportunities emerge
• Why coalitions win campaigns
• A full-circle mentorship story that shows how one vet's training multiplies
• How DeKalb County went from 1,000 to 6,000 free spay/neuter vouchers
• Peggy's one takeaway for listeners who want to start advocating locally

• Georgia Pet Coalition
• United Spay Alliance HQHVSN Wet Labs
• Feline Fix by Five
• LifeLine Animal Project
• United Spay Alliance

Karen Slomba went "from football to felines." She left a career promoting concerts and producing sports TV, started volunteering at an animal shelter, and was soon running it. Watching so many kittens arrive with nowhere to go convinced her that prevention was the only real answer. In 2020, when the pandemic cut spay/neuter to a trickle, she and fellow Florida shelter leaders started sending vet teams to each other's shelters. That grew into Slomba Shelter Solutions, which now brings weekend pop-up surgery teams to shelters and clinics in most states.

Karen and host Brianna Lovell Myers talk frankly about veterinary recruitment. Vets hold the cards now, and a job description isn't an ad, so shelters have to market themselves the way adopters meet a FeLV-positive cat: let them fall in love first. They also cover the new wet lab partnership between Slomba and United Spay Alliance. It uses "high quality, high efficiency" framing to bring in private practice vets, so that communities can clear their own backlogs for good.

Karen closes with advice for anyone who wants to work in animal welfare but doesn't think they're qualified: don't talk yourself out of it.

• Why "turning off the faucet" beats mopping up the floor

• How a pandemic workaround became a national spay/neuter relief service

• What vet recruitment really takes now, from salary to four-day weeks

• Why your job description isn't your recruitment ad

• How "high efficiency" framing brings private practice vets on board

• The math on doing five or six surgeries an hour without losing money

• New national funding for spay/neuter from the ASPCA, Bissell, and the Duffield Foundation

• Karen's advice for career changers with a heart for animals

• Slomba Shelter Solutions

• Slomba Shelter Solutions on Facebook

• United Spay Alliance HQHVSN Wet Labs

• United Spay Alliance State Leader Network

• Trap Dat Cat

• Haven on Earth Animal League

• 2026 ASPCA Grants for Shelters and Spay/Neuter Clinics

Dr. Becky Morrow's path into shelter medicine started with a flash drive full of old photos and a memory that still gives her chills: the first time she saw a high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter clinic in action back in 2006. Private practice had never quite fit, and once she saw that clinic run, she was hooked. She went on to found Frankie's Friends Cat Rescue in 2010 in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, after helping care for more than 400 cats rescued from Tiger Ranch, a large-scale hoarding facility — and has since performed tens of thousands of spay/neuter surgeries herself while training hundreds of veterinarians and vet students in the technique.

In this conversation with host Brianna Lovell Myers, Dr. Morrow talks about what actually separates high-quality, high-volume work from "cutting corners" — smaller incisions, faster recovery, and a team-centered model where technicians and assistants are trained just as thoroughly as the vets. She shares the story behind Frankie's Friends' two-day CE training program, a four-day, 325-surgery field clinic in Puerto Rico that trained 40 local team members alongside the surgeries themselves, and a rare cardiac condition in young cats she's now studying with a cardiologist and pathologist simply because her clinic sees enough volume to notice the pattern. She also makes the case that impact doesn't require going all-in: general practitioners who add just a handful of extra spay/neuter surgeries to their weekly schedule can meaningfully move the needle on community cat overpopulation, since roughly 80% of kittens entering shelters trace back to that population.

• How a single 2006 clinic visit reshaped Dr. Morrow's entire career path into shelter medicine

• The real difference between high-volume spay/neuter and "cutting corners" — and why her outcomes often beat general practice

• Inside the two-day Frankie's Friends CE training model, including its team-centered, not vet-centered, approach

• The story of a 325-surgery, four-day field clinic in Puerto Rico that trained 40 local veterinary team members

• Why Pennsylvania and Maine's licensing reciprocity rules make them easier states for visiting vets to train and practice in

• A rare cardiac condition in young cats that Dr. Morrow is now researching, discovered only because of her clinic's surgical volume

• Why community practices don't need to go high-volume to make an impact — and what "just add five" surgeries a week can do

• Dr. Morrow's "Just Add Five" presentation from the 2025 United Spay Alliance Conference, available online for anyone who wants the full talk

• Dr. Morrow's own path to developing her surgical technique largely self-taught, with mentorship from Dr. Donna Hughes

• Frankie's Friends Humane: https://www.frankies-friends.org/

• United Spay Alliance: https://unitedspayalliance.org/

Angela Chapman, Temma Martin, and Brandi Winkleman each run a spay/neuter clinic they built from nothing — and each got there a different way. For Angela, it was a for-sale sign on a building in Lebanon, Tennessee, that grew into New Leash on Life's JOY Clinic. For Temma, it was buying a mid-century building in Millcreek, Utah, on a leap of faith that became Operation Pawpulation. For Brandi, it was a friend calmly describing the day's euthanasia list — a moment that eventually turned into A HOPE, Inc., built on 25 acres cleared by hand in Milton, Florida. Different starting points, same conclusion: adoption alone couldn't solve the overpopulation problem, and prevention had to come first.

This replay of a live panel from the 2025 United Spay Alliance conference follows all three through the real work of getting a clinic open and keeping it running — fundraising that ranged from major donors to donation cans at gas stations, pricing services so they stay accessible without draining the budget, and the licensing, staffing, and compliance realities that never make it into the mission statement. Between an established shelter-based program, a startup still building out its hours, and a clinic nearly a decade in the making, the panel offers three working models for anyone trying to figure out which one fits their own community.

• The "aha moments" that pushed each panelist to leave the sidelines and start a clinic

• Why prevention — not adoption — has to be the centerpiece of the strategy

• Real numbers: what each clinic charges for dogs, cats, and TNR/community cat surgeries

• Creative, low-cost fundraising ideas, including how $700 in donation-can change kept a MASH clinic running

• The case for program-based budgeting so your board can see which programs strain the organization financially

• Mobile vs. MASH vs. brick-and-mortar: how to figure out which delivery model actually fits your community

• The behind-the-scenes business realities of opening a clinic — Department of Agriculture registration, OSHA compliance, insurance, and staffing a team that isn't a vet office, a TNR group, or a shelter

• Why storytelling and messaging (not just line-item asks) drive donations

• Honest talk about how many technicians and support staff each clinic runs per veterinarian

• A reminder that you are not alone — and why finding your own support network matters as much as any spreadsheet

• New Leash on Life & The JOY Clinic: newleashonline.org

• Operation Pawpulation: operationpawpulation.org

• A HOPE, Inc. & Snip Happens Clinic: ahopemilton.com

• United Spay Alliance: unitedspayalliance.org

Steve Tennant has spent more than 25 years advocating for animals in West Virginia — work that eventually led him to the board of the Federation of Humane Organizations of West Virginia (FOHO WV), which has been fighting for a statewide spay/neuter program since its founding in 1993. Getting there required years of grassroots lobbying at the state legislature, navigating unfunded laws, and waiting for the right political moment. That moment came in 2017, when a new agriculture commissioner read FOHO's white paper and went to bat for the program. The West Virginia Spay and Neuter Assistance Program officially launched in 2018 at $450,000 — half of what was needed, but enough to start — funded entirely by a surcharge on pet food manufacturer fees, not taxpayer dollars.

Seven years in, the results are undeniable. More than 85,000 animals have been spayed or neutered, shelter intake numbers are declining statewide, and an anonymous private donor contributed over $4 million to bring the program to full funding. A 2027 sunset provision was successfully removed this past legislative session. With 85+ organizations applying for grants across all 55 counties and seven spay/neuter clinics operating statewide, West Virginia has become a national model — proof that persistence, smart funding, and the right allies can turn decades of advocacy into a program that delivers real results.

• The story of Steve's 2007 weekly rescue drives to a central West Virginia gas chamber shelter — and how that experience set the course for everything that followed

• How the fight to ban gas chambers and the fight for a statewide spay/neuter program ran in parallel, and why winning one cleared the path for the other

• The founding of FOHO WV in 1993 and the original vision that took nearly three decades to fully realize

• What grassroots lobbying actually looks like: years of legislative visits until the statehouse staff knows you by name and knows why you're there

• How the right agriculture commissioner in 2017 changed everything — and why white papers and relationships matter in policy advocacy

• The pet food manufacturer surcharge funding model: how West Virginia built a program that costs the average taxpayer nothing

• A breakdown of how the voucher program works: grantee organizations, grant cycles, direct payment to vets and spay/neuter clinics from the Department of Agriculture

• 85,000+ animals served in seven years, with declining statewide shelter intake numbers as proof the program is working

• The fight to remove the 2027 sunset provision, and why long-term program security matters as much as annual funding

• How an anonymous $4+ million private donation doubled the program budget — and demonstrated that proven results attract private investment

• Rural access realities in West Virginia: seven clinics dispersed statewide, volunteer drivers making two- and three-hour trips, and a shortage of vets that advocates are navigating with dedication

• Why cats dominate the numbers in West Virginia's program — and how TNR practitioners are taking advantage of the voucher system

• West Virginia's pre-adoption spay/neuter requirement and how it complements the voucher program to close population gaps

• Whether a model like this can scale to larger states — and Steve's direct, optimistic answer

• How to connect with FOHO WV and the West Virginia Spay and Neuter Assistance Program if you want to replicate or adapt this model in your own state

Resources from this episode:

• Federation of Humane Organizations of West Virginia (FOHO WV)

• West Virginia Spay and Neuter Assistance Program (WVSNP) — WV Department of Agriculture

• Supporters of FOHO WV on Facebook

What does it take to disrupt the cycle of pet overpopulation in America—fast? In this replay from the United Spay Alliance Conference, Cathy Bissell of the Bissell Pet Foundation shares how a bold, scalable idea became one of the nation's fastest-growing spay/neuter initiatives.

"Fix the Future" wasn't born from a long-term strategic plan—it emerged from urgency, collaboration, and a willingness to say yes to a challenge. What started with a single call to action in Puerto Rico quickly evolved into a national model connecting relief veterinarians with shelters and communities in need. The result? Hundreds of thousands of pets receiving critical care—including spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations, and microchips—often in places where access was previously nonexistent.

In this episode, Cathy breaks down how the program works, from matchmaking veterinarians with host organizations to maintaining high-volume, high-quality standards. She also shares the realities behind the scenes—funding pressures, community resistance, workforce challenges—and the lessons learned while scaling at record speed.

This conversation goes beyond logistics. It's a call to action for shelters, veterinarians, and advocates alike to rethink accessibility, affordability, and collaboration in animal welfare. Because as Cathy emphasizes, without spay/neuter, the system can't keep up.

If you're looking for innovative solutions, real-world impact, and inspiration to take action in your own community—this episode delivers.

In this episode you will hear:

• How "Fix the Future" scaled from one project to 250,000+ pets served

• A practical, replicable model for high-volume spay/neuter programs

• The role of relief veterinarians in expanding access to care

• Real barriers communities face—and how to overcome them

• Why affordability (not just availability) is key to impact

• Lessons from launching clinics in both rural and urban areas

• Funding realities and how to build sustainable programs

• The power of collaboration between shelters, vets, and nonprofits

Resources from this episode:

• United Spay Alliance: https://unitedspayalliance.org

• Bissell Pet Foundation: https://www.bissellpetfoundation.org

• Fix the Future Program Inquiry: kim.alboum@bissell.com

• The Sato Project (Puerto Rico partner): https://thesatoproject.org