My name is Dr. Andrea Master Everson and I am the President and Medical Director of Robinson’s Rescue. I have been with Robinson’s since our opening in 2008. To me, it is absolutely amazing that our team has touched the lives of 50,000 animals over our 9 years of operating! And it is incredible to work with an organization that has such a huge impact on our community. The animals and people that we service would not be able to have their pets spay/neutered without our clinic. We spend time educating the community on the importance of spay/neuter, and how important it is to decrease our pet overpopulation problem in our local shelters. But many people that live in Shreveport-Bossier still do not know about Robinson’s Rescue and how we have impacted your lives over our years of operating, so I look forward to sharing our story with you.
Robinson’s Rescue began in 2005 as a group of Shreveporters concerned with our community’s pet overpopulation problem. This group began meeting regularly to research and brainstorm ways to decrease the euthanasia of healthy, adoptable pets in our community. After much research, they discovered that the most effective, humane means of decreasing pet overpopulation is through spaying and neutering, and they decided that Shreveport needed a low-cost spay and neuter clinic. Thus, on September 15, 2008, Robinson’s Rescue opened our doors and became the first free standing high-quality, high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter clinic in the state of Louisiana.
One thing that many people do not realize about Robinson’s Rescue is that in addition to our low-cost spay/neuter program, Robinson’s Rescue also operates a free spay/neuter program called our Subsidized Spay/Neuter Incentive Program (SSNIP) and a Community Outreach Program. Through our SSNIP program, we have provided nearly 6,000 FREE surgeries to pets owned by low-income residents of Caddo, Bossier, DeSoto, Natchitoches, Sabine, and Webster parish. Being able to offer our services for free to those who need them most is something we are so proud to be able to do, especially for clients of ours like Mr. Ford from the Queensborough neighborhood in Shreveport. Our staff and volunteers met Mr. Ford and his pets, Kitty Cat and Coco, while we were working with the Caddo Council on Aging’s Meals on Wheels program to deliver pet food to elderly pet-owners in need. After meeting Kitty Cat and Coco, we realized that neither were spayed and we talked with Mr. Ford about our free spay/neuter program. He jumped at the opportunity to get them fixed. Mr. Ford, who is in his seventies and whose only source of income is his social security, would never have had the opportunity to get Kitty Cat and Coco fixed if it weren’t for our SSNIP program. In addition to our SSNIP Program, Robinson’s Rescue also operates a Community Outreach Program in which we attend local events and conduct door-to-door outreach to talk with people about the importance of spay/neuter.
So why is spay/neuter so important? Before Robinson’s Rescue began operating, Shreveport-Bossier was being overrun by pet overpopulation, a problem that affects every facet of our community. Because of pet overpopulation, healthy, adoptable pets are forced to live on the streets, struggle to find food, and suffer. A small percent of these animals will find a home, but the other portion will continue living off the land, be killed by a traffic accident, disease, starvation, or a predator, or be euthanized. In addition to the suffering these pets endure when living without a home, they wreak havoc on our community by causing traffic accidents, biting, breeding, and more. These animals live in our neighborhoods, behind local businesses, and decrease the value of our property and community. Pet overpopulation is also an extremely costly problem. On top of the cost from injury and property damage, thousands of tax dollars are spent each year to shelter and euthanize homeless, unwanted animals.
This may seem like an overwhelming problem but, believe it or not, Shreveport is at the forefront of the solution, thanks to Robinson’s Rescue. At the pinnacle of our community’s pet overpopulation problem, our local municipal shelter – Caddo Parish Animal Control – took in 10,825 animals and euthanized 8,936 of them, nearly 83%. Each year since that time, Caddo Animal Control has decreased intake and euthanasia thanks to the work of Robinson’s Rescue. By the end of 2016, CPAC took in 7,445 dogs and cats and euthanized 4,275 of them, 57%. That is an amazing 26% decrease in the shelter’s euthanasia rate over 5 years, but there is still much work to be done. There is an inverse relationship between Caddo Parish Animal Control’s intake and euthanasia and Robinson’s Rescue’s surgeries, as can be seen by the chart that follows. As Robinson’s Rescue continues to increase the number of surgeries we perform annually, CPAC’s intake and euthanasia continue to decrease.
For this reason, we aim to touch the lives of more pets and pet owners with our spay/neuter services each year. And we can only do this with your support. Help spread the word about Robinson’s Rescue, support spay/neuter, and support our cause. Robinson’s Rescue will be hosting our annual Calendar Reveal fundraiser on Saturday, November 4,, from 12 – 3 p.m. at Tejas Kitchen Bar Patio, and we hope you can make it! At this event, we will be revealing our 2018 Calendar with photos of our dog and cat supporters, guests can get paw-tographs from their favorite calendar pets, there will be a photo booth, delicious dog-themed food and drinks, and so much more! You can learn more about this event and our organization by visiting www.robinsonsrescue.org.