Tara Murray
A new clinic in Sunshine is striving to make it more affordable for cat owners to get their pet desexed.
Westside Community Desexing is set to open in November, with the aim of providing low cost desexing.
The clinic, which is state government supported, has been created by two vets.
One of the founders of the clinic, Ann Enright, said there was an issue across the west of Melbourne with cats not being desexed.
She said many have kittens end in the pound or shelters, with tens of thousands of cats being put down each year.
“There is nothing viable in the area,” Dr Enright said.
“The goal is to offer affordable desexing and focusing on cats as there’s an over population in the west of Melbourne.
“We thought that if we could just focus on one thing, it could be more effective and we can do it for a better price.”
Dr Enright said many people in the west put off getting their cat desexed as they can’t afford it.
“If you have to choose between school fees, getting extra food for the family or having to desex a cat, where are you going to put your money?” she said.
“The goal is to help people in the western suburbs to get their cats desexed.
“It improves animal welfare and it will relieve the number of cats in shelters and pounds.”
Dr Enright said the clinic was also looking at low- cost microchipping and vaccinations to stop many preventable diseases.
“We want it to be a community hub,” she said.
“We want to get the future leaders of shelter medicine involved.”
