Every summer Dr. Young a.k.a. Coach Young tries to travel to Montana to provide free spays and neuters with the Montana Spay Neuter Task Force. This year Coach Young took his talented group of runners from North High to get in some great running and help those less fortunate than ourselves. This year the group included Dr. Young, one of our new veterinarians Dr. Rachel Erickson and two training veterinarians from Slovakia, Dr. Ludmila Grunermelova, Dr. Lucia Jurkulakova and one from Turkey, Dr. Cagri Akkin. The training veterinarians went along on this trip to learn how to organize mass spay/neuter clinics and learn how to properly and efficiently implement the Quick Spay Technique, also more commonly known as the Five Minute Spay. This year the team traveled to four different Native American Reservations; Wolf Point, Rocky Boy, Fort Belknap and Hays Montana. With the help of local residents and the Montana Spay Neuter Task Force PPP spayed and neutered 285 owned and stray dogs and cats.
In addition to all the hard work that was done spaying and neutering all of the animals there was some major recreation done on the trip. As mentioned previously Dr. Young took his Cross-Country and Track runners on the trip. Many of the students have never left the inner city much less had the opportunity to go camping before this trip. The group was fortunate this year as they got to see Yellow Stone National Monument and swim down an awesome waterfall in the park. The students were amazed to see all of the wonders of the Yellow Stone Caldera. Also while they were in Montana they visited one of the largest earthen dams in the world, the Fort Peck Dam.
Planned Pethood International, Planned Pethood Mexico, The University of the Yucatan and Planned Pethood Veterinarians from Europe participated in the largest ever spay/neuter campaign in Mexico. The goal heading down to Mexico was to try and spay/neuter over 1500 animals. Well they did not quite get 1500; however, 1306 animals were spayed and neutered that week! With the help of the community and veterinary students from the University of the Yucatan many animals will no longer have to suffer. Planned Pethood International and Dr. Stefan Aurelian one of Dr. Young's protege are currently in the planning phase for a similar spay/neuter clinic in Bucharest this fall. Read below for more information regarding Europe.
Dr. Young recently spoke at the International Companion Animal Welfare Conference in Budapest, Hungary (October
7th - 9th). He spoke on prepubertal spay/neuter (early age spay/neuter)
and large volume spay/neuter campaigns. On October 10th Dr. Young was also
invited to speak to some Hungarian veterinarians at their university. He
also conducted a wet lab where the Hungarian veterinarians learned firsthand
Dr. Young's quick spay/neuter technique. This was set up by Dr. Peter
Kiraly an old friend and very active veterinarian in Hungary Animal Welfare.
In Dr. Young's opinion Peter has done everything right over the last 15
years setting the standard regarding animal welfare in Europe.
Dr. Kiraly has established Animal Island with an emphasis on education,
spay/neuter and training and dog behavior courses. Dr. Kiraly understands
full well that you cannot adopt or warehouse your way out of overpopulation.
Before going to Budapest for the
conference Dr. Young visited Dr. Karel Hudec who runs PPP's hospital in
Bratislava, Slovakia. Dr. Karel Hudec who helped found Planned Pethood
Slovakia actively works with several large humane organizations.
Planned Pethood Slovakia is a truly nice state of the art Veterinary Hospital
providing some of the best care in Eastern Europe. Dr. Young also met
with Katarina Centesova a long time friend and protégé of Dr. Young’s. However,
Dr. Centesova left PPP Slovakia to open her own hospital in Bratislava,
Slovakia. She has become an incredible surgeon and has created the first
all women veterinary clinic in Eastern Europe. Being part of the
younger generation of veterinarians she has been on television, radio and has
written various articles about spay/neuter and animal care. Her clinic
works with the largest cat group in Slovakia Madry SOS. Dr. Centesova
recently received a grant for 2,000 Euros for stray and feral cat spay/neuter.
This is a major change in the veterinary community and something to be very
proud of. Dr. Young could not be prouder of anyone he has had the pleasure
to work with. It is people like Dr. Centesova and Dr. Hudec that really
are making a world of difference in the animal welfare community!
On top of
everything else Dr. Young met with one of his trainees Dr. Stefan
Aurelian. Dr. Young was presently surprised when Dr. Aurelian said,
"Dr. Young changed my life!" Dr. Aurelian spent four months
training in Denver only to go home to Romania and start his own clinic but even
more importantly started doing large scale mobile spay/neuter as well.
The demand for Dr. Aurelian has been absolutely incredible. He words with a
wide variety of humane groups and is really having an impact in Romania. In
addition Dr. Aurelian met Dr. Kiraly of Planned Pethood Slovakia and really
sees the big picture. He now wants to build a large education and training
center when he builds his dream hospital in a couple years.
Besides
visiting old friends, lecturing and doing surgical demonstration Dr. Young's
time was shared with friend Dr. Antonio Rios Perez, owner of Planned Pethood Mexico. Dr. Perez went with Dr. Young to meet veterinarians is
the international community and see how other people in the world are coping
with animal welfare issues. Dr. Perez made a lot of new friends, gained
some new animal welfare perspectives and became energized with this new
knowledge. Dr. Perez and Planned Pethood Mexico are organizing the
world's largest spay/neuter clinic of dogs and cats in Mexico January.
Some of the best veterinarians and friends of Dr. Young will attend the event
which will be held in Merida, Mexico and will be done along side of the
University of the Yucatan Veterinary Hospital. The goal is to provide
1500 free spays and neuters in a five day period. Obviously a large
educational component will be involved with; hopefully a lot of training of
future veterinarians from the school. During the planning of this event
Dr. Aurelian decided that this would be a wonderful idea in Romania as
well. Bucharest, Romania is where they decided to have the event and Dr.
Aurelian is currently working to have the event this fall. One of the
major ideas that Dr. Young has always believed in is that the animal welfare
movement should be driven by veterinarians. Adopting and warehousing of
animals will never end overpopulation and suffering; additionally, euthanasia
can never be accepted as a form of population control. Dr. Young has said
repeatedly over the years that he has never seen a no-kill shelter that wasn't
practicing some form of cruelty or neglect. Any humane organization that
is not spending the vast majority of its budget in education and spay/neuter is
not worthy of giving money to. It is great to adopt animals from a shelter;
however, adoption is not a long term solution. Planned Pethood will
always continue to train and help fund clinics that have the same philosophy as
Dr. Aurelian, Dr. Kiraly, Dr. Perez or Dr. Centesova. To prevent the one
billion dogs from dying needlessly next year and the countless more cat, then
we need people to demand more from Humane Organizations. Nice new
shelters look like a place you should donate to and they do in fact help perpetuate
the problem because the reality is only so much funding is available.
Funding education and spay/neuter programs is the best return for your hard
earned tax deductible donation!
Cat Spay Day
March 4th
This is one of PPP's favorite quarterly events! Cat Spay Day always brings out the best in all of us here at PPP and we get to really do what we love to do the most and help the community that we love so dearly!
As you could imagine with $10 spays and neuters and $5 vaccinations this event brings people out of the woodwork. Not only do we help people in the community but we also open the event up to cat loving non-profit groups to help them get as many cats spayed and neutered as possible. This year Cat Spay Day ended with over 250 spays and neuters! Go PPP!!
September 2nd
PPP with the help of community support to offer another Cat Spay Day! What we found with the last spay day in March was that this event really does make a difference! Many of the clients and animal organizations were very excited to hear that we were going to do it again. Just as before we successfully spayed and neutered over 250 cats! Woo Hoo! Great job to all of the wonderful volunteers that day and especially to the great staff!
Mauii, Hawaii
February 12th - 15th
Even in the most beautiful places on earth we find that there are animals in need of help. Planned Pethood recently was introduced to 9th Life Hawaii a non-profit dedicated to reducing overpopulation in Hawaii. 9th Life Hawaii and PPP teamed up and held a three day spay/neuter event. The goal of the event was to spay and neuter over 500 cats during the three days. Unfortunately; however, only 459 cats were sterilized.
Attending the event were veterinarians from PPP Jeff Young, Jeff Fankhauser and technicians Janet and Melody. Also attending Dr. Leeth Harper and technician Rebecca Harper from the Village Pet Hospital in Bella Vista, AR.
PPP gives great thanks to 9th Life Hawaii and their wonderful volunteers for hosting a successful event. PPP appreciates all of the hard work and understands how difficult it is to coordinate an event of this magnitude.If you would like to read about the event in the Maui Weekly follow these links:
Planned Pethood goes to Brush, CO for a two day low-cost spay/neuter clinic. The clinic was sponsored by the hard working Pam "The Dog Lady" Steiner and her non-profit Steiner S.I.L.S., 168 animals were successfully spayed and neutered!
Dr. Nathalie Grossman and Dr. Jeffrey Young were the attending veterinarians from P.P.P. for the event. P.P.P. and Steiner S.I.L.S. have been working together to help reduce the suffering of our companion animal friends for 20 years! As collaboration is the key, P.P.P. and Steiner have tried with the best of their abilities and desire to reduce the euthanasia rate and overpopulation of our furry friends in Brush and surrounding areas..
This is always a fun and exciting clinic for volunteers and staff, which happens several times a year and proves to be successful every time. Volunteers for the event are always welcomed! If you cannot participate at the event and would like to help causes similar to this please contact: Planned Pethood at 303-433-3291 and we can find a way for you to make a difference.
Follow this link to read an article in the Fort Morgan Times about the event:
Dr. Young working hard to train new veterinarians went to Mexico for a panel discussion on overpopulation and to demonstrate spay/neuter techniques. The panel did so while working with veterinary students at the University of Mexicali in the Baja. Dr. Young was joined by leading spay/neuter veterinarians from California Dr. Marvin Mackie, Dr. Terry Paik and Dr. Sharon Zito. Additionally, to round out the team of experts were two leading Mexican veterinarians Dr. Rebeca Serrano and Dr. Joaquin Villasenor who have been working in Baja, Mexico for the last 10 years. Both Dr. Serrano and Dr. Villasenor were trained by Dr. Mackie in quick spay techniques and represent a bright future for the area.
This trip represents the first of its kind at the veterinary school in Mexicali and with the overwhelming support by the students the event was a true success!
Much of the credit for the event has to be given to Craig Nelson founder of the Give Some Life Foundation as he was the primary sponsor of the event. P.P.P. plans to work closely with Mr. Nelson and his foundation as P.P.P., along with the University of Mexicali plan to help offer students internships at our training facilities in either our Denver clinic or our Merida, Mexico clinic for further training. The training will be provided with no cost to the students as we know that proper training is essential to a successful spay/neuter program.
Every spay or neuter represents the elimination of unwanted companion animals and untold cruelty and suffering that so often awaits our abandoned furry friends! If you would like to make a donation to our training program please contact Planned Pethood at 303-433-3291. If you would like more information about the organizations that worked together to make this event possible please go the following link:
The Latino Advisory Council Award was awarded to Dr. Young in recognition of his 17 years of work at North High School. He was given the award for providing opportunity to kids to enjoy, achieve and broaden their interests during their education at North. Dr. Young has coached both Cross Country and Track at North High and can boast the overall most successful athletic program in the school's history. Dr. Young's summer training program provides many of the students with the opportunity to travel, stay productive and keep out of trouble. Many of the students are provided with the opportunity to volunteer and work in many of the mobile spay/neuter clinics around the state of Colorado and numerous Native American Reservations. The kids in the program are exposed to a variety of unique cultures, situations and opportunities that help to broaden their horizons and build character. The program emphasizes that success comes from within and you are in charge of your destiny.
North High Team Motto:
You are stronger than you think you are and you can do more than you think you can!
Gunnison, CO
May 16th and 17th
Planned Pethood and The Gunnison Valley Animal Welfare League have been working together to help control the unwanted companion animal population for nearly a year now and are beginning to really make a difference in Gunnison and the surrounding communities. For years many people in Gunnison wished to have their pets spayed and neutered; however, they could not afford to do so. This is no longer the case as GVAWL and PPP offer low-cost mobile spay/neuter clinics. Within the last year PPP and GVAWL together have spayed and neutered over 150 cats and dogs and the people that have come to these clinics have never been so thankful, according to GVAWL.
Fort Belknap and Fort Hayes, MT
July 25th and 26th
PPP worked along side with the Montana Spay Neuter Task Force to help spay and neuter dogs and cats in the Fort Belknap and Fort Hayes Native American Reservation areas. Historically PPP has gone to these events and helped spay and neuter over 300 animals in one trip!
Normally this occurs with teams of Veterinarians and technicians. This trip was a little different as there was only one other Veterinarian (Dr. Ritchey from Bear Paw Veterinary Clinic) to help. However, this trip was just as successful as ever even without all the other Veterinarians as PPP, Dr. Ritchey and the Task Force provided services for hundreds of families. In total there were over 250 animals spayed and neutered.
PPP has been working with Jean Atthowe and the Montana Spay Neuter Task Force for many years and together continue to put the "rubber to the road" successfully helping as many animals as possible! The Task Force has always used their money to be as efficient as possible and have provided funding and resources that have spayed and neutered thousands over the years.
Hawaii
September 17th through September 23rd
Planned Pethood and 9th Life Hawaii have provided another successful community event! With volunteer help PPP successfully spayed and neutered over 400 cats!
Upcoming Events
September 2010, India
Dr. Young and Dr. Gaddam will be representing Planned Pethood International, training Veterinarians throughout India on efficient, safe, and fast spay/neuter technique. Dr. Young will also be lecturing on how to provide low-cost spay/neuter on a budget. If you would like to help with this event but cannot go, just click on the Donate Now button below!
PPP Events and News
