Spay Neuter Network (SNN) was incorporated as a non-profit organization November 6, 2003 and received our 501(c) 3 federal tax exemption on February 24, 2004. Find out more about our financials and non-profit status.
We are the spay/neuter experts – each year we conduct more spay/neuter surgeries than any other organization in North Texas! Currently, SNN alters more than 25,000 animals a year with our two stationary clinics and our Mobile Animal Surgical Hosptial (MASH), which allows us to prevent the birth of hundreds of thousands of unwanted pets each year.
SNN is run by a mixture of paid staff and dedicated volunteers who work together to improve the lives of pets in North Texas and end euthanasia.
Our Mission
SNN’s mission is eliminate pet overpopulation through spay/neuter while empowering communities to care responsibly for dogs and cats. This mission is accomplished by offering free and affordable high-volume spay/neuter, wellness and vaccination services for dogs and cats in North Texas.
SNN is nationally recognized for its expertise in high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter services. Our surgeons perform more sterilization surgeries in one day then a normal veterinarian would in his/her office in three months. Since this is all we do; we do it very well and animals suffer fewer complications and pain.
Who We Serve
SNN focuses our efforts on helping those with the greatest need — impoverished and low-income pets.
We believe that all pets deserve top-notch medical care regardless of their owners’ ability to pay, which is why we offer free and low-cost, high-quality services. Most residents in these communities can’t afford spay/neuter surgeries for their dogs and cats – and these are often the pets that keep reproducing and contributing to our pet overpopulation problem. We do not cut corners or skimp on services to save money – donations from animal lovers like you and generous foundations allow us to offset most or all of the cost to the pet owner. In fact, more than 60% of our services are offered for free and more than 80% include an additional discount on our already low-costs.
SNN serves 13 counties and more than 1,300,000 residents in North Texas with emphasis on South Fort Worth, Southern Dallas, and rural communities surrounding the DFW-Metroplex.
We operate on the principle that people will do the right thing if we work together to 1. make it affordable, 2. make it accessible and 3. educate owners of the tragic results of pet overpopulation, but also the life-saving health benefits of spaying and neutering their pets.
Why Spay/Neuter
SNN knows that spay/neuter is the only solution to North Texas’ pet overpopulation and euthanasia problem. Every pet that is fixed can help prevent dozens or even thousands of animals from being born into an overpopulated world and crowding our shelters.
But the benefits of spay/neuter far exceed the decrease in pet overpopulation and euthanasia. Other benefits include:
- Public Health& Safety: More than 85% of dog bites are given by intact animals — spaying and neutering your dog can dramatically reduce the chances of a member of your family or a neighbor being bitten by your pet. Animal bites can be deadly and are always painful, but they can also spread infection and disease. Both dogs and cats can spread diseases such as rabies and infections such as tetanus.
- Financial Costs: Altering your pet is substantially cheaper than caring properly for even one litter of puppies or kittens.
- Behavioral Issues: Altering pets can help to prevent many troublesome behavioral issues! For dogs, it can decrease escapism, marking, and aggression. For cats, it can prevent marking, yowling, and fighting.
- Economic Development: Areas with high rates of unaltered pets tend to have large numbers of loose, roaming animals, which discourage business development and growth.
How We Operate
SNN works hard to remove all barriers to spay/neuter. We’ve been working for more than 14 years to establish new programs and are continually improving our current services to ensure we are effectively treating as many pets as possible.
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- Clinics and Transports: We operate two high volume, high-quality spay/neuter clinics: one in Crandall, Texas, just three miles east of Dallas County, and a second in southern Dallas. We also operate a fully functional Mobile Animal Surgery Hospital that is capable of serving up to 50 pets in a single day in Fort Worth and rural communities across North Texas. Additionally, SNN offers pet transport services to and from our stationary clinics to assist pet owners in rural communities or in urban areas without transportation options. We currently operate six days a week, performing more than 400 – 500 surgeries a week.
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- Emphasis on Education: Our staff knows that education is a crucial component in animal welfare. Most pet owners want to do what is best for their pets and their community, however, many don’t know the local laws, ownership best practices, and resources available to them. That’s where our Community Outreach Team comes in — they go door-to-door in high-risk neighborhoods, speak at schools and churches, and set up booths at local businesses and events to educate pet owners about responsible pet ownership and the services we can provide them for free or low-cost. In 2018, SNN is launching our SNN North Texas Education Initiative, which partners with Dallas ISD and Fort Worth ISD to educate children in low-income, high-risk areas about responsible pet ownership, compassion, proper pet handling, and pet safety. The program is designed to change the culture in these communities to one that will decrease pet bites, roaming pets, and improve quality of life for both pet owners and the pets themselves.
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- Collaboration: SNN believes the solution to a happy, healthy pet community is multi-faceted and the only way to solve these problems is to collaborate and work together. We have longtime expertise in community outreach and mobilization and share our knowledge through training and public relations support. We also serve on teams working to develop powerful animal welfare plans and policies for cities, counties, and municipalities in the DFW-metroplex and volunteer to support rescue organizations and other groups helping pets and pet parents in our community. We currently partner with more than 35 local cities and rescue groups to collaboratively improve the lives of pets in need.
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- Disaster Response: Our large MASH unit and a highly trained medical team make SNN uniquely qualified to respond to disasters that impact pets in Texas. SNN responds to offer triage, treatment, and general support in times of crisis around the state, including the Canton tornado and Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Find out more about our current lifesaving programs!
Our History
SNN was founded in 2003 to address the needs of pets in the rural Kaufman County, just southeast of Dallas. SNN started as a group of dedicated volunteers working one day a week in a mobile clinic to alter 40 animals weekly. However, it quickly became clear that the need far exceeded the area we originally intended to serve and SNN rapidly grew our service area to assist other rural and low-income urban communities.
In 2005, we were able to open our first stationary, high-volume clinic in Crandall operating three days a week. In 2010 we built a new, larger clinic which allowed us to dramatically expand our number of annual surgeries to 17,000.
In 2011, SNN mobilized our first MASH unit to take our hospital services to the poorest parts of North Texas. In 2014, SNN was able to purchase our current MASH unit (The Hope Mobile), which is able to house up to 50 animals at a time. The addition of The Hope Mobile allowed us to increase our services in rural communities and launch the Fort Worth Takin’ it to the Street Program which provides more than 4,000 free surgeries in Fort Worth each year.
In 2017, SNN opened our second stationary clinic in southern Dallas as part of the Southern Dallas Spay/Neuter Surge Project. Thanks to the opening of this clinic, SNN completed more than 25,000 surgeries in 2017.
With your help, we hope to fix more than 30,000 pets in 2018!
Major Accomplishments:
- Since our inception, SNN has sterilized more than 200,000 dogs and cats and administered more than 350,000 vaccinations.
- SNN has helped to educate more than 500,000 North Texas residents about responsible pet ownership, safety around animals, and local animal control ordinances.
- We have increased awareness of our local shelters and humane organizations in the communities and have stressed the importance of adopting locally.
- We have performed over 6,000 heartworm treatments at cost for rescue groups and shelters, saving them tens of thousands of dollars in medical care and allowing them to save animals that might otherwise have been euthanized.
- Our Spay it Forward program has seen great success in helping TNR (Trap-Neuter-Release) groups control feral cat populations. Paid for by donations, each cat receives surgery, rabies vaccine, and ear tip for just $20.
Our Core Values
- Education: To educate pet owners and the public on responsible pet care
- Diversity: To serve people of all races and ethnicity.
- Compassion: To build humane communities and improve the lives of animals.
- Integrity: To deliver high-quality, low-cost spay/neuter services to low-income families.
- Accessibility: To bring spay/neuter services to neighborhoods in need.
- Responsibility: To reduce the intake and euthanasia of dogs and cats at local shelters.
- Community-based: To be a community resource on responsible pet care for communities in North Texas.