This is an older posting from April 18, 2001. Notice how excited we were when the Mobile Van was ready to go and now nearly two years later it is idle!! At that time we found 8 vans in the country. Now a new accounting shows that there are actually 123 and they are all on the road but the one in WV. 41 states have vans and 9 states do not. WV has a van and can not use it to reduce pet overpopulation in West Virginia!
Finally, the Mobile Spay Mobile Hits the Road in WV but finds it a rocky one!

Van has opposition from local vet in Putnam County, WV states a recent article in the Gazette-Mail Metro West Putnam on April 18, 2001. Donna Spencer, the Director of Help for Animals said she ran into the same kind of resistance from veterinarians when the local TRACS, the only low cost spay neuter clinic opened in 1997 in Huntington. Since 1997, TRACS has performed 15,000 low cost spay neuters. Laura Davis who donated the van offers the following....The spirit and direction of the animal welfare movement in America is for our country to reduce pet overpopulation. This goal cannot be met without the high volume, low cost spay/neuter programs throughout the country including WV. We also want to reduce the amount of tax money spent to collect, house, feed, kill and dispose of domestic pets. In 1997, 16 counties euthanized over 30,000 unwanted dogs and cats. Recent statistics show that West Virginia has expended a yearly total of $3 Million dollars on euthanasia---monies that could be spent on far more constructive projects than the killing of animals. There are only about 8 or these vans around the country. WV should be delighted to have a van like this to assist with low cost spay and neuters in that area. FOHO applauds the efforts of TRACS and Help for Animals.

"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being."
-Abraham Lincoln