HORSEPLAY:WAG, CVAR offer low-income spay/neuter clinics

Published 1:30 am Saturday, May 9, 2026

IT’S PRETTY CUT and dried. Unplanned litters of kittens and puppies have led to an explosion of the unwanted pet population on the peninsula. The question is: Are you willing to be part of the solution?

Last November, Clallam County Animal Control Deputy Ed Bauck volunteered his time to assist members of Welfare for Animals Guild (WAG), Pacific Northwest Veterinary Hospital’s Dr. Linda Allen and Center Valley Animal Rescue (CVAR) with a spay/neuter clinic in Neah Bay. CVAR founder and lead medical supervisor Sara Penhallegon brought its portable hospital from Quilcene.

“Joining forces with Center Valley on these low-income clinics is always a no brainer, because this is what they do,” Allen said. CVAR offers low-cost spay/neuter clinics for income-qualified individuals at its facility at 11900 Center Road in Quilcene.

Bauck, Allen and Welfare for Animals Guild’s Barb Brabant and Mel Marshall are members of the Clallam County Animal Solutions Advisory Committee.

“This was the fourth large-scale spay/neuter clinic we have partnered with CVAR to complete,” said Mel Marshall, WAG Ranch Manager. “Sara and the CVAR team are always the lead medical organizers. The WAG team brings the muscle and nonmedical items, and Linda provides her veterinary skills.”

Bauck said in his daily caseload he was having regular contact with citizens who could not afford to spay or neuter their pets, resulting in many unwanted puppies and kittens. “I’d see owners struggling to cover costs to raise the litters, often at the detriment of their own families,” he said. “Additionally, I was seeing intact animals roaming at large, looking for romance, and hormonal animals presenting as overly aggressive.”

Last September, he was dispatched to a case involving four intact adult female dogs. Three of the four gave birth to a total of 32 puppies in the same week, all fathered by an intact male that lived more than 3 miles away. All, he said, were completely unplanned and put undue strain on the family, both in time and money.

“On my initial call, the females all presented as extremely underweight due to the large amount of puppies nursing,” he said. “I requested assistance from WAG, Rise Rescue Alliance, Peninsula Friends of Animals and Friends of Forks Animals for puppy food and was making regular deliveries to the dog owner’s house. Knowing that this many puppies would cause an additional strain on already-taxed local rescues, WAG provided them with spay/neuter certificates to go with each puppy to help minimize the effects.”

Bauck approached Penhallegon from Center Valley to ask if she would be interested in hosting a spay/neuter clinic for Clallam County.

“She immediately stated she’d be happy to help but explained that it would require more work than a clinic on a reservation, as each client would need to be verified as low-income and the needs of the physical location to successfully run a large-scale clinic,” he said. “After going over packets of information from clinics hosted at both Center Valley and at some of the tribal reservations, I proposed the idea to the sheriff’s department leadership team and the Animal Solutions Advisory Committee.”

He then approached other animal welfare groups in the area that are not associated with the Animal Solutions Advisory Committee, including Friends of Forks Animals, with which he already had a good working relationship.

“Due to the large amount of money the clinic would cost, I needed to present the clinic to the Clallam County commissioners and request allotment of funds to help cover the expenditures,” he said. “The commissioners voted to approve the use of approximately $5,000 from the Animal Control budget to fund the event. Approximately $4,000 was allocated to help cover expenses for clients who could not afford to cover the reduced rates.”

Wow! A giant shout-out of thanks to those commissioners!

Bauck said the next several weeks were a whirlwind of planning between CVAR, Spay-to-Save, Clallam County Fairgrounds management, participating animal welfare groups and veterinarians to ensure they had all the supplies needed, enough volunteers and medical professionals. Then they contacted and signed up citizens who were in need of those services. WAG handled most of the scheduling with the addition of several animals from his cases.

“Between us, we ensured that low-income was verified,” he said. “CVAR handled the medical and volunteer organization. We did not provide vouchers per se, but communicated that we had scholarships available for those that were unable to pay.”

While setting up at the fairgrounds, he said they realized last minute they did not have the wireless connectivity needed. “Clallam County Emergency Services graciously assisted providing us with a Starlink access point and ensuring the I.T. resources needed were available.”

To spread the word of the event, Bauck spoke with staff at Serenity House, who shared that they were in need of supplies and food for some of their clients’ pets. “WAG, Rise Rescue Alliance and Peninsula Friends of Animals sprang into action, providing a plethora of food, crates, kennels, playpens, leashes, harnesses, collars, sweaters, jackets, dishes, toys and flea treatment that I delivered to the shelter managers with instructions to reach out if they need anything else.”

“It has been amazing working with the animal welfare groups and the veterinarians involved in successfully putting on the spay/neuter clinic,” he said. “I am forever grateful to all of them for helping our community in need, handling daily cases, and taking care of the needs of the animals!”

The group is starting to plan for its next event in September or October. He’s excited that several additional welfare groups and veterinary professionals have already reached out to assist.

In the meantime, Dr. Pat and PAIR are also working hard-to-hold low-income clinics each month. For more information see its Facebook page, Pawsitive Animal Impact Rescue, call 360-775-6648 or email PAIR at clallam@gmail.com.

All rescues, low-income clinics are donation dependent. Please help be part of the solution by donating. Visit WAG’s Facebook page or wagsequimwa.com, or the Center Valley Animal Rescue Facebook page or centervalleyanimalrescue.org.

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Karen Griffiths’ column, Peninsula Horseplay, appears the second and fourth Saturday of each month.

If you have a horse event, clinic or seminar you would like listed, email Griffiths at kbg@olympus.net at least two weeks in advance. You can also call her at 360-460-6299.