Leech Lake Legacy Sep2014 Spay/Neuter and Wellness Clinic

Zeus .. one of our first surgery patients!

Leech Lake Legacy hosted a 2-day spay/neuter and wellness clinic on Sept. 12-13, 2014. We are grateful to the ASPCA for the generous grant and for sponsoring our September clinic. Many thanks also to the Leech Lake Tribal Police for partnering with us to host the clinic and for providing lodging and dinners for our volunteers. We are now in our 3rd year of hosting clinics in Cass Lake on the Leech Lake Reservation. In order to expand our reach  into more remote communities on Leech Lake Reservation, we offered a wellness clinic at Lone Eagle Community Center in Ball Club and offered transport of pets to Cass Lake for spay/neuter services. The following are the results of our 2-day spay/neuter and wellness clinic:

- 98 spay/neuter surgeries
- 1 specialty surgery
- 134 animals since through our wellness clinic (117 in Cass Lake and 17 in Ball Club)
- 55 animals surrendered. Animals released to the care of Leech Lake Legacy are transported and transferred to the care of our partner groups, who then spay/neuter and vaccinate the animals, evaluate them, provide any necessary rehab (whether medical or behavioral) and place them up for adoption. The surrendered animals at our Sept. clinic were transferred to the following partners: Animal Humane Society, Animal Allies Humane Society, Angel of Hope, Carver Scott Humane Society, and some were placed in temporary foster homes with Leech Lake Legacy.

Dog and cat food were also distributed to residents of Leech Lake and a car load of donated school supplies were given to Kathryn Fairbanks, Leech Lake elder and board member of the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig school.

Two Leech Lake pups (Gilligan and Louie) also came to pay us a visit. Gilligan (formerly Gilbert) was surrendered at our June event and Louie was a stray released to the care of LLL at our July clinic. Both pups were transferred over to Patriots Assistance Dogs and are in training to become service dogs.  We had visits from the Lakeland News, the Cass Lake Times and the DeBahJiMon papers.

A special thanks to our volunteer vets, Dr. Pierce Fleming of Plymouth Heights Pet Hospital and Dr. Dani Schwartzmann for volunteering at our clinic and helping with wellness and pre-surgery. We also had 4 vet school students from the University of Minnesota shelter medicine club volunteer on Saturday who were of great assistance to Dr. Pierce who was our only volunteer on Saturday! Thank you!

Chi miigwech to all of our amazing volunteers and to all of our supporters! We value our relationship with each and every one of you, and are truly grateful to be working together and making a difference in the lives of animals and pet owners of Leech Lake Reservation.

and for more photos from the clinic:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mchanrasmi/sets/72157647537446216/