Mog and Dog aims to decrease Northland dog and cat population

Veterinarian Jo Lin Chia and her shih tzu outside the new Mog and Dog Desexing Clinic which opened yesterday.

Northland's first dedicated desexing clinic opened yesterday offering low-cost services in a bid to decrease the canine and feline population in the region.

Mog and Dog Desexing Clinic has been set up by Auckland veterinary Jo Lin Chia after she established a similar clinic in Auckland.

Then came a cry for help from Whangārei with multiple rescue organisations in the North wanting a clinic.

Whangārei Cat Rescue's Samantha Emerson, who formerly worked with Chia, would send kittens her way.

"She would get drivers to drop off groups of sometimes more than a dozen kittens and community cats at a time, sometimes multiple times a week."

After 18 months of requests to set up a local clinic, Chia now has a partner clinic to her main practice Lynfield Vets.

"Having access to affordable desexing services is so important in trying to reduce unnecessary breeding. It is a heap of work to set up, but this is my passion."

Based at 50 Kioreroa Rd, Mog and Dog Desexing Clinic prices are $250 for female dogs, $200 for male, $80 for female cats and $60 for male.

Emerson, a mother of four kids, runs a community shelter as a "hobby" from her home and said she was thrilled her "begging" had paid off.

"We were involved with the first clinic and begged [Jo Lin] to one day come to Whangārei and she surprised us all and signed the lease for the building and kitted it out with surgical equipment.

"We no longer have to send a carload of cats to Auckland which is extremely stressful."

Onerahi-based M.A.D. Mission Animal Desexing/Kitty Catcher's Kelleigh Rudolph also traps stray cats which she gets desexed, and rescues and rehomes.

"We have been driving animals down to Auckland vets because it works out a lot cheaper.

Veterinarian Jo Lin Chia.

"An affordable desexing clinic has been needed here for a long time. People have been asking for help and can't find any - sometimes they are told to just shoot them, which is crazy."

She said she plans to start a Spay it Forward desexing fund at Mog and Dog.

Initially, the clinic will be run two days a fortnight by Chia and two nurses from Auckland. If demand grew, the clinic aimed to be open five days a week with more permanent local staff, including Chia who was considering moving her family to Northland.