Cats and dogs will no longer be spayed and neutered on site at the Humane Society of Tacoma and Pierce County.
Another clinic, Tacoma-based Coalition: Humane, will now handle spay and neuter duties for all Humane Society pets.
According to the Marguerite Richmond of the Humane Society, the move will give the organization more room and will save enough money to hire another part-time veterinarian.
“It’s great news and we’re all really happy about it,” Richmond said.
The Humane Society had been doing in-house spay and neutering for years, but no longer had the space or staff levels to keep up with the number of pets being adopted.
Tacomanewshound's Blog 
The Humane Society’s strategic plan calls for focusing on the cat overpopulation issue. By moving the majority of spay/neuter surgeries to an offsite clinic, this will allow the organization to add a part time shelter medicine veterinarian and veterinarian technician to help the shelter veterinarian with cat exams and processing for adoption readiness. This is a reprioritizing of resources — space and staff, so it is misleading to say that we “no longer had the space or staff levels to keep up with the number of pets being adopted.” Actually, it is a shift to provide more cat services. The Humane Society has been at zero euthanasia of healthy adoptable dogs for more than three years, but is still experiencing the heartbreak of some 1500 more healthy cats entering the shelter than there are homes to take them.
Kathleen Olson, Humane Society Executive Director
Thanks for the clarfication.