The Spayed Club is a veterinary practice started in 1991 by Donna Dybus with the mission of eliminating euthanasia of animals in area animal shelters. It is part of a long term effort that has been largely, though not fully, successful to date. As of 1990, the year before the Spayed Club organized, 75,000 animals were euthanized in the Philadelphia area. This has declined to 4,023 as of last year. This change has largely relied on the spaying and neutering of animals as they enter a shelter, improving their opportunity for adoption, and reducing the number of unwanted litters. 
 
The Spayed Club started by providing vouchers to pay for spaying and neutering surgeries in 1991. At that time these procedures took several hours, each performed in a private vet practice. In 1994 the process was organized into a production line like process, reducing the time required for each surgery by hours. Today, with the proper physical plant, a vet can perform 35 to 40 surgeries per day instead of the previous norm of about 6. This new approach to the procedure was developed in Asheville, NC. It took quite a while for the new approach to be adopted in Pennsylvania. In 2009 the Spayed Club opened a clinic to practice the new procedure in Sharon Hill. 
 
The clinic was successful, but left one reason for pet abandonment unresolved - making basic vet care affordable for those with limited incomes. Basic vet care was added to the services of the Spayed Club in 2015, eliminating a large reason pets are sent to shelters. The primary care service provides half the revenue needed to operate the Club. The rest of the cost is covered through donations from many organizations, including the Longwood Rotary Club Foundation, which contributed $1,000 earlier this year. President Tammy Duering expanded this support with a $500 Presidential grant during our meeting. 
 
One unique class of animals is only serviced through the Spayed Club - feral cats. These cats are not pets. They live successfully on the streets, and may provide a useful service as rodent catchers. When they are collected they are brought to the Club where they are spayed or neutered. While the animals recover from the surgery, they receive rabies shots and a flea treatment. After the are fully recovered from surgery, they are returned to where they were found so they can resume their daily lives without adding to the already 400,000 feral cats already on the streets.