CREDIT: CTV LONDON
The staff at East Village Animal Hospital provides low-cost pet care for London’s low-income families.

London welcomed a new animal hospital for high-volume spay, neuter and medical services January 27.

The East Village Animal Hospital (EVAH), located at 1777 Dundas St., assists low-income families, people on social services and non-profit rescues and shelters.

Hospital manager Laurie Ristmae has been part of the push behind the clinic for the past two years.

“There's been a lot of changes proposed for animal welfare in London,” she said. “And it was recognized that the way to stop the killing in pounds, the way to stop the over-population in the rescues was to implement high volume spay [and] neuter services.”

Ristmae said the goal of EVAH is to provide these services for families and people who would otherwise have to abandon their pets due to high spay/neuter costs.

“We certainly recognize that there are folks who have simply not been able to afford accessible vet care,” she said. “Students — that's the other segment of the population ... They find a cat that they want to take home and look after, and they're great caregivers, but they can't always afford to get the cat fixed.”

The focus of EVAH is spay and neuter, but the hospital has a medical clinic and veterinarians who do “basic vet care.”

“Our surgeon is second to none; she's super fast and super good at what she does. So this was a natural fit for her to do high volume, fast-paced clinic surgery,” said Ristmae. “[On] the medical side of things, Dr. [Martha] Harding grew up in a rural community. She recognizes the vast number of stray animals that you could just fix them and vet them and it would really reduce suffering and reduce the unwanted population.”

EVAH is backed up by Progressive Animal Welfare Services (PAWS), a group that provides the hospital assistance by filtering in volunteers — a way to keep costs down.

“One of the reasons we're able to keep our costs very accessible is through volunteers who come in and they help us with laundry and volunteer and administration,” said Ristmae. “PAWS helps us train and schedule those volunteers. They also do fundraisers for us. They're a great partner.”

Ristmae said PAWS is always looking for volunteers, and that a way to get connected is to visit its website, pawslondon.ca.

“We also accept donations at the clinic,” she said. “If you have something, you can leave something. If you have extra pet supplies, bring them [to] our bin and that'll help out another family.”

Ristmae became active in animal welfare 20 years ago, and explained that seeing some things firsthand is what convinced her that a high-volume spay/neuter clinic was needed.

“Sometimes what happens behind closed doors in shelters and pounds, what the staff [and volunteers] have to deal with — the deaths ... When you have to deal with death every single day, that is unnecessary ... and it's because people can't afford vet care ... I can't imagine anybody experiencing that and not realizing how important this clinic is.”

As of February 6 EVAH welcomed its 100th client.

To learn more about the application process to become an EVAH client, go to evah.ca.

PAWS is holding a trivia fundraiser for EVAH at the Dawghouse Pub and Eatery at 699 Wilkins St. on February 25. More information be found on the PAWS website at pawslondon.ca.