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Pitbulls and Birthdays

In celebration of Spay Neuter Charlotte's 5th birthday, Executive Director Cary Bernstein discusses the milestones the clinic has achieved since opening.

Bull dog with owner
Family with pet
Black & white dogs

This month, we celebrate our 5th birthday and the accomplishment of 42,000 surgeries. We are very proud to have achieved this incredible milestone. Since we opened in 2011 there have been so many changes...

We have grown from a staff of five in one location to a 25 person staff spread out over two clinics and are moving forward to open a third clinic before the end of the year. In the beginning, back in 2011, we were working with one rescue group. Now, more than thirty use our services on a regular basis and have become more than just clients and patients but partners in improving the lives of animals in our community.

We have pioneered a number of new and innovative systems to improve our patients' experience with our organization. Back in 2011 we created appointments over the phone - now all it takes is three clicks on our online scheduler and you can have a date and time for your pet's surgery or wellness appointment. Automated reminders go out to help remind folks of their upcoming appointment and to notify them that their pet's vaccine will soon expire. There have been so many changes but one thing has remained a constant: our affection for the bully breeds.

Not to step on anyone’s toes (or paws) but if you took a poll in the clinic, pit bulls would hands down be a favorite breed of our staff. We have fixed more than 3,000 pitties since we opened and I am continually amazed at the wide variety of people who own them and how many different iterations of the breed there are - brindle, red, blue, brown, fawn. Why do we love them so much? In my humble opinion, it’s because (in no particular order): their fur is like velvet, they want to kiss everyone (we laugh because more times than not they are licking the faces of the doctors while being given an injection or having their nails trimmed), will pretty much do anything to get you to rub their bellies, and their tails are wagging from the minute they come through the door until the moment they walk out of the clinic in the afternoon. It can often feel like all we hear about pit bulls is the bad stuff. But as someone who interacts with multiple pit bulls five days a week for five years there is absolutely no question: not every dog is perfect but in our experience pit bulls rock!!

-Cary Bernstein, Founder & Executive Director

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