Statement Concerning Cancellation of Scheduled Surgeries for 1/29/2019

Today, Monday, January 21, 2019, our Operation Fix-it spay and neuter canceled unexpectedly.  Due to the late timing of the closure, our volunteers and clients were already arriving and waiting for our doors to open as they usually do at 7:30 AM.

Due to a combination of unrelated and unforeseen problems, our Operation Fix-It program was unable to do surgery safely.  Our program requires multiple levels of experienced and skilled staff to manage everything from pre-surgical evaluations, sedation, anesthesia, the surgical procedure, and post-operative care and observation.  Due to a combination of staff illness and transportation issues, we did not have enough staff to perform surgeries for any of our scheduled clients.

Our surgery team arrives hours earlier than our regular office staff.  Due to this, there was a delay in reaching our administrative staff who were not yet on-site, and our Veterinary Team had to make an executive decision for the safety of the animals that were scheduled. 

We are deeply sorry that this occurred.  When we close, we do have a protocol for alerting our clients that can include emails, texts, phone calls and use of the WWMT closing system.  In this instance, the cancellation was decided too late for us to alert those that needed to know about it.

Our organization has never had anything like this occur before, and we were unprepared to address it as it was unfolding.  Going forward, we are reviewing our cancellation policy and protocols so that this never happens again.  We are also working to contact each client to make arrangements to reschedule.

Our Operation Fix-It program has altered over 72,000 cats and dogs since 2002.  We are providing a critical service to our communities, and we know that you expect a high level of service.  We apologize that we were not able to meet your expectations today.