SPEAK ANIMAL HOSPITAL PC
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Mission Statement
S.P.E.A.K. (Society for the Promotion of Education in Animal Kindness), Inc. is committed to the following: • Do all within our power to alleviate the suffering of animals. • Provide education by demonstration and teaching responsible pet ownership. • Provide shelter for stray/abandoned/abused animals in a natural environment where the animal's mental and physical health and comfort are the prime concern. • Provide routine veterinarian care to sheltered animals. • Provide a spay/neuter clinic services to pet owners in order to make it affordable to spay and neuter all pets. • Provide a lost and found service where assistance is given and every effort is made to reunite lost pets with their owners. • Educate pet owners, using a positive approach, in proper training of their pets, which will have a direct influence on animals being abandoned and/or relinquished because of behavioral problems. • Provide lectures and talks to school children, groups, and other organizations in order to promote a better understanding of animals and to encourage kindness, compassion and responsibility toward all living creatures.
About This Cause
SPEAK History -as told by Sandy Vizvary, Founder of SPEAK Prior and into the 1970s, the shelters for animals were totally despicable. Gas chambers were being used to euthanize even healthy dogs and cats. The animal control vehicles were equipped with small cages. Carbon monoxide gas was piped into the cages directly from the vehicle’s exhaust. Animals were euthanized while on route to a shelter. Some shelters had a space under the floor where animals were thrown into a holding tank. Gas was piped into the tank to euthanize the animals. The public was uneducated in all the gruesome ways animals were being treated. These horrible conditions that plagued even healthy, young animals was unacceptable to me and to a handful of others who joined me in banning together to improve conditions for animals in shelters and to ban the use of gas as a method for euthanasia. By 1975, SPEAK became an incorporated, not-for-profit organization that was committed to the welfare of animals and more specifically a low-cost spay/neuter program to help curb the overpopulation of cats and dogs. Shortly after SPEAK became incorporated, we purchased a van, and equipped it with everything necessary for an animal ambulance – including sirens and emergency lights. I worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week with local police, state police, other government agencies, and the public to help them with their emergency calls involving injured animals. I transported the animals to local veterinarians for treatment. If no owner was located, SPEAK was obligated to pay the veterinarian bills. If it was necessary for SPEAK to board the stray/abandoned/injured animals with local veterinarian facilities, SPEAK would pay the full cost of the boarding and care. The ambulance was used every weekend to transport animals to veterinarians outside of our locality who were willing to lower the costs of spays and neuters. If the pet had an owner, SPEAK would only charge the veterinarian’s costs; no additional fees were added. SPEAK volunteers had owners of pets bring their animals to our homes where they put into cages and carriers and transported to the veterinarian. The appointments with the vet were usually made on a Saturday. Animals were transported to the vet and on the following Monday we went back to pick up the animals and bring them back to our homes where their owners could retrieve them. Hundreds upon hundreds of animals were spayed and neutered through our program. The demand and need for our programs soon became too demanding to be able to count on just one outside veterinarian. We appealed to all local veterinarians to share a low-cost spay/neuter program. SPEAK would organize the appointments and we asked if each veterinarian would take just one spay/neuter day out of a month, and lower their prices for the surgeries. When this urgently needed community service was favorable received by the veterinarians, at my request, SPEAK’s officers and board members voted that SPEAK should have its own facility where animals would have a safe, healthy home until their owners could be found or until they were adopted. I also specifically requested that the facility would house a veterinarian hospital. Veterinarians would take care of the health requirements of the sanctuary animals, and provide low-cost spay/neuter and other pet health care, not only to the in-house animals, but to other pets as well. With the high cost of boarding animals, along with the cost of veterinarian treatment for injured/sick animals brought to vet animals by SPEAK, it was very difficult trying to save money to build the sanctuary we had planned. We did not want the same type of shelter we already had in the area. We were specific in our plans to have a unique animal shelter where animals would be housed in rooms, not cages, and where their safety, health, and mental health were of the utmost importance. It took until 1998, but the unique and innovative animal sanctuary and hospital was finally a reality. I boarded animals to raise enough money to equip an animal hospital. Bob Barker, then-famous host of “The Price is Right,” offered SPEAK the opportunity to be given a grant from his foundation in the amount of $35,000.00 if we could raise that same amount from public donations and fundraising. The challenge was met and we were able to supply our hospital with the needed equipment to begin low-cost pet health care, along with a spay/neuter program that would benefit our sanctuary animals as well as be open to the public. The sanctuary and hospital have undergone many renovations and upgrades since it was originally established. Because of the demand for our animal welfare programs, in conjunction with the many stray/sick/abandoned animals being brought to our facility and the gaining popularity of our animal hospital, we have had to build an addition with almost the same amount of space as the original building. All of our work and future endeavors in animal welfare are dependent on the generosity of others. Without our members, supporters and contributors, our programs and future help to animals would be in grave jeopardy. It is through the kindness and generosity of people who believe in our commitment to the welfare, health and happiness of animals that we exist today. It is that same generosity that will enable us to continue our work and progress in animal welfare.