Most people have heard the message loud and clear: spaying and neutering is the solution to our overcrowded shelters. For three consecutive months, the San Diego Humane Society (SDHS) has set new records for the number of adult dogs in their care. From January through November 2025, they spayed and neutered 22,093 animals — the largest spay-neuter program in San Diego County.
On a Monday in December, KPBS joined the surgical team to take a look at how it manages the high number of spay and neuter operations. Like every Monday, the doors to the shelter were closed to the public, but the veterinary team was gearing up for a busy day.
Inside SDHS’ Bahde Center For Shelter Medicine, veterinary technicians experience the calm before the very controlled and well-orchestrated storm of spaying and neutering as many animals as possible. They are setting out instruments, connecting medical devices, and finalizing the surgical list by 9 a.m.
Veterinary Manager Sylvia Nagy’s first case on this morning was Eeyore, a spunky 4-month-old puppy found wandering Barrio Logan. He had no microchip, and was not neutered. But what he did have was an imminent adoption by the family that found him.
While Eeyore gets shaved, Leah, a 4-year-old Siberian Husky, is having her bladder manually expressed. “When they are looking for the uterus, it's (the bladder) right in the way. So we like to express it. So it's smaller and more out of the way,” said one of the veterinary technicians.
Under sedation, both Leah and Eeyore are carried on blankets into the operating room and placed on adjacent operating tables.
“I'm going to begin the surgery. The surgery is a pre-scrotal neuter,” said Nagy as she begins her incision on Eeyore. “One testicle is isolated and an incision is made.”
Because of the high volume of surgeries, smaller incisions mean faster surgeries. Less than seven minutes later, Eeyore’s surgery is complete.
“The testicles have been removed,” said Nagy as she scored his skin above his incision to administer a skin-dye covered with glue. This tattoo indicates he has been neutered.
The organization spays and neuters between 30 and 50 dogs per day. “I think the most that we've done was maybe 70 or 80 in one day,” said Danielle Clem, San Diego Humane Society Senior Hospital Director.
Last December, KPBS produced a special program detailing the overcrowded shelter crisis situation. Clem said the problem persists with record breaking numbers in recent months. The organization is operating at 167% capacity for dogs, and adoptions have dropped 10%. In November 2025, SDHS averaged more than 566 adult dogs in its care.
“Spay and Neuter might seem like just another elective procedure, but in the shelter setting, there's much more sense of urgency with that procedure, because we know it's that animal's ticket out the shelter and into their new home,” Clem said.
And that ticket is what they’re hoping to give Leah the Husky, whose spay surgery continued after Eeyore was done. Male dogs take only a few minutes to be neutered. Female dogs, especially adults like Leah, take longer.
“So, you're actually doing an ovariohysterectomy, which is a fairly complicated and expensive procedure,” said Nagy. “Just like in women, it's internal. So that's why it's more complicated in the dog.”
But spaying and neutering is more than just population control. Clem said it can save a pet's life by eliminating innate, but dangerous escaping behavior. She said there’s a common theme to most traumatic emergency cases they see. “Most of those animals are intact. And so by eliminating that urge to escape and to roam, we can keep our pets safer and healthier as well,” Clem said.
While surgery can be expensive, the organization wants to take affordability off the table as an excuse. They offer low-cost spay and neuter to the community with approximately 68 appointments offered to the community every week.
“So, availability really shouldn't be an excuse either. We have plenty of appointments that aren't getting booked,” Clem said. “I really encourage people to just make that choice and schedule an appointment.”
Next on the day’s surgery list is cats, and at 2 p.m., the surgeries are wrapped. Just a couple of hours later, Eeyore was ready to go home with his new family. Along with his new life, he was bequeathed a new name. “His name is Grover!” chorused Sadie Neville and Elizabeth Clark. They are the ones who found him, and said when they dropped him off at SDHS, they knew he would end up back with them.
The San Diego Humane Society is fundraising to build San Diego’s first community veterinary hospital. The $11 million project will serve to build more dog housing and will offer affordable pet care to families with limited financial means. The goal is to break ground in 2026.
