Naked City

EmanciPet volunteers work on Rover. (Photo By John Anderson)

Tucked behind the Southeast Austin complex that once housed the Texas School for the Deaf is a building with a blocky stencil of a dog over the door. The dog wears a beret, à la Che Guevara. This is the new headquarters of EmanciPet, which since 1999 has been "liberating" Austin animals from the threat of euthanasia by offering low-cost spays and neuters from the back of a tricked-out van. Thanks to a $1-a-year lease from the city, they have 3,000 square feet of space, a kitchen, and laundry facilities, as well as plans for up to five veterinarians fixing 150 dogs and cats a day. Now they just need some animals.

Veterinarian Ellen Jefferson, who launched EmanciPet in 1999 when she was two years out of vet school, stood on a recent afternoon beside a board listing the day's patients. It was full: Sasha, Bailey, Shadow, Kit Kat, and a couple dozen others. But Jefferson wasn't satisfied. "Today looks awesome, but that's misleading," she said. The day before, for example, the clinic had only five appointments, and had to close for the day. "I know the animals are out there," she said, as a couple of vet techs staggered by with an unconscious, 76-pound Great Pyrenees mix, fresh from surgery. "It's just a matter of finding them."

You wouldn't think it would be so hard in a city with a pet overpopulation problem like Austin's. While the city-run Town Lake Animal Center finds homes for close to 10,000 pets each year, it also euthanizes about 20,000. That's a number that no one likes, but one that'll be hard to dent as long as people's pets are still churning out litters. That's where cheap spays and neuters come in. While EmanciPet has done about 7,000 surgeries a year for the last five years, the number of animals turned over to TLAC has declined 20%. Jefferson figures that if EmanciPet quadruples the number of animals they fix, Austin could be virtually kill-free in two years. "The idea is, let's just do it, get the problem solved, and put ourselves out of business," she said.

But first, they have to find those animals. EmanciPet faces two major problems. First, the main clientele for the mobile clinic was low-income Austinites who paid for their pets' surgeries with city-funded vouchers. To bring in 100-plus animals a day, EmanciPet needs to build a new clientele who will pay the $22 to $36 fees themselves. Plus, the location is a bit off the beaten track, located at the Levander Loop, where Airport Boulevard and Highway 183 come together in Southeast Austin. To publicize the site, they plan to hold dog-friendly events on the grounds of the old school (which is slated to be bulldozed for a new facility to replace the Town Lake Animal Center in 2009 anyway), like a film screening and canine social event the Austin Film Festival will hold in June. "It's going to be a weird mix of art and film and dogs," Jefferson said. "It'll be cool."

Despite the challenges, Missy McCullough of Animal Trustees of Austin, the other low-cost spay/neuter clinic in town, is confident EmanciPet will find its footing. ATA has a four-month waiting list for surgeries, but McCullough remembers when they weren't so busy. "The first couple years were a struggle," she said. Still, she added, "We could probably have 10 places like this, and not take care of everyone. We absolutely welcome EmanciPet and are thrilled they're here."