Two new city-owned veterinary clinics are now offering free spay/neuter surgeries for San Antonio residents’ dogs and cats — part of the city’s ongoing effort to reduce the number of stray and roaming animals.
Appointments opened online on May 1 for the new Westside clinic at Las Palmas Mall, with spaces available Tuesday through Saturday.
A second clinic on the East Side opened in July, with appointments also available online. Both are expected to perform about 25 spay/neuter surgeries per day.
The spay/neuter services will be available free of charge for residents’ dogs and cats, but appointments are required and priority booking will be given to residents in certain zip codes with high rates of service calls to the city’s Animal Care Services Department.
Here’s how the new community vet clinics will work.
Where to find free spay/neuter surgeries
The Westside clinic at the Las Palmas Mall is located at 803 Castroville Rd., Suite 120.
The Eastside clinic is located near the Denver Heights Community Center, at 1608 S. New Braunfels Ave.
Both clinics will be run by the city’s Animal Care Services Department, using contracted veterinarians. Appointments can be booked online.
The city also has two other long-running free spay/neuter clinics: in Brackenridge Park near the San Antonio Zoo, run by the nonprofit Spay Neuter Network, and at Brooks City Base on the city’s Southeast Side, run by the Spay-Neuter Assistance Program.
Appointments for those clinics can be booked from the links above, but are often competitive. Spaces typically fill up for the month as soon as the next batch is opened up online, according to the city.
Who qualifies?
City veterinary clinics are open to all San Antonio residents, but require an appointment and pet owners must be able to verify that they live within San Antonio city limits.
City clinics serve cats and dogs only.
Appointments for the Eastside and Westside clinics will be given to residents of zip codes with the highest rates of calls to the city’s Animal Care Services Department.
Priority zip codes include: 78201,78202.78203,78204,78205, 78207,78208,78210,78211,78213,78214,78218,78219,78220,78221, 78222,78223,78224,78225,78226,78227,78228,78229,78235,78237,78238,78242 and 78264.
Animal Care Services spokeswoman Lisa Norwood cautioned that many people have San Antonio as their mailing address because it’s the United States Postal Service’s hub location, but don’t actually live within city limits. Residents who live in the county or another municipality like Balcones Heights or Castle Hills will not qualify.
Other veterinary services
Dogs and cats that receive spay/neuter services from the new clinics will also be eligible for additional basic veterinary care, such as microchips and core vaccinations.
Right now, microchips and vaccines are only available to pets already coming in for a spay/neuter appointment, as the city focuses on sterilization to cut down on the stray and roaming animal population. The city intends to make them available separately in the future.
