Gem City Vet - Est. August 2021

Gem City Vet is a nonprofit clinic created by Gem City Kitties to help Dayton, Ohio become a no-kill community. We purchased our facility in 2019 with the goal to open in 2020. Like many others, COVID severely interrupted our plans.

PHASE 1: low-cost WELLNESS SERVICES

In order to regroup and begin offering services quickly, we decided to open with limited hours and services initially. As we grow, we can expand our hours of operation as well as our programs. We will be open one weekend/month and offer the following wellness services:

Exams
Vaccines
Preventatives for heartworm, fleas, and ticks
Testing for heartworm and FeLV/FIV
Microchips
Treatment and medication for common medical issues such as: ear infections, ear mites, and mange.

PHASE 2: HIGH VOLUME SPAY/NEUTER

We know spay/neuter services are the solution to ending overpopulation. Our goal is to add these services at our facility as soon as we can. Phase 2 expansion would include TNR services for community cats to further develop our TNR program.

OUR STORY

We started our parent organization, Gem City Kitties, in 2017 to partner with Dayton's Cat Café, Gem City Catfé. Together, both organizations work to improve the lives of cats in Dayton by collaborating with local rescues and shelters to help find homes for cats in need, providing support for TNR services, and educating community members about best practices for cat care.

We knew these services alone weren’t enough to achieve our mission of ensuring that Dayton is a place in which all of our feline friends are valued, protected, and treated with empathy, and compassion. Additionally, In April 2019, the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center (ARC) ended all cat programs. Other privately funded shelters are now overwhelmed, as they have been forced to absorb the demand of services formerly managed and funded at the county level.

Gem City Vet was started as an expansion to help make larger steps in our community at a faster pace.

Until recently in the US, millions of pets were killed each year in shelters simply because they didn’t have homes.

Through the hard work of nonprofits, government shelters, and millions of advocates and volunteers demanding change, we have seen a massive reduction and brought the number of deaths down to about 800,000 annually.

Nationally, many organizations are working together to reach "no-kill" by 2025, meaning that we aren’t killing any pets for lack of space and only euthanizing when it’s the best and most merciful choice for the animal. Ohio is well on its way to meet the 2025 goal but Montgomery County is behind the rest of the urban counties in Ohio.

Dayton can be a no-kill community by 2025 by providing more spay & neuter surgeries.

Gem City Kitties feels a high-volume spay and neuter clinic located in West Dayton is a vital part of the solution.

We’ll provide both easier access and faster appointment availability for community cats and pets within low-income families. We’ve begun the process to establish a high volume spay and neuter clinic, and we need your help to move forward so we can end unnecessary suffering of both dogs and cats in the Dayton Metro Area.

To open as quickly as possible, we’ll open in two phases. During Phase 1, we’ll be open part time and offer low-cost wellness services to pets in low-income families. As we get established, we’ll work toward opening Phase 2 and expanding to offer spay/neuter for both cats and dogs.

GIVE YOUR SUPPORT

Help us keep our pricing affordable. Your donation helps cover the costs for pets in low-income families.

GIVE

As a new, grassroots nonprofit, we’re able to work quickly and build our programs extremely efficiently.
Since opening in January of 2018, in partnership with Gem City Catfe, we have adopted over 745 cats to loving homes, educated thousands of Daytonians on best practices for cat care, and trained over 100 community members on how to help solve this problem at a local level.

We're excited to expand our programs and hope you will join us. Donations of any size are appreciated.