January 23, 2024 • 12 mins
Hillsborough County's Pet Resource Center is offering free spaying and neutering appointments for up to 200 bully breed dogs between February 12 and 23. But you need to sign up now. The free services also include microchipping, heartworm testing, and vaccines. Listen for more information about the Operation Pit Stop program here in this interview with Ginette Campos.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Hillsborough County is offering free spaying and
neutering services and more for bully breeddogs for a week and a half beginning
in February. It's called Operation pitStop and the reason we're telling you about
it now is that you need tosign up in advance and there are going
to be a lot of demands forthese availabilities. Jeanette campus is veterinary practice
(00:24):
manager with the Hillsboro County Pet ResourceCenter the Shelter, the pet shelter in
Hillsborough County. Jeanette Campbus, welcometo Beyond the News. Hi, thank
you for having us, and thankyou for giving us the opportunity to reach
out to the whole area in TampaBay and tell us about this great program
that we're having here. Okay,before we get to the details about that
(00:47):
and how people in Hillsboro County cansign up for us for it, tell
us how the county came up withthis program. Well, I'm gonna be
honest with you, Gordon, hewas in the county. We were contact
a local veterinarian the area that sheis a huge advocate of rescues and all
(01:07):
this kind of good stuff that ishappening in the community, and she brought
the idea and explained to us andhow it was happening down in Miami and
how positive the response of the communitywas, and we jump into it.
It's like those kinds of things thatyou just cannot say no, right.
We partner with Winds of Rescue,which is a rescue group that their mission
(01:33):
is to fly out of disaster zones, if you want to call it like
that, animals mainly dogs and cats. They do a little bit of exotic
pets and whatnot, but their maingoal is dogs and cats. So we
start talking to them and they explainthe program to us, and we just
because it's very aligned to what welike to do at Pergrisal Center and throughout
(01:57):
the whole county, which is returningto the community and helping the citizens and
all the residents of Hinsborough County eithertwo legs or four legs to be better
right, to have a very qualityof life. And we had last year
during the months of August and September, because it went from August fifteen to
(02:19):
September something, we performed two hundredand fifty seven surgeries. It was amazing.
I was telling my boss, Ihope that we don't have cameras in
the parking lot because the amount ofhogs and kisses I'm getting from people when
they picked up the animal, andall the services were for free. Same
thing that is happening now, whichis going to save or save in that
(02:42):
moment close to seven hundred, ninehundred, even a thousand dollars depends on
the weight of the animal to thesefamilies. So it has a huge impact
in the community. And the mainthing is we are preventing on wanting puppies,
right, that's the main goal thatwe're having. We don't want these
animals to be having more puppies.We have plenty here the shelter, and
(03:06):
all the shelters in Florida and throughoutthe Union, there are capacity for the
last three years. Just that's oldstory for all shelters in the community.
And besides un wanting pregnancies, wecan also prevent cancer and the females.
We can prevent biometris, which isan infection in the uterus of the dogs
(03:29):
that will send your dog to theer and it's an emergency surgery that is
very very coastly. We can alsoprevent prostatic cancer and the males it's another
type of tumor that is transmissible forthe intercourse in the animal. So it
is a lot of benefits and basicallyextending and giving them a better quality of
(03:53):
life to our pets. So it'sa win win for everybody. Now of
course it is always is a winwin for Spain and neuduring your pets.
You're specifically targeting the bully breeds inthis opportunity. Describe what we mean by
bully breeds, which breeds we're talkingabout, and why you're targeting them and
(04:13):
their owners to get this special programbasically garden because it's the I'm gonna say
maybe ninety five percent of the animalsthat we have currently at the shelter are
bully breeds. And bully breeds areall those breeds that are considered or belong
to the groups of American bulldogs,American Starfford Carrier of course, the pit
(04:38):
bulls itself, but peopils are notvery common. People call them peoples where
they're not pit bulls. But allthose dogs there are you know, stuffy,
bulky, big head dogs, whichis by the way, my favorite
kind of dog. They are underthis stigma that there are you know,
(04:58):
bad boys and girls, which isnot true at all. They might sometimes
when they get in trouble for behavioror things like that is because they were
not trained properly, which I alwayssaid, or tell people this is like
kids. If you allow your kidto be out on the streets late at
night doing god knows what, it'snot gonna be good. It is the
(05:20):
same with your dogs. If youtrain your dogs since an early age and
you give them, you know,guidance and limits, they're gonna be great
puppies. They're gonna be great dogsthroughout their life. So preventing unwanting puppies
coming from these breeds, we hopefully, we hope that will help us in
(05:40):
the long run. It's not gonnabe next month. It's not gonna be
six months down the road. It'sgonna be maybe a couple of years,
maybe three years, when we're gonnabe starting seeing the results of these efforts
that we're making now. But wehave to start somewhere, right. So
this is the second time we doit. We want to keep doing.
Is a great program. It's foundedby resources of Hillsborough County. So that's
(06:04):
why we are limited to residents ofHillsborough County, and it's going to be
one of the requisites to apply tothe program a proof of residency in the
county. But this is the reasonwhy we are, you know, offering
this service for the well known bullybraids in our community. Now, I
(06:25):
suppose a factor in that also isthe fact that besides the spaying and neutering
obviously being helpful as far as certainbehaviors and also as far as for health
reasons and for controlling unwanted the reproduction, is that also you have a lot
of situations there where there are ownerswho are in situations where they may be
(06:50):
tempted to get into a breeding situation. And I'm wondering if that's more commonplace
when you're talking about these bully breeds, when there's the temptation that maybe,
you know, maybe they figured thatthat's a way to go, and that
offering these services for free is away to kind of discourage that. Yeah,
(07:14):
and it's also a huge financial helpfor all these families because sometimes and
this is always something that I talkwhen I have the opportunity to talk to
adopters, I rediate the fact thatyou're getting a lifetide commitment because some of
these guys are going to be partof your family for ten fifteen years,
and the medical care is part ofit. Like when you have to take
(07:38):
your kids to the pediatrician or tothe dentists or whichever especially you're taking.
It is the same way your dogsand your pets. And like I said,
some of these surgeries can go upto depends on the weight of the
animal, up to eight hundred onethousand dollars. So helping the community providing
these services given the very quality oflife for the pets, but there's definitely
(08:03):
an economical impact that we are hopingto help in the community. Lately,
we are noticing that a lot offamilies are reaching out to us. They're
having difficulties to feed their animals,They're having difficulties to accomplish or comply with
the regulatory vaccines. So we wantto give a hand to the community.
(08:24):
Now, this is going to betaking place. The surgeries will be taking
place February twelfth through the twenty third. You've said aside a window of about
ten days for that, and let'sjust go over again who's eligible for this.
They have to be Hillsboro County residents. The owners have to be and
(08:45):
what qualifications they need and what they'regoing to be getting with this offer.
Yes, as you mentioned Gordon,they have to be a Hillsboro County residents.
The migration status is not going tobe taking on consideration. We only
need to know that you are aresident of Hillsborough County. If you need
to send your email and other languagethat is not English, please do we
(09:11):
have bilingual staff there's going to beable to help us with that. The
only restriction that we put on thedogs is we cannot perform surgeries and animals
heavier than ninety pounds. So that'sthe only the only restriction. Let's see
for the dogs. We're gonna dofemale males, young puppies older than six
(09:33):
weeks and more than welcome to participatein the program. And what we are
including on top of the surgery isthe microchip, the hardworm test, which
is very very important because we livein Paradise and we have mosquitos year round
and that's how our dogs get theirheartworms and how that's how they get infected
(09:54):
with this parasites is through mosquito bites. So having our dogs and prevention for
hartworms is one of the most importantthings that we need to do living in
Florida and know it. To putyour dog and prevention, you need to
know the status if he's positive ornegative. So that's another thing that we
(10:16):
want to help the community. Atleast telling you, hey, your dog
is positive or your dog is negative. Is if it's negative, you can
go reach out to your doctor andget a prescription for the prevention. If
it's positive, we're going to havea different conversation. But now at least
we know we also are gonna upto date them. They don't have to
(10:37):
be up to date and vaccines,we will do it for you during the
surgery. And we're going to alsoprovide the rabies vaccine with their license for
free. So you're including in additionto spaining and neutering, microchipping, vaccination,
and heartworm testing. So that's quitea package and quite quite a value
for these animals. Now, howdo people need to reach out to you
(11:03):
to set up these appointments? AndI hope there are still a lot left.
When people hear this, I haveto think they'll be going quickly.
They're going quickly, So as soonas you hear this, please please please
get in your phone, get inyour computer, and send us an email
to PRC Operation pit Stop. Allone big word, PRC Operation pit Stop
(11:30):
at agecfl gov dot net. Thatis the email where you can send us
your initial request. All we're goingto need to from you is the a
photo of your driver's license or anyproof of residence because we need to confirm
the you are a Hilborough County resident. And it will help us a lot
(11:52):
if you send us a picture ofyour dog, because we are creating profiles
in our system for all the dogsthat are going to participate in the program.
So if you go ahead and sendus a picture of your poppy,
that will give you a start pointprey quickly. So just send us an
email. We will get back toyou and give you the appointment for free.
(12:13):
All right, and that email addressagain and I hope I get this
right. PRC Operation pit Stop athcflgov dot net. Jeannette Campos, the
Veterinary Practice manager with the Hillsboro CountyPet Resource Center, thank you for joining
us on Beyond the News to talkabout Operation pit Stop. Thank you Gordon,
(12:35):
thank you for the opportunity. Wereally appreciate it. And hope to
see everybody there doing all the surgeries,
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Hillsborough County is offering free spaying and
neutering services and more for bully breeddogs for a week and a half beginning
in February. It's called Operation pitStop and the reason we're telling you about
it now is that you need tosign up in advance and there are going
to be a lot of demands forthese availabilities. Jeanette campus is veterinary practice
(00:24):
manager with the Hillsboro County Pet ResourceCenter the Shelter, the pet shelter in
Hillsborough County. Jeanette Campbus, welcometo Beyond the News. Hi, thank
you for having us, and thankyou for giving us the opportunity to reach
out to the whole area in TampaBay and tell us about this great program
that we're having here. Okay,before we get to the details about that
(00:47):
and how people in Hillsboro County cansign up for us for it, tell
us how the county came up withthis program. Well, I'm gonna be
honest with you, Gordon, hewas in the county. We were contact
a local veterinarian the area that sheis a huge advocate of rescues and all
(01:07):
this kind of good stuff that ishappening in the community, and she brought
the idea and explained to us andhow it was happening down in Miami and
how positive the response of the communitywas, and we jump into it.
It's like those kinds of things thatyou just cannot say no, right.
We partner with Winds of Rescue,which is a rescue group that their mission
(01:33):
is to fly out of disaster zones, if you want to call it like
that, animals mainly dogs and cats. They do a little bit of exotic
pets and whatnot, but their maingoal is dogs and cats. So we
start talking to them and they explainthe program to us, and we just
because it's very aligned to what welike to do at Pergrisal Center and throughout
(01:57):
the whole county, which is returningto the community and helping the citizens and
all the residents of Hinsborough County eithertwo legs or four legs to be better
right, to have a very qualityof life. And we had last year
during the months of August and September, because it went from August fifteen to
(02:19):
September something, we performed two hundredand fifty seven surgeries. It was amazing.
I was telling my boss, Ihope that we don't have cameras in
the parking lot because the amount ofhogs and kisses I'm getting from people when
they picked up the animal, andall the services were for free. Same
thing that is happening now, whichis going to save or save in that
(02:42):
moment close to seven hundred, ninehundred, even a thousand dollars depends on
the weight of the animal to thesefamilies. So it has a huge impact
in the community. And the mainthing is we are preventing on wanting puppies,
right, that's the main goal thatwe're having. We don't want these
animals to be having more puppies.We have plenty here the shelter, and
(03:06):
all the shelters in Florida and throughoutthe Union, there are capacity for the
last three years. Just that's oldstory for all shelters in the community.
And besides un wanting pregnancies, wecan also prevent cancer and the females.
We can prevent biometris, which isan infection in the uterus of the dogs
(03:29):
that will send your dog to theer and it's an emergency surgery that is
very very coastly. We can alsoprevent prostatic cancer and the males it's another
type of tumor that is transmissible forthe intercourse in the animal. So it
is a lot of benefits and basicallyextending and giving them a better quality of
(03:53):
life to our pets. So it'sa win win for everybody. Now of
course it is always is a winwin for Spain and neuduring your pets.
You're specifically targeting the bully breeds inthis opportunity. Describe what we mean by
bully breeds, which breeds we're talkingabout, and why you're targeting them and
(04:13):
their owners to get this special programbasically garden because it's the I'm gonna say
maybe ninety five percent of the animalsthat we have currently at the shelter are
bully breeds. And bully breeds areall those breeds that are considered or belong
to the groups of American bulldogs,American Starfford Carrier of course, the pit
(04:38):
bulls itself, but peopils are notvery common. People call them peoples where
they're not pit bulls. But allthose dogs there are you know, stuffy,
bulky, big head dogs, whichis by the way, my favorite
kind of dog. They are underthis stigma that there are you know,
(04:58):
bad boys and girls, which isnot true at all. They might sometimes
when they get in trouble for behavioror things like that is because they were
not trained properly, which I alwayssaid, or tell people this is like
kids. If you allow your kidto be out on the streets late at
night doing god knows what, it'snot gonna be good. It is the
(05:20):
same with your dogs. If youtrain your dogs since an early age and
you give them, you know,guidance and limits, they're gonna be great
puppies. They're gonna be great dogsthroughout their life. So preventing unwanting puppies
coming from these breeds, we hopefully, we hope that will help us in
(05:40):
the long run. It's not gonnabe next month. It's not gonna be
six months down the road. It'sgonna be maybe a couple of years,
maybe three years, when we're gonnabe starting seeing the results of these efforts
that we're making now. But wehave to start somewhere, right. So
this is the second time we doit. We want to keep doing.
Is a great program. It's foundedby resources of Hillsborough County. So that's
(06:04):
why we are limited to residents ofHillsborough County, and it's going to be
one of the requisites to apply tothe program a proof of residency in the
county. But this is the reasonwhy we are, you know, offering
this service for the well known bullybraids in our community. Now, I
(06:25):
suppose a factor in that also isthe fact that besides the spaying and neutering
obviously being helpful as far as certainbehaviors and also as far as for health
reasons and for controlling unwanted the reproduction, is that also you have a lot
of situations there where there are ownerswho are in situations where they may be
(06:50):
tempted to get into a breeding situation. And I'm wondering if that's more commonplace
when you're talking about these bully breeds, when there's the temptation that maybe,
you know, maybe they figured thatthat's a way to go, and that
offering these services for free is away to kind of discourage that. Yeah,
(07:14):
and it's also a huge financial helpfor all these families because sometimes and
this is always something that I talkwhen I have the opportunity to talk to
adopters, I rediate the fact thatyou're getting a lifetide commitment because some of
these guys are going to be partof your family for ten fifteen years,
and the medical care is part ofit. Like when you have to take
(07:38):
your kids to the pediatrician or tothe dentists or whichever especially you're taking.
It is the same way your dogsand your pets. And like I said,
some of these surgeries can go upto depends on the weight of the
animal, up to eight hundred onethousand dollars. So helping the community providing
these services given the very quality oflife for the pets, but there's definitely
(08:03):
an economical impact that we are hopingto help in the community. Lately,
we are noticing that a lot offamilies are reaching out to us. They're
having difficulties to feed their animals,They're having difficulties to accomplish or comply with
the regulatory vaccines. So we wantto give a hand to the community.
(08:24):
Now, this is going to betaking place. The surgeries will be taking
place February twelfth through the twenty third. You've said aside a window of about
ten days for that, and let'sjust go over again who's eligible for this.
They have to be Hillsboro County residents. The owners have to be and
(08:45):
what qualifications they need and what they'regoing to be getting with this offer.
Yes, as you mentioned Gordon,they have to be a Hillsboro County residents.
The migration status is not going tobe taking on consideration. We only
need to know that you are aresident of Hillsborough County. If you need
to send your email and other languagethat is not English, please do we
(09:11):
have bilingual staff there's going to beable to help us with that. The
only restriction that we put on thedogs is we cannot perform surgeries and animals
heavier than ninety pounds. So that'sthe only the only restriction. Let's see
for the dogs. We're gonna dofemale males, young puppies older than six
(09:33):
weeks and more than welcome to participatein the program. And what we are
including on top of the surgery isthe microchip, the hardworm test, which
is very very important because we livein Paradise and we have mosquitos year round
and that's how our dogs get theirheartworms and how that's how they get infected
(09:54):
with this parasites is through mosquito bites. So having our dogs and prevention for
hartworms is one of the most importantthings that we need to do living in
Florida and know it. To putyour dog and prevention, you need to
know the status if he's positive ornegative. So that's another thing that we
(10:16):
want to help the community. Atleast telling you, hey, your dog
is positive or your dog is negative. Is if it's negative, you can
go reach out to your doctor andget a prescription for the prevention. If
it's positive, we're going to havea different conversation. But now at least
we know we also are gonna upto date them. They don't have to
(10:37):
be up to date and vaccines,we will do it for you during the
surgery. And we're going to alsoprovide the rabies vaccine with their license for
free. So you're including in additionto spaining and neutering, microchipping, vaccination,
and heartworm testing. So that's quitea package and quite quite a value
for these animals. Now, howdo people need to reach out to you
(11:03):
to set up these appointments? AndI hope there are still a lot left.
When people hear this, I haveto think they'll be going quickly.
They're going quickly, So as soonas you hear this, please please please
get in your phone, get inyour computer, and send us an email
to PRC Operation pit Stop. Allone big word, PRC Operation pit Stop
(11:30):
at agecfl gov dot net. Thatis the email where you can send us
your initial request. All we're goingto need to from you is the a
photo of your driver's license or anyproof of residence because we need to confirm
the you are a Hilborough County resident. And it will help us a lot
(11:52):
if you send us a picture ofyour dog, because we are creating profiles
in our system for all the dogsthat are going to participate in the program.
So if you go ahead and sendus a picture of your poppy,
that will give you a start pointprey quickly. So just send us an
email. We will get back toyou and give you the appointment for free.
(12:13):
All right, and that email addressagain and I hope I get this
right. PRC Operation pit Stop athcflgov dot net. Jeannette Campos, the
Veterinary Practice manager with the Hillsboro CountyPet Resource Center, thank you for joining
us on Beyond the News to talkabout Operation pit Stop. Thank you Gordon,
(12:35):
thank you for the opportunity. Wereally appreciate it. And hope to
see everybody there doing all the surgeries,
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