January 26, 2024 • 8 mins
A Tampa Bay area veterinary surgeon reaches a milestone. Dr. Rizal Lopez DVM of the SPCA in Pinellas County has performed 25,000 spay and neuter surgeries over his career. We speak with Dr. Lopez about the importance of spaying and neutering pets.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. It's a message you've heard many times
before, spay and neuter your pets, and we're going to talk about that
with someone who has really walked thewalk as far as that goes. Doctor
Rizal Lopez is a veterinarian who hasperformed twenty five thousand spee and neuter surgeries.
He's currently working at the four AllShelter in Largo and the spca's Pet
(00:20):
Hospital in Saint Petersburg, and he'sworking with the SPCA. Doctor Lopez,
thank you very much for joining uson Beyond the News. Oh, it's
pleasure to be with you. Gordon. You've obviously been a veterinarian for a
long time. How did you manageto rack up so many spay and neuter
surgeries? Well, yes, I'vebeen a vet for This is actually my
(00:42):
twenty fifth year being a veterinarian,and the first couple first dozen years or
so, I was in private practiceand doing all the typical things that general
practice bets do, see appointments,do some surgeries. But I joined the
animal welfare industry back in twenty elevenand a big part of our job is
processing all the animals that come in, homeless animals coming through, and by
(01:06):
Florida law, they all have tobe spain and neutered. So jumped into
doing a lot of surgeries just thatvery first year and has kind of kept
going ever since. And you've mentionedyou've been in that field since twenty eleven
and you've operated on thousands of animalssince then. How long does the surgery
usually take and how much does itusually cost? So time varies on what
(01:30):
you're doing. So the most simpleprocedure that we do is a cat neuter,
and it quite literally can take lessthan two minutes to perform that surgery.
If we have a large, olderdog, that's probably the longest surgery
time it could take upwards of twentyto twenty five minutes or so. But
in most cases with younger animals,I can spay a female dog in about
(01:52):
fifteen minutes or so. And asfar as cost, it really varies on
the size of the animal and theand gender. So cat neuters tend to
be in our industry the least expensivesurgeries for us at our bed center.
It runs just a little over onehundred dollars for all inclusive package to have
them neutered, aneesthesia, pain medications, things like that, and for the
(02:14):
large dogs, which is probably themost expensive thing, it can be around
three hundred dollars for us, again, all inclusive of all the procedure things
that we do, pain medications,all of that stuff to go home.
Animal health is your living and you'recalling and if you could talk to us
about how spaying and neutering helps thehealth of your pet and the health of
(02:35):
animals in the community at large.Yeah, it's obviously something I'm clearly been
passionate about for the last twelve tothirteen years. So we know that spain
and neutering dogs and cats and otherspecies actually does have a number of health
benefits. So, first of all, all the impact of having numerous litters
(02:57):
over the years does do some wearand tear on the body, so we're
a limit at that issue. Thereare a number of cancers and other hormonal
issues that come about from having eithertesticles or ovaries in your system and repeating
all of those sexual cycles over theyears. So we're eliminating a lot of
those issues, and especially things likeovarian cancer uterine cancer. We're knocking that
(03:20):
out to zero. The surgeries alsohave a protective effect for female dogs and
cats to minimize a chance for mammaryor breast cancer down the road, which
is a very real thing that wesee in pets and other types of infections
as well. And then of coursethere's behavioral benefits to having them spaded and
neuter. It does tend to mellowout some of the aggressive aggression issues that
(03:42):
we see in some and and theother things like wandering tendencies things like that.
So just a number of health benefitsand and so we really counsel everybody
if we're seeing them as clients towant to get those surgeries done when they're
pets and yach and for the shelteranimals, we've obviously we've made that decision
(04:03):
to do all of that for everybody, and so those are automatically done before
we get them adopted out. Now, as we're talking, it happens that
across the Bay, Hillsboro County isgoing to be offering spay and neuter operations
for pit bulls and bully breeds forfree during the month of February. Are
you noticing trends over time with somebreeds that get bred a lot more than
(04:25):
others and owners being not as likelyas to get their pet spade or neutered.
In other words, are these kindsof targeted campaigns useful in terms of
improving the health of the pet population. I absolutely think so. Yeah.
I think it's a great thing Hillsboroughis going to be doing. We do
(04:45):
see certain breeds that tend to becomemore popular in certain regions. So here
in the South, some of thebully breeds, we do see sort of
an over representation of those animals movingeither as pets for for our citizens here
or come in through the shelter.But as an example, I'm aware that
out in California, Chihuahuas are actuallyover represented moving through the system, and
(05:11):
we transfer a lot of animals comingin from the East Coast to our shelter
down here, and they have alot of the hound dog type breeds that
are a bit overrepresented. So eachregion seems to have its kind of little
tendencies to that. But when youhave those many when you have that many
animals in the public and they haven'tbeen altered, you just need a couple
(05:34):
of unwanted litters, and all ofa sudden, you spread those puppies out
to other friends and family. Thenyou've had a few more litters of those
animals and it conspiral very quickly.We did an estimation once that a male
female dog or cat could potentially inthe span of three to four years if
you look at the you know theyhave a litter, and then those animals
(05:56):
have litters on their own, itsort of exponentially goes up. You might
having over two thousand animals in thecommunity from one pair of animals just about
three to four years down the road. So these kind of campaigns are really
helpful and very useful, and withthe twenty five thousand surgeries, you know
that you've made an impact in thecommunities where you've lived on terms of getting
(06:20):
better lives for pets, a lotof pets and a lot of dogs and
cats, and also helping them helpingavoid a lot of unwanted or unhoused animals
in the community. Yeah, itwas fortunate to have remained at the same
organization now for twelve to thirteen years. Have been very supportive and I've been
(06:43):
I found that doing Spain Hooter isactually I feel like my calling these last
few years. It just feels sosatisfying to be in the community here in
Penel's County specifically, and to knowthat I have specifically altered twenty five thousand
animals in this community. So that'snot only helping those animals out, but
(07:06):
helping their owners out too, becausethey're going to have healthier animals down the
road, and they perhaps have nowtied in like, hey, I've had
this pet, it's been around allthese years, it's made and neutered,
and they can take that education andpass it on to their kids and the
immediate family to say, hey,Spain, neutering, that's an important thing
that you should really consider for youranimals. Well, not finding to surprise
(07:29):
you with a pop question here,but for those who are living Panelas County
and who would like to perhaps theyhave found a feral cat or whatever,
and they would like to set upa spaying or dootering appointment, what's the
best way to go about doing that? So good old fashioned telephone is still
probably the best way for us.I work at two locations, so the
(07:53):
Saint Petersburg Hospital that we just openedabout seven years ago would be the place
for any of the public that needsa surgery for either a feral cat or
one of their own pets. Togive us a call over there at number
seven two seven two two zero oneseven seven zero. I also work at
the shelter, but we're doing thehomeless animals there too, But the Saint
Pete Hospital would be the best wayto get in touch with us, and
(08:16):
we could set that up very quickly. Doctor Rizal Lopez working with SPCA.
He's a veterinarian and he's performed twentyfive thousand spay and newter surgeries over the
course of his career. Doctor Lopez, thank you very much for joining us
on Beyond the News. Thank you, it's been a pleasure.
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. It's a message you've heard many times
before, spay and neuter your pets, and we're going to talk about that
with someone who has really walked thewalk as far as that goes. Doctor
Rizal Lopez is a veterinarian who hasperformed twenty five thousand spee and neuter surgeries.
He's currently working at the four AllShelter in Largo and the spca's Pet
(00:20):
Hospital in Saint Petersburg, and he'sworking with the SPCA. Doctor Lopez,
thank you very much for joining uson Beyond the News. Oh, it's
pleasure to be with you. Gordon. You've obviously been a veterinarian for a
long time. How did you manageto rack up so many spay and neuter
surgeries? Well, yes, I'vebeen a vet for This is actually my
(00:42):
twenty fifth year being a veterinarian,and the first couple first dozen years or
so, I was in private practiceand doing all the typical things that general
practice bets do, see appointments,do some surgeries. But I joined the
animal welfare industry back in twenty elevenand a big part of our job is
processing all the animals that come in, homeless animals coming through, and by
(01:06):
Florida law, they all have tobe spain and neutered. So jumped into
doing a lot of surgeries just thatvery first year and has kind of kept
going ever since. And you've mentionedyou've been in that field since twenty eleven
and you've operated on thousands of animalssince then. How long does the surgery
usually take and how much does itusually cost? So time varies on what
(01:30):
you're doing. So the most simpleprocedure that we do is a cat neuter,
and it quite literally can take lessthan two minutes to perform that surgery.
If we have a large, olderdog, that's probably the longest surgery
time it could take upwards of twentyto twenty five minutes or so. But
in most cases with younger animals,I can spay a female dog in about
(01:52):
fifteen minutes or so. And asfar as cost, it really varies on
the size of the animal and theand gender. So cat neuters tend to
be in our industry the least expensivesurgeries for us at our bed center.
It runs just a little over onehundred dollars for all inclusive package to have
them neutered, aneesthesia, pain medications, things like that, and for the
(02:14):
large dogs, which is probably themost expensive thing, it can be around
three hundred dollars for us, again, all inclusive of all the procedure things
that we do, pain medications,all of that stuff to go home.
Animal health is your living and you'recalling and if you could talk to us
about how spaying and neutering helps thehealth of your pet and the health of
(02:35):
animals in the community at large.Yeah, it's obviously something I'm clearly been
passionate about for the last twelve tothirteen years. So we know that spain
and neutering dogs and cats and otherspecies actually does have a number of health
benefits. So, first of all, all the impact of having numerous litters
(02:57):
over the years does do some wearand tear on the body, so we're
a limit at that issue. Thereare a number of cancers and other hormonal
issues that come about from having eithertesticles or ovaries in your system and repeating
all of those sexual cycles over theyears. So we're eliminating a lot of
those issues, and especially things likeovarian cancer uterine cancer. We're knocking that
(03:20):
out to zero. The surgeries alsohave a protective effect for female dogs and
cats to minimize a chance for mammaryor breast cancer down the road, which
is a very real thing that wesee in pets and other types of infections
as well. And then of coursethere's behavioral benefits to having them spaded and
neuter. It does tend to mellowout some of the aggressive aggression issues that
(03:42):
we see in some and and theother things like wandering tendencies things like that.
So just a number of health benefitsand and so we really counsel everybody
if we're seeing them as clients towant to get those surgeries done when they're
pets and yach and for the shelteranimals, we've obviously we've made that decision
(04:03):
to do all of that for everybody, and so those are automatically done before
we get them adopted out. Now, as we're talking, it happens that
across the Bay, Hillsboro County isgoing to be offering spay and neuter operations
for pit bulls and bully breeds forfree during the month of February. Are
you noticing trends over time with somebreeds that get bred a lot more than
(04:25):
others and owners being not as likelyas to get their pet spade or neutered.
In other words, are these kindsof targeted campaigns useful in terms of
improving the health of the pet population. I absolutely think so. Yeah.
I think it's a great thing Hillsboroughis going to be doing. We do
(04:45):
see certain breeds that tend to becomemore popular in certain regions. So here
in the South, some of thebully breeds, we do see sort of
an over representation of those animals movingeither as pets for for our citizens here
or come in through the shelter.But as an example, I'm aware that
out in California, Chihuahuas are actuallyover represented moving through the system, and
(05:11):
we transfer a lot of animals comingin from the East Coast to our shelter
down here, and they have alot of the hound dog type breeds that
are a bit overrepresented. So eachregion seems to have its kind of little
tendencies to that. But when youhave those many when you have that many
animals in the public and they haven'tbeen altered, you just need a couple
(05:34):
of unwanted litters, and all ofa sudden, you spread those puppies out
to other friends and family. Thenyou've had a few more litters of those
animals and it conspiral very quickly.We did an estimation once that a male
female dog or cat could potentially inthe span of three to four years if
you look at the you know theyhave a litter, and then those animals
(05:56):
have litters on their own, itsort of exponentially goes up. You might
having over two thousand animals in thecommunity from one pair of animals just about
three to four years down the road. So these kind of campaigns are really
helpful and very useful, and withthe twenty five thousand surgeries, you know
that you've made an impact in thecommunities where you've lived on terms of getting
(06:20):
better lives for pets, a lotof pets and a lot of dogs and
cats, and also helping them helpingavoid a lot of unwanted or unhoused animals
in the community. Yeah, itwas fortunate to have remained at the same
organization now for twelve to thirteen years. Have been very supportive and I've been
(06:43):
I found that doing Spain Hooter isactually I feel like my calling these last
few years. It just feels sosatisfying to be in the community here in
Penel's County specifically, and to knowthat I have specifically altered twenty five thousand
animals in this community. So that'snot only helping those animals out, but
(07:06):
helping their owners out too, becausethey're going to have healthier animals down the
road, and they perhaps have nowtied in like, hey, I've had
this pet, it's been around allthese years, it's made and neutered,
and they can take that education andpass it on to their kids and the
immediate family to say, hey,Spain, neutering, that's an important thing
that you should really consider for youranimals. Well, not finding to surprise
(07:29):
you with a pop question here,but for those who are living Panelas County
and who would like to perhaps theyhave found a feral cat or whatever,
and they would like to set upa spaying or dootering appointment, what's the
best way to go about doing that? So good old fashioned telephone is still
probably the best way for us.I work at two locations, so the
(07:53):
Saint Petersburg Hospital that we just openedabout seven years ago would be the place
for any of the public that needsa surgery for either a feral cat or
one of their own pets. Togive us a call over there at number
seven two seven two two zero oneseven seven zero. I also work at
the shelter, but we're doing thehomeless animals there too, But the Saint
Pete Hospital would be the best wayto get in touch with us, and
(08:16):
we could set that up very quickly. Doctor Rizal Lopez working with SPCA.
He's a veterinarian and he's performed twentyfive thousand spay and newter surgeries over the
course of his career. Doctor Lopez, thank you very much for joining us
on Beyond the News. Thank you, it's been a pleasure.
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