Access to veterinary care can be a challenge for many people who live on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Communities are spread across vast, often remote areas, and the cost and logistics of spay/neuter surgery can put basic pet care out of reach—leaving some families struggling to afford to keep their beloved pets healthy.
That’s where Greater Good Charities’ Veterinary Services Team comes in. Last year, we completed our fifth round of free S/N clinics in Alaska, safely sterilizing nearly 700 owned pets on the Kenai Peninsula.
Led by Dr. Ruth Parkin, this team travels to underserved areas across the country to provide free, High-Quality High-Volume Spay/Neuter (HVHQSN) services, along with vaccinations and wellness care. The goal is simple but powerful: to reduce pet overpopulation, strengthen local veterinary capacity, and make compassionate care accessible to everyone.
“There’s a vet shortage nationwide—actually, worldwide,” says Dr. Parkin. “What that means to the average community member is that vet services are expensive and sometimes difficult to get when you need them. And so, being able to provide the basics—spay and neuter and vaccines—then allowing the existing vets to free themselves from doing those things, to see your sick pet when it’s sick, is a service that every community [can] get behind.”
In many areas, Greater Good Charities partners with local animal welfare groups that are already doing all they can with limited resources.
“The ground partners we work with are often the service providers for low-cost spay and neuter services, and they are typically completely overwhelmed, understaffed and underfunded,” Dr. Parkin explains. “If we’re able to come in and do in four days what would take them six months to a year to do, that really allows them a lot of catch-up time in their community.”
The impact of that kind of help can be transformative. Pet owner Danielle, who brought her dogs to one of the recent Alaska clinics, shared how much it meant to her:
“This past year, I welcomed several dogs into my care—each one coming from a different past. I found myself as grandma to an adorable litter of puppies. While they have brought so much joy into my life, they did not come without worry. It was important to me to have all my dogs sterilized to prevent any further accidental litters. When I learned that Greater Good Charities was coming to my community, I felt immense gratitude—not only because of the support it offered me personally, but because of the impact it had on our entire community.”
Our teams have worked in communities large and small—including Metlakatla, Alaska, an island with no local veterinarian.
Dr. Parkin says, “In order for their animal to get a basic service, like a spay, they have to either fly it or take it on a ferry across to another town. It’s a two-day, fairly expensive procedure for them. Most people there just can’t afford to do that. So does that mean they shouldn’t be able to have pets? Of course not. Pets are part of our families. We went there twice, a year apart, and I’m pretty sure we sterilized every animal in that community in those two visits.”
The work is powered not only by passion but by the generosity of veterinarians and technicians who volunteer their time to help the team.
“They do this as volunteers,” Dr. Parkin says of the veterinary teams. “They use their very precious PTO time to come and do this. I’ve had vets tell me, ‘Thank you for reminding me why I became a vet,’ because they feel like they’re making an impact on these communities.”
The reach of Greater Good Charities' spay/neuter clinics extends well beyond Alaska. We’ve performed tens of thousands of surgeries in the U.S. and abroad, including large-scale collaborations in Puerto Rico and Greece to help reduce stray dog and cat populations.
“They estimate there’s a million stray cats in San Juan alone,” says Dr. Parkin. “We were one of the largest teams there and performed around 20,000 surgeries. It was incredible to see how much difference it made.”
Our work from Alaska to Puerto Rico shows what’s possible when compassion meets action. Every clinic, every volunteer, and every grateful pet owner contributes to a growing movement reshaping how we care for animals and strengthening the bond between people and their pets.