Dr. Gail Bushur-Irwin was growing up on a farm in Watson, Ill., when she decided, at the age of 8, to become a veterinarian.
Now, after earning a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of Illinois in 2003, and practicing in the private, public and nonprofit sectors in Illinois and Texas, she is coming to Riverside County to help remedy the animal-welfare crisis.
In a remarkable collaboration with Coachella-based nonprofit Loving All Animals, the Riverside County Department of Animal Services is bringing out-of-state veterinarians like Bushur-Irwin to the desert over the next year to spay and neuter shelter animals, and make them eligible for free adoption. The county is paying $50,000, and Loving All Animals is paying $130,000 for other costs, including licenses, transportation and accommodations. Loving All Animals will host a Spay-Ghetti and No Balls benefit on Nov. 15 to help pay for its share of the expenses.
Bushur-Irwin made her first trip to the desert in mid-August, performing spay and neuter surgeries alongside a local vet, Dr. Leigh Kirk, at the Coachella Valley Animal Campus (CVAC) in Thousand Palms. Dr. Gail, as she’s called, isn’t formally trained in high volume, high quality spay and neuter (HVHQSN), but she and her team made 148 cats and dogs eligible for a foster-to-adopt program in their first week. She expected her weekly numbers for her return visits in September and October to be higher, in part because she’ll be more familiar with her support staff.
What makes this collaboration remarkable is the apolitical bubble in which they’re operating. With criticism regarding overcrowding and high euthanasia rates at county shelters at a heightened pitch, the county Board of Supervisors spent more than $2.5 million on a Texas-based consultant to conduct a two-year study of the problem—money that animal advocates think would be better spent elsewhere.
The Walter Clark Legal Group responded by filing legal actions on behalf of local animal advocates, including at least one supporter of Loving All Animals. On Friday, its taxpayer claim against Riverside County and County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen was heard in the Riverside County Superior Court in Palm Springs. A ruling on whether the $2.5 million-plus contract was an “illegal expenditure and waste of taxpayer funds in the Department of Animal Services” was expected before the end of September.
Despite the lawsuits, litigants are now working in tandem with RCDAS director Mary Martin, who was hired in February, on a spay and neuter project to prevent overcrowding.
Dr. Gail sat for an interview at the Palm Desert home of Loving All Animals founder Lindi Biggi, offering an outsider’s perspective on what she observed in her first days at the CVAC. The Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
So, how did you wind up here?
I knew Mary Martin before she came to California, at Dallas Animal Services. I worked with her there. So when she came out here, she told me about the crisis.
Did she tell you about the political environment you’re walking into?
No. She told me she really needed my help. I said, “How can I help?” She says, “Get your California license.” I said, “OK, I can give you a week per month.” I’m not a big political person. I just want to end as much pet suffering as I can.
How does the overcrowding here compare with what you’ve seen in Texas and Illinois?
It’s just as bad. Dallas is definitely having a major crisis. They’ve shut all intake because of a distemper virus. They shut all intake last spring because of a respiratory virus—and honestly, it’s about everywhere. Back home in Illinois, there’s a crisis. I first refused Mary’s (request) to come. I said, “I’ve got so much work to do here in Dallas.” But then I thought, “What a great opportunity to come to another state and grow professionally. At the same time, what an amazing bonus to help a whole community.” So I said yes. That was four months ago.
The federal government designated spay and neuter as a non-essential service during the COVID pandemic. Is that the basis of the problem or just a piece of the puzzle?
I think this is another piece of puzzle. When I first started practicing, 90 to 95% of my pets were spayed and neutered. Now, it’s less than 50%. Why is that? It’s client education. It’s clients’ preference, and it’s about free will. I think part of it will be solved by education. I spend lots of time talking to owners about why I recommend spay and neutering. I know how big of a crisis it is with an “over-pet” population. But to me, it’s health. I’m going to prevent mammary cancer. I’m going to prevent a life-threatening pyometra (an infection of the uterus, usually in un-spayed female dogs) that usually happens later in life, when only 40% of them may survive that. People don’t get all of the facts.
Is there a correlation between the reduced spay and neuter numbers and the anti-abortion movement?
There is when it comes to a pet being pregnant. I do have a few clients who have felt like that is kind of playing God with their pet. … But I was explaining to owners, “They don’t breed for satisfaction.” “I know, they breed out of instinct.” I was like, “Have you ever have been around cats? There’s nothing remotely satisfying to the female about that at all.” So that takes a big discussion to understand it.
I’m shocked at how many doctors don’t talk to pet owners about end of life.
Right. I’m actually a veterinarian who, the first time I meet a puppy, I talk (with the owners) about end of life. I want every pet to live to be 20-plus years old. Unfortunately, cancer’s a bully. It can present at any age. You have to prepare yourself for what quality of life (you want) for your pet. When you start to have that discussion when they’re sick, there’s a whole lot of grief and owner’s guilt. They feel like I’m euthanizing because it’s convenient, and it’s absolutely not.
Is TNR (trapping, neutering and releasing feral cats back into their communities) widely accepted everywhere now?
Yes. It wasn’t when I first came out as a veterinarian, but it’s such an important part, especially, like, in Dallas. When you spay and neuter and release them back, those cats are territorial, and they’re not going to let other cats come into that area. They’re going to stay in that area. So, feral colonies—that’s fantastic. But I do think, when you TNR, you also need a leukemia IV test. If you have leukemia running through those cats, that’s something you have to have a discussion about.
Do they do that in TNR programs? I thought they just fixed and released them.
They can. It just depends on the person running that colony. There are big, huge colonies that have their leukemia hotbeds and FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus) hotbeds. My thing is, if you have a friendly cat, let’s find it a home. If that’s not what that cat wants, let’s get it back out (in its community), and let’s make it have the best life it can.
It seems like that could be problematic in urban areas.
Dallas does it all the time. … They don’t do much (intake of) cats. It’s all about TNR.
Do you have many conversations in other parts of the country about managed intake (not admitting certain animals, like community cats, into animal shelters)?
No, because I’m not part of that. Like at the SPCA, everything I do for them is by contract. When I did a fix-it day for Dallas Animal Services, it was by contract. I’m kind of a unique bird, because I don’t, per se, work for the shelters.
Our wealth disparity seems like part of the problem. I know Dallas has areas of high poverty and great wealth. Palm Springs is considered affluent, yet Palm Desert and Palm Springs have poverty rates actually higher than the national average, so many residents can’t afford veterinary care. Do you think shelters should provide that care?
I think everyone has a right to own a pet—but you have a duty to that pet. You have to be honest with yourself: Can I afford routine veterinary care? I don’t know about here, but back home, they have TCAP, the Texas Coalition of Animal Protection. They have SPCA wellness clinics. There are these places they can get vaccines, at low cost or no cost. They can get heartworm prevention—very cost effective. You commit to that pet, because they’re not wild animals. We’ve taken away that ability; we domesticated them. So, to me, it’s not fair to take an animal and not plan on basic care.
How long did it take you to get a provisional license to practice in California?
There’s no such thing in California as a provisional license. I am fully licensed in California.
“I think everyone has a right to own a pet—but you have a duty to that pet. You have to be honest with yourself: Can I afford routine veterinary care?”
Dr. Gail Bushur-Irwin
And that was done for $1,250?
Yep, something like that, and there’s a lot that goes into that. … After I transferred all of my college transcripts, I had to transfer my testing (to become) a veterinarian. I had to get federal fingerprinting. I had to go to the Sheriff’s Department. I had to do an online test of (California’s) state board. That’s what took so long, but I’m actually licensed to work California. I’ll pay an annual fee to stay licensed.
Loving All Animals is providing $130,000 for this year-long program, and the county is paying $50,000. How unusual is that type of collaboration and this kind of program?
I don’t think it’s unusual at all. I know in Dallas, several big people donated lots of money to Dallas Animal Services, SPCA, for that reason. And Bissell (Pet Foundation) is helping in different ways (in Dallas); they’re paying for a veterinarian to come in.
Do you need veterinarians to come from out of state to help Dallas? Because that’s what’s unusual about this (local) collaboration.
There are never enough veterinarians anywhere. But that was a problem even when I came out of vet school. So that’s over 20 years.
I’m trying to understand the significance of this program. I cover Coachella every year, and to me, the program should have a “chella” attached to it, like Petachella. If it’s not unusual, why haven’t we done this before?
I think COVID put a lot of things to light. One of the shelter persons was saying that during COVID, none of the shelters had any pets. Then all of a sudden, wham, our shelters are at 200% capacity.
Tell me how “foster-to-adopt” can ease overcrowding.
It’s been around a long time, but it’s a godsend program. It’s like you get to test-drive an animal. You get to say, “OK, is our family allergic to this dog? Is our family allergic to this cat?” You get an opportunity to see if that pet fits into your family.
But what I find is, there (low-cost or free) are spay and neuter (services), and there are wellness clinics (for preventative medicine)—but what if your pet gets sick? Then they only have their regular veterinarians to go to. So a lot of pets end up going to the shelters, and the shelters either euthanize, or a rescue has to pick them up, and it’s just so financially taxing for rescues.
As a society, we need to make sure we make things affordable. I want to try to keep pets with their humans. I understand sometimes, life happens. But those who can be helped, I want to help.
Bruce Fessier is a Coachella Valley Media Hall of Fame journalist who has produced fundraising events for Amy’s Purpose, a local animal protection and education charity. He’s also participated in a loose coalition of local animal welfare advocates who met monthly last spring. Contact him at jbfess@gmail.com. Follow him at facebook.com/bruce.fessier and instagram.com/bfessier.