We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leila Warren. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leila below.

Hi Leila, thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

I started an animal welfare nonprofit that rescued, fostered, and adopted dogs and cats. The organization was also responsible for vaccinating, medicating (if necessary) and spaying/neutering these pets. Five years into the program, with no end in sight of the flow of stray and owner surrendered pets, I began to realize that nothing would change unless there was an aggressive spay-neuter program to curb the overpopulation issue that plagues this country, and the world. At the time, in 1999, there was not a public spay-neuter option where people could get their pets spayed-neutered except at their veterinary hospital, where cost was certainly a barrier for a lot of pet owners. So, unwanted litters were born, turned into animal shelters, where the euthanasia rates were approximately 90%. We were not going to adopt our way out the overpopulation crisis.

I incorporated a nonprofit called Humane Solution Spay-Neuter Clinic. That entailed hiring an attorney, forming a board of directors, getting logos and letterhead, and recruiting volunteers.

I began researching mobile spay-neuter vehicles that could go into low-income neighborhoods. Once word about the idea reached the veterinary community, there was a lot of opposition, with vets feeling that we would compete for business. In my rescue days, I developed a great relationship with a veterinarian who was president of our local veterinary chapter. He pitched the idea of a voucher program to the area vets that Humane Solution would oversee and administer vouchers that would be accepted at the area veterinary hospitals. We would charge the clients an affordable fee and supplement the cost of the surgeries through fundraisers.

In the beginning, we were issuing approximately 250-300 vouchers per year, but to date, we are issuing over 1,600 vouchers. We have expanded our program to include vouchers for feral “community” cats. We have grown exponentially with a website that people can apply for vouchers and pay for them, moving away from a total snail mail application program.

Leila, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up in a rural area where barn cats and stray dogs commonplace. As a child, I had a menagerie of pets. I related better to animals that I did with most of my peers. Animals became my passion. When I became an adult, I worked in the travel industry and took the opportunity to go to animal welfare conferences, visit spay-neuter clinics, and volunteer in my local shelters. I educated myself It saddened me greatly that innocent lives were lost simply because there were not enough homes and preventing unwanted litters was sometimes not an option for lower income families.

With the low-cost spay-neuter program Humane Solution offers, we are able to assist pet owners with affordable options for spay-neuter. In cases where they can’t afford the voucher fee, we have a Spay it Forward program that assists them with supplemental help get their pets spayed and neutered.

Since introducing our Feral Cat program in 2019, we have assisted hundreds of colony caretakers with vouchers and we can also loan traps for the caretaker to take the cats to the veterinary hospital. We have prevented thousands of unwanted litters of kittens just through the Feral Cat program alone. We have a Feral Cat Task Force that assists trappers with help with getting their cats TNVR’d (Trapped, Neutered, Vaccinated, and Returned) to their original location.

We also host vaccination clinics where pet owners can receive rabies and distemper vaccines,(both canine and feline), microchips, and nail trims all at affordable prices. For many of our clients, this is the only time their pet can afford to see a veterinarian. We can serve up to 140 – 150 pets at each vaccine clinic, which takes place 6 times per year. The last clinic of the year in November is exclusively for veterans, and is completely free for all services for veterans.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Humane Solution does several fundraisers to keep our nonprofit going. One of them is our vaccine clinics. Prior to COVID-19, our clinics were set up in stations where pets and their owners would go the cashier stand, walk up to each station and get their vaccination certificates written out, and stand in line for nail trims, microchips and vaccinations. We knew we had to figure out a new way to keep our clinics going, not only for our income stream, but also because we had a huge clientele that relied on our clinics to get their pets vaccinated.

We came up with an online registration form where people would sign up for the services they needed, then they could pay ahead of time. Once we received their application and payment, we pre-printed all certificates and gave everyone an appointment time and had them drive up to the vet station after checking in to get their paperwork.

This new system helped us keep our vaccine clinics going, but it also proved to be more efficient than the old way we used to do it. So we have adopted that model.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Humane Solution incorporated in 1999. For many years, we were fortunate to have many veterinarians participate in our program and allow us to provide spay-neuter surgeries at a low cost to our clients and the reimbursement rates we paid our vets was extremely reasonable.

COVID-19 changed the entire veterinary industry. There were many vets that left the field entirely, or they turned to teaching or selling pharmaceuticals. In addition, the enrollment at veterinary colleges waned, and a national shortage of veterinarians is a reality we live with every day.

In order to keep our current list of veterinarians, we have increased our reimbursement prices.

Last year, our board of directors saw an opportunity to open our own spay-neuter clinic at our county shelter. The county has contracted with us to spay-neuter shelter pets (up to 10 per week) in exchange for use of their surgical suite. We are in the process of opening our clinic, which initially will be used for the shelter pets and feral cats. Once we get comfortable with our process, we will open the clinic to the public so that we won’t have to rely on the veterinary community as much.

For me, this has always been my dream, and I am thrilled that it is coming to fruition!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://humanesolution.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/humanesolution/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HumaneSolution
• Twitter: @humane_solution