A surge of about 4,000 signups for Fort Worth’s new mobile spay and neuter clinic has led to a temporary pause for additional registration, city staff said.
Fort Worth held its first Chip & Snip Community Pet Clinic in July, offering free spay and neuter surgeries, microchipping and vaccinations. The second clinic is scheduled for Saturday in southwest Fort Worth.
The city’s animal care and control staff this week is notifying pet owners next up on the waiting list. It’s also mapping out future surgery locations for the mobile clinic, based on metrics including numbers of animals brought into the city’s shelters and call volume by ZIP code, said Anastasia Ramsey, a Fort Worth Animal Care & Control superintendent who’s helping to run the program.
“Registration is temporarily closed due to an overwhelming response from the community,” the city website informs users under the registration link for the services.
The city held its first mobile clinic, run out of a trailer featuring the faces of dogs and cats, at Oakland Lake Park in east Fort Worth.
The idea: Promote responsible pet ownership and reduced overpopulation by bringing free veterinary services into neighborhoods. In the city’s view, that lowers barriers to care, pares shelter intake and helps ensure families retain their pets.
The mobile clinic can handle 10-15 pets per one-day session, which starts at 7:30 a.m., with pet pickups beginning at 2 p.m. And the city started the service with an eye toward offering it once a month in various high-demand neighborhoods around Fort Worth.
“We are currently looking for ways to expand this service to either include more surgery days or expand them into our shelters where we have higher surgical capacity,” Ramsey told the Fort Worth Report.
The city offers a trap-neuter-release program for cats about 10 months out of the year at its shelters. “But we do have to prioritize our in-shelter animals as well,” Ramsey said.
Private clinics charge more than $200 for the surgeries, with the price going up depending on the size, breed and sex of the animal, she said.
Vaccines or microchipping could cost $50-$75 apiece in a private clinic, she said.
Clients who qualify for a low-cost clinic like TCAP or Spay Neuter Network pay discounted fees, but that carries pet restrictions such as heartworm status, age and specific breed qualifications, she said.
The city chose Oakland Lake Park for its first mobile clinic because it’s in a “high-intake” ZIP code for the clinic’s services, Ramsey said.
The first clinic served 10 animals to ensure service quality, she said. City staff, including a medical supervisor, veterinary technician, veterinarian, two superintendents, an assistant director, public information officer and social media coordinator staffed the clinic.
The city has been recruiting volunteer veterinarians.
“For our first clinic, we did not engage any volunteers, but we will be welcoming volunteers to our upcoming clinics,” Ramsey said.
The city staff, who updated Fort Worth’s Animal Shelter Advisory Committee July 22 on the clinic, believes the mobile clinic, even with its original goals, can have a significant impact on the unwanted pet population.
“Cats can experience their first heat as early as 4 months old and dogs as early as 6 months old,” she said. “With cats averaging four to six kittens per litter and dogs averaging five to six puppies, sometimes up to 12 for larger breeds. By sterilizing even 50 pets, we can prevent hundreds of puppies and kittens being born.”
Scott Nishimura is a senior editor and Fort Worth City Hall reporter at the Report. Reach him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org. Denise M. Kahn is a member of the Fort Worth Report Documenters crew.
Fort Worth Animal Shelter Advisory Committee
Documenter: Denise M. Kahn
Date: July 22, 2026
Learn more about this meeting by clicking here. For the agenda, click here.
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