Northern Colorado nonprofit offers free veterinary care for pets at Loveland Salvation Army – Loveland Reporter-Herald

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A Northern Colorado nonprofit wants to help the pets of those experiencing homelessness by offering free veterinary care.
The Street Dog Coalition, founded in 2017 by Jon Geller, provides free medical care and related services to pets of people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness, according to the group’s website. At these clinic days, vets will offer physical exams, vaccinations, parasite control, spay/neuter vouchers, pet supplies and more.
Geller, who worked as an emergency vet for 20 years, said that he came up with the idea after seeing people bring in their animals and having a hard time affording care.
“I saw lots of people who were struggling to pay their bills,” he said. “We thought: how can we address this problem?”
Geller said their efforts across Northern Colorado, nationally and internationally have continued to grow and expand to reach more people in need. Geller even took his services to help those fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February.
He said that he was stationed along the Romanian and Ukrainian border, helping animals as they came across with people fleeing for safety. He said despite the frigid temperatures, he enjoyed getting to work with vets in the area and help people as they tried to get to safety, offering care much like what the group does in Colorado: vaccinations, parasite control, microchipping and more.
“Our work just started,” he said, adding their coalition will continue to send vets and medicine to that area to help others.
While the group began in Fort Collins, it expanded to Loveland last year after a connection was made with the Salvation Army, Geller said.
“They had a lot of pet owners who were looking for care and couldn’t afford it,” he said.
Olga Duvall, director of the Loveland Salvation Army, said that she often sees people at risk of or experiencing homelessness spend their money to ensure the health and safety of their pets even if it means spending less attention to themselves, since sometimes their pet could be their only friend or family.
She said the members of the coalition coming to helps means a lot, adding their time, expertise and experience will help those in need afford to help their pet and themselves.
“When they have the ability to bring their pet here and have them checked out and vaccinated, it means they can afford food for themselves,” she said. “For others it means they can continue to afford rent and pay for their home.”
The coalition, alongside a number of Colorado State University veterinary students who were helping at Monday’s clinic, spent the afternoon checking on pets, giving shots and ensuring the four-legged friends of those in need were taken care of.
“I hope it helps increase the human-animal bond and increase the health of everyone involved,” said Rikki Vellman, a third-year veterinary student at CSU.
Samantha Johnson, another third-year veterinary student at CSU, said the experience is also great for students like herself who are learning and training to be vets themselves.
“It’s a great service to be able to offer and it’s so important for us to learn that incremental care,” she said.
Those who brought out their pets to be checked on were thankful the service was there to take care of their animals for free.
Eddie Haight said if it weren’t for this service, he is not sure his dogs would be able to get the shots they need to stay healthy.
“It helps out a lot,” he said. “It takes a lot of stress off (of) us to get money to afford their shots and worry about them getting sick.”
“I think they all got wings,” said William Love, who brought his wiener dog Wyatt to get checked up. “These (pets) are just as important as humans and they take care of all of us.”
Geller said offering the treatment, information and medicine to these pet owners and their animals will help to keep the important bond intact.
“It’ll allow people to keep their pets, which is the first goal,” Geller said, later adding “We are focusing on preventative care (and) keeping the pets healthy.”
The Street Dog Coalition will operate its free clinic the first Monday of every month at the Loveland Salvation Army parking lot, 840 N. Lincoln Ave., from 2 to 3 p.m. as well as several other locations across Northern Colorado. More information can be found at thestreetdogcoalition.org.
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