The Animal Shelter Society, Inc. has made some changes to their staff including a new animal care manager and the contracting of three rotating veterinarians.

Following new staffing decisions, including the hire of a new director and the naming of an animal care manager, the animal shelter moved from one staff vet to three contracted vets that work on a rotation.

“There’s care. There’s always someone here to care for the animals’ health properly,” Rebecca Hunt, a registered vet-technician and the Animal Shelter Society Animal Care Manager.

The need for a new vet, or vets in this case, stemmed from the former staff vet resigning to pursue other interests in December.

Since then, the board contracted with three vets that had previously filled in for the staff vet and were familiar with the current staff members — Dr. Katie Seiple, Dr. Andrew Sattler and Dr. Rae Grandolf.

“It was kind of a no-brainer,” Hunt said of the decision to contract the three veterinarians.

All three of the contracted vets also work independently through other offices, organizations or emergency services.

Each vet has assigned days to work at the shelter whether that be performing surgeries or operating the wellness and prevention clinic.

For the past two weeks the vets have been in rotation.

A typical day of surgeries consists of a vet performing between 26 and 30 surgeries for the public or in-house animals. For example, one of the vets performed 26 surgeries Monday with 11 of those 26 being surgeries on scheduled animals from the public.

The surgeries are performed, in partnership, through the Spay and Neuter Assistance Program. 

Animal Shelter Society Board Secretary April Gibson said the shelter listened to the needs of the public which lead to extended hours on Wednesdays for the Wellness Clinic.

In order to meet the community’s needs, the shelter is open on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with the Wellness clinic operating from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In an effort to provide the best care to all animals that come into the shelter, Hunt said Sattler is “very compassionate” and takes the time to provide one-on-one care to each animal, as well as educating the animal’s owner on the best follow up or maintenance care for their animal.

For the time being, Sattler is on rotation for the Wellness Clinic on Wednesday while the other two vets are focused on performing surgeries.

Anyone that may need services offered by the animal shelter at the clinic or for surgeries can contact the staff by visiting the animal shelter, located at 1430 Newark Rd. in Zanesville, or by calling the shelter at 740.452.1077.

Services offered at the Wellness Clinic include:

• Examinations by veterinarian
• Tech appointment
• Canine packages
• Feline packages
• Individual canine vaccinations
• Individual feline vaccinations

Among other services.