Saving Animals is proud to welcome Helga Schimkat as our Spay New Mexico Program Manager. "We can solve dog and cat overpopulation problem," Helga Schimkat, Spay New Mexico Program Manager, says emphatically. For the first time in its history, the State of New Mexico appropriated $400,000 for a state-wide program to provide free sterilization of dogs and cats in income-qualified families. The Summerlee Foundation funded a grant for program coordination and management so state funds directly pay costs related to actual surgeries. Saving Animals was tapped to develop and implement the year-long program. The result is the creation of Spay New Mexico, utilizing existing veterinary clinics and mobile spay and neuter clinics, to provide free services across the state. A New York lawyer and committed environmental lobbyist, Helga had many career opportunities. She decided to work with Saving Animals to create Spay New Mexico. "I wanted to work on this project because of my desire to directly impact the lives of animals and put an end to the suffering. Spay and neuter programs have an immediate result," she said. About 90,000 homeless dogs and cats enter New Mexico's animal shelters every year. Most are destroyed for lack of a home. As a result of hard work by animal advocates during the state legislative session, the State of New Mexico funded a one-year program to address dog and cat overpopulation. In addition to sterilizing animals free of charge in income-qualified families now, the goal of Spay New Mexico is to create ongoing programs to continue services in the future and by becoming an independent non-profit organization. "The state's lack of high-quality, affordable sterilization left dog and cat overpopulation problem largely unaddressed in New Mexico," says Saving Animals' President Sean Hawkins, "that is where we came in," he continued. Helga quickly became invaluable to the Spay New Mexico program. She juggled many difficult tasks and near impossible deadlines with grace and efficiency. Thousands of dogs and cats have been sterilized through the Spay New Mexico program that concludes at the end of August. "The real miracle," Sean said, "is the contract for funding the program from the state was delayed for 10 months, leaving Helga only two months in the state budget cycle to create Spay New Mexico and deliver all program services." Spay New Mexico worked with the Banfield Pet Hospitals, the Santa Fe Humane Society, and SpayUSA to quickly begin sterilizing dogs and cats state-wide. We only had a couple of months to provide services through the state-funded program that was originally intended to be one year long," says Sean. The lack of time to implement the initial concept of Spay New Mexico meant we had to work with existing facilities that could safely and efficiently handle high-volume spay and neuter surgeries with a standardized level of medical care. Several private practice veterinary clinics and the City of Albuquerque's spay and neuter clinic joined the team," Sean commented. I loved the challenge and the assignment," states Helga. This has been the best project for animals I have undertaken." Sean emphasized, "Spay New Mexico would not exist without Helga's hard work and dedication. The dogs and cats of New Mexico are lucky to have Helga on their side," he said.