There are 19 fewer cats and dogs who will be multiplying on St. Croix thanks to the Sunshine Foundation’s World Spay Day free clinic held on Tuesday, Feb. 25. The 501c3 nonprofit organization started its program on Spay Day USA in 2009 and has celebrated the now global event each year with a special high volume, low cost or free clinic day.
This year marks the foundation’s 12th annual Spay Day clinic with the 2020 event providing free spay and neuter services to community members who made appointments in advance.
Sunshine Foundation co-founder, Anna Loizeaux Beall, left St. Croix in 2011 after five years on St. Croix working in the animal welfare field at the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center with Dr. Stacia Jung and then in private practice as head veterinary technician at Sugar Mill Veterinary Center. Today, she works as the shelter medicine manager at the Maryland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MD SPCA).
Sunshine Foundation co-founder Dr. Stacia Jung, VMD, had worked as the shelter veterinarian at the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center (SCAWC) and then had a private practice. While at SCAWC, Jung and Beall established the first public high-volume, low-cost spay and neuter clinic on St. Croix, in addition to creating a feral cat program and promoting humane education.
In their time together at SCAWC they had sterilized thousands of cats and dogs. At the time of their departure, there was no one to continue their programs. Not wanting to see their hard work go to waste, the 501c3 nonprofit Sunshine Foundation was formed to continue their mission.
Dr. Jung provides her volunteer services each week to make spay and neuter possible for the entire St. Croix community. Also, she has volunteered at high-volume spay and neuter clinics held on Samoa and in the Galapagos islands.
In 2018, the Sunshine Foundation started offering low cost gelding (horse neutering) services to partner organization Cruzan Cowgirls Horse Rescue. Over the years, the foundation has “fixed” approximately 2,500 cats, dogs and horses.
Sunshine Foundation’s weekly low-cost clinics are made possible through private donations and grants.
For more information, to book an appointment or to make a donation, please visit www.sunshinefoundationstx.org
