Low-cost veterinary clinic shutting its doors

QuickTake:

A veterinary clinic that has offered services to low-income people and their pets since 2011 has been unable to find a source of sustainable funding to remain open.

Correction: The photo caption accompanying the original version of this story misstated the financial status of the Community Veterinary Center. The caption has been corrected. Lookout Eugene-Springfield regrets the error.

Community Veterinary Center in Pleasant Hill, which has offered a full range of low-cost veterinary services since 2011 to Lane County pets and their people, is closing its doors at the end of June.

Clinic officials say they have been unable to find a source of sustainable funding for the center and finally made the tough decision to close.

“We have been surviving by just constantly getting through the next few months,” said Lynda Shields-Erickson of the center. But, finally, clinic officials decided it could not continue to operate with what they called a “significant gap” between its revenue and its expenses.

“We’ve reached that place where we’ve hit the tipping point, and we’re closing,” she said.

The center estimated that it would require $20,000 a month — $240,000 annually — to open or reopen.

“We have determined as a group that the best choice right now is to close our doors while we can do so without debt or compromise,” the center said in a news release.

The last day for appointments was June 13. In the last few weeks before the June 30 closure, clinic staff have been working to help current clients switch to other veterinary clinics and taking care of details such as transferring prescriptions. It’s a tall order, Shields-Erickson said: The clinic has about 1,500 current clients and has served more than 8,000 during its 14-year run.

Shields-Erickson said the Community Veterinary Center was started in 2011 by a group of women who saw a need for a clinic that offered services on a sliding scale to accommodate clients with lower incomes. The center started with a location on St. Vincent de Paul property on Highway 99 before moving to Pleasant Hill.

“It’s just been such an honor to play this role in the community and to work with both the patients and their owners,” she said. “So we’re really sorry we weren’t able to find the pathway forward, but hopefully we can help everybody transition to something that will grow in our place.”