The Community Animal Medicine Project (CAMP), a nonprofit veterinary clinic located inside a PetSmart store in Northridge, is up and running, bringing the promise of more high-quality, low-cost pet services to the San Fernando Valley.
Although the clinic soft-launched in early July, the ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Sept. 26. It’s the third clinic that CAMP has opened just this year, and its sixth brick-and-mortar location, alongside two mobile clinics. The Northridge site is currently the only CAMP clinic in the San Fernando Valley.
CAMP had a location in Mission Hills, but it closed and moved its equipment to the new clinic.
This new site provides wellness and routine exams, spay/neuter surgeries, dental exams, treatment and vaccinations. As a nonprofit, CAMP provides these services at a cost up to 80% lower compared to private vet clinics.
At CAMP clinics, to spay/neuter a cat is $140, while the same procedure for a dog is either $225 or $275, depending on whether they weigh more or less than 40 pounds. While private vet clinics may provide more individualized care, including pre-anesthetic blood work, it means that the cost of these services can range widely from $400 up to $1,000.
The CAMP clinics are also among the few in Los Angeles to accept spay and neuter vouchers distributed by the city to low-income families to subsidize the cost.
“I do think that accessibility to care for everyone is very, very important,” said Brianna Ochoa, manager of the Northridge clinic and CAMP’s regional director of operations for the valley.
“For somebody who can’t drive or get a ride all the way to LA, … having it just closer to them is just so important.”
Veterinarian Training Project
The Northridge clinic provides another unique service – the Veterinarian Training Project (VTP). Through this initiative, vets and registered veterinary technicians are trained to perform high-volume spay and neuter procedures while still adhering to a high standard of care.
CAMP started the initiative in 2022 and has trained 50 vets per year to perform high-volume spay/neuter services. VTP will continue to operate at Northridge until the nonprofit’s new headquarters in Arlington Heights in Los Angeles opens in 2027.
“Not only do we have a veterinary shortage, but I would also say that there’s not a lot of new vets coming in who have specifically trained in this kind of high-volume [procedure],” Ochoa said. “It’s so important that we have more vets to help us perform these surgeries so we can offer it to even more pets and their families at a lower cost.”
Owners Forced to Relinquish Their Pets
LA is experiencing a severe overcrowding crisis in pet shelters, as many of them are operating well over their limit. As pet care costs have increased, combined with a lack of affordable veterinary services, many families have had to make the difficult decision to surrender their pets to shelters.
But as shelters are constantly over capacity, many pets are euthanized due to a lack of space.
The key to curbing this issue, Ochoa points out, is to have dogs and cats spayed and neutered. If more clinics offered these services at an affordable cost, then the number of pets in shelters would decrease.
“Our spay and neuter appointments, as well as our wellness exams, have been booked out for about a month in advance,” Ochoa said. “The demand is there for affordable vet care. We would love for more clinics to be affordable, just like ours.”
For more information on CAMP and to book an appointment, visit https://www.campla.org/.
