by Devan Barclay
I first met Planned Pethood Plus Dr. Jeff Young during the opening campaign for Tennyson’s latest restaurant, Gernelli’s. He’d asked me to show him dome advertising rates, and invited me to come to the clinic. Wearing surgical scrubs and buzzing about the clinic, he’d just returned from City Council meeting where they were discussing a Business Improvement District for Tennyson, and as painters put the finishing touches on the new paint scheme, he started talking about improvements he’d made to teh street lamp, benches, a trash can and how much ore effectively private enterprise could complete the work that needed to be done than if the city got involved. “It’s just not right,” he added, “that 30% of property owners can vote to increase taxes on everyone, and if they don’t get more than 50%, I don’t mind tying it up in court for a couple of years – not that it’ll get me anywhere. But it’s the principle. And I actually agree that we need the District. Here – follow me, what’ve you got?”
So walking back into the clinic, I started talking about rates and circulation, while Young directed two surgeons on closing up a couple of spay and neuter patients, hung up framed newspaper articles, and organized a storage room that functions also as a break room, office, and today meeting center. The framed articles told the story of spay and neuter operation spanning several continents, from Mexico to Slovakia to Grand Junction; of a cross-country team Dr, Young coaches at North High; and of a growing team of veterinarians Dr. young has taught and mentored, who are taking his mission of solving the world’s animal overpopulation problem through spay and neuter world-wide. And here we
were discussing the launch of a restaurant and a Business Improvement District.
“If you can get him to stop moving then you can’t get him to stop talking,” jokes his wife, Janet, who served with him on the Committee of the new Berkeley District Merchant Association. She operates another of the Young enterprises, Planet Pethood where a share of the profits go back to helping fund adoption and rescue efforts coordinated through the clinic.
I sat down with Dr. young for dinner at Gernelli’s a couple of months later and learned about the principles that drive the multi-faced operation Dr. young champions. Centered on basic economics and a concept that the business, Dr. Young’s approach to animal care is all bout changing the dynamics of the way we treat our animals by reducing the supply.
“There’s 200 million cats in the United States,” explains Dr. Young “Why pay $500-$5000 to care for a pet, when you can open your door and another cat will walk in?” he says “We’re in the best position to intervene on the issue, becaue if we can spay and neuter enough animals, it limits the supply, and increases the value. The way we treat animals is totally a supply and demand issue.”
On the macro level, Dr. Young sees this same basic concept applied to the hundreds of millions of homeless and stray animals that roam the streets worldwide uncared for. And for the reason, over the past decade he’s hosted and mentored dozens of vets and taught theme spay and neuter techniques that weren’t available in their countries of origin, where veterinary science has for the most part been about the care of livestock for food
purposes, and small animal care is largely an emerging field. His latest concept – “Spay it Forward” – expands on the work he’s done launching new clinics in Bratislava and Mexico. “The idea is that half will go offshore, we’ll go the Thailand, and the Philippines, build a clinic, and give it 100% to the vet, and sell ‘stock,’” he says. “You can’t sell it, but you can go visit. Once it’s established, then you move on to the next location. My share will go back to the spay and neuter campaign.”
“It’s important where you pick you place,” he adds. “you can build a vet clinic anywhere in the world and make it profitable, if you pick your place. The secret is in training vets to use the equipment they have available there – show them how to use the drugs that are available more effectively, and we may need to become a distribution point. But the key is absolutely to train other people. If you believe you can make a difference by just going to a place and spaying and neutering a bunch of animals, you’re delusional. It has to be this way. It’s the only logical way to do it.”
It’s the kind of philosophy captured in “teach a man to fish, and you’ll feed him for a lifetime” – and in the same spirit, making a difference on the local level for Dr. Young involves mentoring and coaching the kids on the Cross Country team at North High, and supporting college scholarships for area students both privately and through the Marcia Mounsey Foundation.
“I’ve got no confidence in what adults do,” he says, joking, he adds. “Not much confidence in what kids do, either, but you’ve got to give them that chance. As a coach, it’s my job is to lift them up.”
