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Fleur Dawes reports that the SNIP Act has been signed into law in California. This will allow for the use of mobile spay/neuter clinics with the goal of reducing suffering and premature death for thousands of companion animals each year.

Newsom Signs SNIP Act, Opening California to Mobile, High-Volume Spay/Neuter Clinics
From Fleur Dawes, IDA In Defense of Animals, idausa.org
September 2026

Images from Canva

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Sept. 21, 2026) — Veterinary teams will be able to spay and neuter cats and dogs in temporary clinics in community buildings across California after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the SNIP Act on Friday.

Assembly Bill 2010, the Spay and Neuter Improvements for Pets Act, removes a state rule that required the surgery to take place in a dedicated, walled surgical suite. It lets Mobile Animal Sterilization Hospital (M.A.S.H.) clinics operate statewide while keeping all other veterinary health and safety standards. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.

Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, D-Fresno, wrote the bill. Animal Balance, a nonprofit that has run high-volume spay and neuter clinics since 2004, co-sponsored it with the ASPCA, San Diego Humane Society and the San Francisco SPCA.

Tens of thousands of healthy cats and dogs are killed in California each year because there are too many for the state’s shelters to hold, according to Soria’s office. In rural areas, spay and neuter services can be hours away and unaffordable, her office said.

“In practical terms, it will dramatically expand spay/neuter M.A.S.H. clinics across California, bringing veterinary services to communities that usually don’t have access to them,” Animal Balance said in a social media post Saturday. “It will change lives, and it marks the start of prevention strategies being implemented at a policy level.”

“This is a game changer for California,” said Animal Balance Founder and Executive Director Emma Clifford in a video posted on Instagram. “We have taken down the barriers to access to care. … Prevention-first strategies will reduce and finally get rid of the overpopulation of cats and dogs, stopping the status quo, which is currently where they’re killing 100,000 animals every year. It’s not acceptable, it’s not needed. We can stop it.”

“We are delighted that California has torn down the walls that stood between animals and the surgery that keeps them out of shelters,” said In Defense of Animals Director of Communications and International Partnerships Fleur Dawes. “Animal Balance has proven around the world that high-quality, high-volume spay and neuter works. Now California has joined the no-birth movement. Thank you to Animal Balance and Assemblymember Soria for their leadership, and to all our supporters who wrote to their legislators.”

In Defense of Animals supporters sent 10,860 messages to California legislators backing the bill through two action alerts, as of Sept. 21. The first alert, launched in March, drew 844 signatures. The second, in August, drew 10,016. Supporters also called lawmakers’ offices.

The law changes where the surgery can take place. It does not include state funding for new clinics.

Animal Balance began its work in the Galápagos Islands in 2004 and has since run clinics in places including the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Hawaii and Trinidad. In the Bahamas, its teams sterilized, vaccinated and treated 2,315 dogs and cats in 10 days, according to the group.

In Defense of Animals is helping to spread the model. This year, In Defense of Animals President and CEO Marilyn Kroplick, M.D., and Campaigns Director Lisa Levinson joined an Animal Balance clinic in the Galápagos Islands. It also sponsored Bujinlkham Erdenebat of Mongolian partner Lucky Paws to join the trip and learn the high-quality, high-volume method to expand the work in Mongolia. In 2025, In Defense of Animals and Lucky Paws ran Mongolia’s first rural spay and neuter pilot, sterilizing 50 dogs and 30 cats.

In Defense of Animals also hosts the High-Volume Sterilization Forum which connects more than 50 organizations in 10 countries working to replace the killing of dogs and cats with sterilization. Members range from Türkiye, Morocco, and Mongolia, to the Philippines, India, Romania and the U.S.

Information on In Defense of Animals’ spay and neuter work, including the next phase of the Mongolia program, is on its Animal Companions campaign page.

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Posted on All-Creatures.org: September 22, 2026
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