A new clinic that is part of an existing Jamestown nonprofit is offering spay and neuter services for cats and dogs, seeking volunteers, and soliciting financial support to continue its mission to reduce the number of unwanted pets in Tuolumne County.
Second Chance Spay and Neuter Clinic, founded in April 2024, is part of the existing 501(c)(3) Second Chance Cocker Rescue Inc., both of which are located at 9785 Peppermint Creek Road, off Rawhide Road.
“We’re trying to get the word out that we’re here, what our services are, and we are seeking donations,” Elizabeth Mazzetti, who cofounded Second Chance Cocker Rescue in July 2003, and helped oversee construction of a sanctuary in Jamestown for up to 30 cocker spaniels and small dogs under 30 pounds.
“Our goal is to help reduce the population of unwanted pets in our community,” Mazzetti said. “Our donations go to keeping our costs as low as possible for the community. We use them to purchase equipment and maintain the building.”
The nonprofit Sonora Cat Rescue, which has been around since 2005 and advocates for all cats, including feral cats, now uses Second Chance Spay and Neuter Clinic for all its spay-neuter procedures and vaccines.
“Having access to this clinic enabled us to save more than double the number of cats in 2024 that we did in 2023,” Sadie Anderson, president of Sonora Cat Rescue, said this week. “We saved 216 cats in 2023 and we saved 468 cats in 2024. Year-to-date we’ve saved 119 cats so far in 2025 so we're on track to exceed that number again because of the clinic.
“Spay-neuter is no longer a bottleneck for us when it used to be our biggest one,” Anderson said. “This is revolutionary for the entire rescue community.”
When Sonora Cat Rescue and Anderson use the word “save” it means to take a cat into their care and then have a live outcome: adoption into a home or transfer to another rescue that will adopt the cat out in another location. Volunteers with Sonora Cat Rescue work out of PetSmart off Sanguinetti Road in Sonora seven days a week, with set hours from 1 to 3 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Second Chance Spay and Neuter Clinic has seven full-time staff — five for surgeries, including Veterinarian Shelby Temple — and two office staff, Mazzetti said. Clinic staff spayed and neutered more than 2,500 animals in the first six months it was open, and they have already done more than 1,000 additional surgeries since the first of this year.
“We work with all the rescues in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties,” Mazzetti said. “We helped Sonora Cat Rescue adopt out over 400 cats, twice the number last year than the year before because we were able to get them spayed and neutered so quickly at a lower cost.”
Second Chance Spay and Neuter Clinic also helped Northside Pet Connection in Groveland get three large feral cat colonies under control by spaying and neutering them all in a few weeks. Northside Pet Connection had been trying to get those colonies under control for years, Mazzetti said.
Upcoming Second Chance Spay and Neuter Clinic events include a meeting this Sunday at 9785 Peppermint Creek Road for volunteers who want to get involved in an education program to teach schoolchildren about responsible pet ownership. For more information call Mazzetti at (805) 687-4674.
The following Sunday, March 30, Second Chance Spay and Neuter Clinic and the nonprofit Tuolumne Spay and Neuter will co-host a feral cat spay day at 9785 Peppermint Creek Road. With support from partners that include Sonora Cat Rescue, Friends of the Animal Community, and Tuolumne Spay and Neuter, the March 30 surgeries will be offered at a special $50 rate. All 25 spots for the clinic are filled.
Normal rates offered by Second Chance Spay and Neuter Clinic include $110 to spay-neuter a cat; $150 to $250 to spay-neuter a dog; $25 for vaccinating a cat or a dog; and $20 for microchips.
Second Chance Cocker Rescue is planning an open house event for May 3 at 9785 Peppermint Creek Road. The dog sanctuary is designed to resemble “an old-fashioned mining town for dogs,” Mazzetti said, adding the dogs are housed in heated and air-conditioned bungalows with three to four dog beds per bungalow, two bungalows to a quarter-acre yard, with room for up to 30 dogs. For more information, call Mazzetti.
“Donations are accepted to keep our costs to the community down,” a Second Chance Cocker Rescue, Inc. and Second Chance Spay and Neuter Clinic web page states. “Your donations go to pay the staff payroll, supplies, equipment and overhead like insurance to keep us open. Those donations help us keep our costs low, and make you an important, and valued part of the solution to pet over-population.”
For more about Second Chance Spay and Neuter Clinic go to https://sccrspayneuter.org. To make an appointment for spay and neuter services, call (209) 454-0966. For all other information, including questions about volunteering and making donations, call Mazzetti at (805) 687-4674.
