For ten years, the Quad City Animal Welfare Center has been offering low-cost vaccinations, spay and neuter services, microchipping, and preventive care for Quad Cities pets.
The center is holding an open house on Saturday, August 22nd from noon to 2 p.m. to celebrate the clinic, located at 612 First Street West in Milan.
“We're going to be offering tours if you want to come and look around. If you've had questions about services we offer, want to see the building and meet some of the employees and some of the team, you're welcome to come out,” said Executive Director Patti McRae in an interview with WVIK. “We're gonna have some refreshments. We'll have the employees there for people to visit with and just look around if you'd like.”
McRae said the clinic employs five part-time veterinarians who, along with volunteers, help maintain low costs for Quad City pet owners.
“They work their little tails off every day. Animals don't particularly like going to the vet, so it's not always the most glamorous job, but it is so rewarding. And so the vets in our community have really been helpful,” said McRae. “They've just been really great to work with.”
The clinic is open five days a week, noon to five p.m., and closed Sundays and Tuesdays. McRae said the clinic also runs a mobile unit on the first Wednesday and Saturday of the month from 8 am to 11 am.
The nonprofit also runs an adoption and education center in Milan, 724 2nd Avenue West.
McRae said the adoption center currently is caring for 180 cats, at least 45 dogs, and two guinea pigs. She mentioned that this past spring and summer they took in a lot of puppies, the most in recent memory. McRae has been with the nonprofit for 26 years.
“I think there's a couple reasons. I think the economy is scaring folks. And we have a lot of people wanting to release their animals, more so than I've ever seen before. We will try to help. We have a pet food pantry, so if you're needing some food, you can come to our pet food pantry,” McRae said. “And again, we have the low-cost vaccines and spay/neutering. If you need help with that, please let us know because we want to help with that. And our goal would be to help people so they can keep their pets.
“That's really what we want. But we have seen quite an increase in that, and I talked to other shelters, and they are too. Everybody is so full, especially with cats and kittens. It just seems like it's pretty bad this year. So if you are looking to adopt a new cat companion, go to one of the shelters. All of them have lots of great cats and kittens.”
She asks that anyone interested in adopting a pet bring their family or roommates to help the animals and people get a feel for each other.
“And then if you do have a dog at home, we want you to bring the dog for a meet and greet, and we could put the adoptable dog on hold for you if you needed to run home and get the dog, your current dog. We want to make sure everybody's going to get along and that that's going to work out because we want this to be successful,” McRae said. “With cats, I— especially adult cats— I say, go sit in our cat room. We have an open communal cat room. Go sit in the middle of the room and see who comes up to you. That's the cat that wants to go home with you.”
McRae spoke with WVIK at the station, and she brought along Almond Joy, a 3-month-old Jack Russell Terrier who is available for adoption.
“He's really a pretty dog. He's mostly white, and then he's got like some brown kind of little freckles on his ears, and he is just cuddly and sweet,” McRae said. “He's just a great dog. So he's been neutered, he's been microchipped, he's had his first shots, so he is ready to go. And I really feel like he's a dog that would be great with a family, especially a very active family, because this breed loves to run and jump and just go, go, go. He'd be a great little hiking companion.”
Almond Joy was a part of a litter with another sibling, Hershey, also available for adoption.
“She's more white with more brown, kind of light brown. Super sweet. She's been spayed, microchipped, vaccinated. She's ready to go as well,” McRae said. “They're both I would say maybe about 12 pounds. They're not real, real big puppies, and I don't think they would be over, as an adult, 20 pounds. I don't think they're going to be like huge dogs. So they're just kind of a nice-sized dog, very smart, very sweet.”
McRae mentioned the center is holding a volunteer orientation on the first Wednesday of every month at 5:30 p.m. at the nonprofit’s Adoption and Education Center.
“And basically, all you have to do is just go online and get signed up. There are so many things you can do. If you want to come out and actually work with the animals, you can walk dogs, you can help us clean, you can do laundry. There's just a number of things people could do,” McRae said.
The organization is also highlighting its Mutt Strut 2026 event occurring during the Milan Harvest Festival in September. It’s the first Mutt Strut since 2019.
“It's such a great event. So it's a dog walk. It's vendors, dog people, lots of volunteers,” McRae said. “We're going to have our mobile vet van there as well, and we're going to be offering free microchips to the first 50 dogs.”
The Mutt Strut is Sunday, September 6th from noon to 2 p.m. at Camden Park in Milan.
This story was produced by WVIK, Quad Cities NPR. We rely on financial support from our listeners and readers to provide coverage of the issues that matter to the Quad Cities region and beyond. As someone who values the content created by WVIK's news department, please consider making a financial contribution to support our work.
