Hello all you dog and cat lovers! I am Dr. Gabrielle Bassin and I am very excited to be working with SNKC in helping to decrease dog and cat overpopulation and homelessness in the Kansas City area. Originally from California, I received my undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) and my DVM degree from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, where I worked closely with the renowned UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program. Since very early in my involvement in the veterinary field, I have found enormous personal and professional satisfaction in working with spay/neuter efforts and in shelter medicine.


In doing this work, I am constantly motivated by the fact that there is no other single veterinary medical condition- no infectious or metabolic disease, or trauma, or cancer, or anything else- that is responsible for the deaths of nearly as many dogs and cats annually as simple, /fully preventable/ homelessness. This is a problem of epidemic proportions (3-4 million euthanized every year in the United States simply because there are not enough homes for them all) and is absolutely preventable if we promote spay/neuter and responsible pet ownership.


In addition to the positive effects that spay/neuter has on dogs’ and cats’ population health, I also promote spay/neuter for all of its individual health benefits. One of the best benefits is a drastic reduction or elimination of the risk of malignant mammary (breast) tumors when female dogs are spayed before their first or second heat cycle. Did you know that an intact female dog has about a 27% chance (greater than 1 in 4) of developing a malignant type of mammary tumor, whereas a female dog spayed before her second heat cycle has lower than an 8% chance, and a dog spayed before her first heat cycle has essentially a 0% chance of developing these tumors?! Other great health benefits include eliminating the risk of life-threatening uterine infections (called pyometra) and uterine and ovarian cancers in females, and testicular cancers and some prostatic diseases in males. For all of these reasons, spayed and neutered animals tend to live longer, healthier lives. So when we say that spay/neuter saves lives, we mean it on many different levels!


When I am not trying to make sure that companion animals are spayed, neutered, healthy and happy, I enjoy traveling, hiking, running, tennis, and food and music from all over the world. I currently live in Lawrence with my husband Charles (a herpetologist and evolutionary biologist at KU) and our two crazy and adorable shelter mutts named Toby and Rudy—neither of whom will ever father a litter of puppies or get testicular tumors. Good for them!