JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville's Animal Care and Protective Services will soon have a brand new, much needed X-ray machine.
They've been in dire need of one for quite some time and, thanks to an anonymous donor who paid for half of it and a local non profit raising the other half, the organization will be able to help save even more cats and dogs.
Their facility is full of hundreds of dogs and cats at all times. The new X-ray machine will be easier for employees, more comfortable for animals and speed up the adoption process.
"They'll be getting into adoption faster healing quicker and we can start that treatment process much quicker," said Nikki Harris who works at Animal Care and Protective Services.
In just weeks, their facility will be home to a brand new $64,000 X-ray machine for cats and dogs there.
"Right now, between five to ten animals a week are being transported to partner agencies for X-rays so this will enable us to do those X-rays in-house," said Harris.
The organization will be able to further diagnose conditions like heart worms, and when an animal has a broken limb they can immediately be put on the X-ray machine and will be diagnosed and treated much faster. Right now, a lot of unnecessary time and money goes into animals who need an X-ray.
"We have to schedule with a partnering agency that takes staff time and we have to pull an animal control officer out of the field to transport that animal, wait for the X-ray, then transport the animal back so that's almost a full day," said Harris.
It can also be added discomfort for the cat or dog. Harris said this benefits not only them and the animals, but also the community.
"The animals that need care that require an X-ray have to wait days to get that treatment, so an animal that could get into adoption would take ten days to get if they require an amputation, will be able to do that in closer to six days," said Harris.
They hope to have the X-ray machine up and running in the next couple of weeks.
The original $32,000 for the machine came from the anonymous donor and the other $32,000 was raised by the Jed Fund based in Jacksonville Beach.