There were celebrities, vegan patties and cat-themed t-shirts galore at the August 21 opening of Flatbush Veterinary Clinic, located at 1460 Flatbush Ave.
Flatbush Cats founder Will Zweigart cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the vet clinic, alongside "The Cat Daddy" Jackson Galaxy from Animal Planet's "My Cat From Hell," actor Rosie Perez, elected officials Farah Louis, Justin Brannan and Jumaane Williams and hundreds of other donors, stakeholders and cat lovers.
The clinic opened with the idea to offer desexing and wellness services at a "fraction of the cost" of most other clinics.
The clinic will initially serve the animals brought in by Flatbush Cats — a nonprofit that humanely reduces the population of strays by desexing feral cats and putting them up for adoption — before opening to the public in September.
Flatbush Veterinary Clinic will specialize in spay/neuter surgery and preventative care like vaccinations and microchips. While exact prices are not yet announced, a kitten or puppy wellness visit, including vaccinations, could be as low as $100, while a spay-neuter surgery could cost as little as $225, "As opposed to, like, a month's rent, just to get your cat spayed," Zweigart said.
Zweigart told the crowd the facility planned to deliver more than 7,500 high-quality spay and neuter surgeries each year.
"This facility is also going to allow us to double our rescue and TNR operations so that we can continue to help more cats, especially the ones who need us the most. And then we will double it again," he said. "Because the need in New York is great."
TNR refers to the process of trapping a stray cat, neutering it and then returning the animal.
Flatbush Vet is a labor of love for Zweigart, who began learning about New York City's stray cat problem when he and his wife, Divya Zweigart, found a colony of cats in their backyard in 2016.
Over the past eight years, the pair's drive to reduce the outdoor cat population in the city prompted the founding of the rescue organization Flatbush Cats in 2018, a public education and training campaign on TNR. Some estimate that there are as many as 500,000 cats on the streets of NYC, Zweigart said.
He said part of the reason for this is that many people cannot afford vet visits, and clinics do not have the capacity to provide the amount of spay-neuter appointments needed.
As a result, thousands of kittens are born outside each year, they said, and shelters have been full for decades.
The simple idea behind Flatbush Vet is that, as more New Yorkers have affordable access to the veterinary care their pets need, NYC will have fewer cats born outside every year.
"I feel like we had to make this happen, because — coming from a rescue and TNR background —we simply were not going to be able to rescue our way out of it. We were just stuck in this endless cycle," Zweigart told BK Reader.
"Before we started building this, I spent years just trying to understand the problem. And it turns out solving this problem is about helping people. And once all of our neighbors have access to the basic care they need, then you don't have tons of cats born outside. And then you don't have cats fighting to survive, and you don't have overcrowded shelters."
Zweigart comes from an ad agency background but quit his job after becoming "obsessed" with Brooklyn's cat problem. He told BK Reader opening Flatbush Vet was by far the most difficult thing he'd ever done in his life, with Flatbush Cats raising $2 million from more than 5,000 donors globally to build the 3,700-square-foot, multi-level clinic.
"But at the end of the day, we know what needs to happen," Zweigart said. "And we know the world is watching. So we want people to see that this is a solvable problem. And if we can make it a New York, we can make it anywhere."
At the opening on Monday, a crowd packed the back patio to hear comments from board member Perez, "Cat Daddy" Galaxy, and local officials.
Council members Brannan and Louis presented a $150,000 check to the clinic. Brannan said he "fought hard" for the investment in the latest City Council budget round. Galaxy said the clinic brought dignity to low-income Brooklyn residents who wanted to care for animals and dignity to the animals themselves.
"Money should not be the thing that prevents you from a life with animals; it's a privilege to share our lives with them," he said.
Meanwhile, Perez said she only wished Flatbush Cats had arrived sooner.
"I wish they were around when I was a kid, a kid from Brooklyn, who grew up in abject poverty, who didn't even think about owning an animal, didn't even think about having a pet because of the cost involved," she said.
Flatbush Vet opens to the public in September. It is still in the fundraising process.
