Dr. Kasey Carter, the Hawaiian Humane Society’s chief veterinarian, has spent the past three weeks spaying and neutering feral cats and dogs in the society’s new specialized clinic, which is gearing up to sterilize 8,000 dogs and cats a year.

Friends and donors of the Hawaiian Humane Society today are scheduled to tour the $1.1 million Community Spay/Neuter Clinic, as it’s officially known, with the goal of reducing the number of so-called “free-roaming” dogs and cats across Oahu, especially cats.

The new clinic easily will be the biggest of its kind on Oahu, said Lisa Fowler, president and CEO of the Hawaiian Humane Society.

It’s designed to quickly move dogs and cats from two prep stations to three surgical stations.

No one knows exactly how many dogs and cats run wild across the island and breed more kittens and puppies each year, which can become anti-social and vulnerable to abuse while generating complaints.

But a survey that the Humane Society commissioned in 2015 estimated that 52,000 people regularly feed feral cats.

“It’s really a people problem, not so much a cat problem,” Fowler said.

The Community Spay/Neuter Clinic was built out of the Humane Society’s old, 1,900-square-foot admissions office and operates separately from the Humane Society’s other clinic, which handles everything from dental work to limb removals to eye surgeries.

The Humane Society is looking to hire another veterinarian to work in the new clinic, along with a community cat coordinator who will coordinate with the people who feed cat colonies across Oahu to help trap cats and bring them to the Humane Society to be sterilized.

The Humane Society regularly works with 155 people who feed cat colonies on Oahu. The new community cat coordinator will try to find more of them and encourage them to get more feral cats sterilized.

The cost for each surgery for free-roaming cats through a city program called “Feline Fix” is $10. The highest cost is $150 to spay a pet female dog.

The costs are hardly designed to generate income for the Hawaiian Humane Society, Fowler said.

“We’re not even breaking even,” she said.

Even the least expensive rate of $10 for the “Feline Fix” program through the city includes sterilization surgery, anesthesia, a microchip and an ear notch for cats — right ear for females, left ear for males — that indicates they already have been sterilized and don’t need to be trapped.

The new clinic is designed for quick, high-volume procedures: 30 seconds to remove the testicles of cats; four to five minutes to do the same for dogs; six minutes to remove the uterus and ovaries of cats; and 12 minutes to spay female dogs.

Carter estimates that he has performed “at least 10,000” sterilizations on cats and dogs in his five years as a veterinarian, including the past four months at the Hawaiian Humane Society.

Carter only needed six minutes to explain everything as he spayed an 18-month-old, female tabby cat — beginning with a 1-centimeter incision in her belly to exposing and then removing the cat’s uterus and ovaries and suturing her back up.

The person who feeds the cat — and others in her colony — was scheduled to pick up the cat later in the day after she recovered.

Some cats and dogs who are better socialized and undergo sterilization at the new clinic could be placed for adoption at the Humane Society if they can make good family pets, Fowler said.

But the main goal of the new Community Spay/Neuter Clinic is to follow similar wildlife management practices of sterilizing animals that live in the wild to prevent overpopulation.

“It’s the physical manifestation of our dream taking place,” Fowler said.

Community Spay/Neuter Clinic costs:

>> $10 for free-roaming cats

>> $40 for pet male cats

>> $50 for pet female cats

>> $125 for pet male dogs

>> $150 for pet female dogs

From Wednesday to Oct. 25 all sterilizations of pet cats are scheduled to cost $25, and $50 for all pet dogs.

The Hawaiian Humane Society also plans to offer vaccinations and tests at the new clinic:

>> Cats: Feline viral rhinotracheitis, calicivirus and panleukopenia vaccination and testing for feline leukemia: $35.

>> Dogs: Distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, and parvovirus vaccination and take-home pain medication: $25.