EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) -- The El Paso Community Foundation is teaming up with El Paso Animal Services, Operation Kindness and Petco Love to host a "mass" spay and neuter event this week. Photos courtesy of the El Paso Community Foundation The event will be from Thursday through Monday, Oct. 17-21, the community foundation said. It is a behind-the-scenes effort to help El Paso Animal Services catch up with its backlog so the City department can offer more no-cost spay and neuter opportunities in the future, the community foundation said. "Operation Kindness, a non-profit animal welfare organization based in North Texas, mobilizes veterinarians to assist regions severely impacted by the ongoing animal welfare crisis and lack of available veterinarians affecting numerous shelters and rescues. Thanks to a grant from Petco Love, Operation Kindness will be taking their services to the Borderland with three veterinarians and their teams traveling to El Paso to support this crucial effort," the community foundation said in its news release. “Each year, more than 20,000 animals enter our local shelters, which puts a strain on our entire community's resources. It takes a lot of collaboration to address this burden, borne by our partners in nonprofit and government shelters.  Health and safety for animals is essential to our quality of life,” said Eric Pearson, president & CEO of the El Paso Community Foundation. If you are interested in donating to EPCF’s efforts to improve Animal Welfare in the area and support initiatives like this, visit epcf.org and choose “Animal Welfare” for donation category.