Area: Subdivision urbanization San Jose, Rodriguez, Rizal
Team: Denise Wood (CARA), Barbara Greenwood (CARA), Rosemary Craig (CARA), Dr Lyn, Dr Rizza, Dr Jenil.
Transport: Two 4 wheel drives
It seems that whenever we head to Montalban it rains, today was no exception; we had torrential rain on and off 
the
whole time. Luckily it didn’t deter the people coming with their
animals; everybody was wet but pleased to see us. We went to two
separate locations within the Rizal area and were equally busy at both.
the
whole time. Luckily it didn’t deter the people coming with their
animals; everybody was wet but pleased to see us. We went to two
separate locations within the Rizal area and were equally busy at both.
On
this animal relief mission we were fortunate enough to have 3 volunteer
vets accompanying us; this allowed us to set up an anti-rabies station
and a dedicated medical
consultation station. As always there were lots of dogs needing medical
attention, one poor dog was more mange then dog!
This
time we had collars and leashes with us, very satisfying to provide a
brand new substitute instead of the piece of wire or string they were
previously using. The dogs looked very smart and proud going round in
their new collars. I
have to mention the two barangay men who got right down to talking to
the people and putting new collars on the dogs; wish now I could
remember their names. So unusual to find two people who actually were
not worried about handling the dogs, or getting wet and dirty. They
were both so helpful, shame we can't take them on all our animal relief
missions.
At the first location we did 172 rabies shots at the second 254. We treated countless medical cases and distributed 500 collars and leashes.
On
visiting these provinces it is becoming more and more apparent that
what is urgently needed is a mobile spay and neuter vehicle. Doing
animal relief is obviously very necessary after the typhoons but it is
just the tip of the iceberg, we need to be getting down to the root of
the problem and addressing the over pet population. These people can
hardly feed themselves, never mind taking care of countless and every
increasing numbers of pets. After two typhoons they are now suffering
on all fronts. We
met two skinny puppies that were fed only rice once a day; white rice
has very little nutritional value so of course their condition was not
good. But add that to a family who just have too many dogs to feed
already, and continually produce more, of course all that is left for
the new puppies is some rice. A
pet that isn’t going to keep reproducing, and therefore is much
healthier, is the only solution – CARA urgently needs to find funds to
make a mobile spay and neuter unit a reality.
Thank you to the International Fund
for Animal Welfare for providing the grant which has allowed us to
achieve so much, also to all the other people who have donated and the
regular supply of cat and dog food which has fed so many animals over
this time.
Our amazing volunteer vets The team - still smiling!
This project has been made possible with the support of the International Fund for Animal Welfare http://www.ifaw.org
Thank you also to Royal Canin for their large donation of dog food.