Baark! visits San Salvador
written by Shelley Hardman.
In May volunteers from Baark! visited San Salvador for a three day spay
and neuter clinic. Volunteers travelled from Cat Island, Andros, Freeport and
Nassau to take part. It was the inspiration of Dave and Karen Kredl, Canadians
who have been travelling to San Salvador for many years. Due to their hard work
in fundraising and organization, we were able to spay and neuter 74 animals in
San Salvador and Rum Cay. Local animal rescue hero, Manfred, was also
instrumental to the cause by flying Dr Wildgoose and 2 volunteers to Rum Cay
for the afternoon for an impromptu S&N clinic. Manfred also adopted all of
the cats from Club Med that were caught (and fixed!) over the weekend.
As we arrived it transpired that there was definitely a feral cat
problem in San Salvador and for the team members who had mainly dealt with dogs
in the past, this was going to be a crash course in feline management! Although
we had five cat traps with us, we also had to use dog traps due to the high
volume of cats we were trying to catch. As cats are a little more elusive than
dogs, this took longer than our normal ‘catch’ rate!
Our
clinic site was donated by the Gerace Research Centre, a COB facility, where
students from all over the States and the Bahamas study Archaeology, Biology, Geology and Marine
Science. The staff and students could not have been more accommodating and some
visiting veterinary students were even able to lend a hand too.
Such were the habits of the feral cats that it
was felt we would have even more success if we also set up a night clinic in a
maintenance facility at Club Med. Three volunteers and Dr Davis, who had all
been on their feet since 7 am with the rest of the team, bravely volunteered to
keep on working through the night to increase the number of cat spays and
neuters. Unfortunately, the cats also seemed to have received this memo and
refused to put in a show! The willing but weary volunteers called it a night at
11 pm and gladly hit their beds!
The Baark team have already been to Eleuthera
and Andros this year and have plans to
visit Abaco and also return to Andros. There will also be further initiatives
in Nassau, following the one that was started in Kool Acres and Elizabeth
Estates recently.
Baark! would also like to thank Bahamas Air for
their generous discount on the flights and the Lady Emerald for the discounted
fare to transport the Baark! truck.
Please spay and neuter
your animals, this simple procedure saves lives and decreases the suffering of
unwanted animals.
This column is proudly
brought to you by BAARK! the Bahamas Alliance for Animal Rights and Kindness.
For more information
contact us at info@baarkbahamas.org, (427.SPAY) or visit our website www.baarkbahamas.com
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