Animal Welfare Thailand Project #21227

Give Rescue Cats a Safe Future

by Lanta Animal Welfare

Project Report | Jun 2, 2017
KITTY CITY Construction Started TODAY!

By Perley-Ann Friedman | Project Manager and CFO, Lanta Animal Welfare

Junie Kovacs, Lanta Animal Welfare Founder

Your donations are turning our dream of Kitty City into a reality. Construction is now underway for Kitty City, and all of us working at Lanta Animal Welfare are thrilled!

At the time of writing this Report we are more than 3/4 of the way to our financial goal, so it's time to begin building Kitty City. It's low season here on Koh Lanta, meaning that there are very few tourists on the island. Most of the resorts, bungalows, shops and restaurants are closed. The majority of the locals here work in the tourist industry, and they are now laid off for the low season months. What a perfect opportunity to begin our construction! There are many good workers available for our construction team, and most of them are highly skilled in the building trades. And the bonus is that with 5 months of low season ahead of us, we have plenty of time to complete the Kitty City construction before high season is upon us.

As a bonus for this report, I thought I'd introduce you to some of our long term volunteers, and share with you how they feel about being here at Lanta Animal Welfare. Maybe their words can encourage you (or your friends and family) to consider spending time volunteering with us.

Marie, the Volunteer Coordinator: "One of the best parts of being at the center is the transformations we see in the animals. They come in with terrible pasts, sometimes near death, and by the time they are adopted they are happy and healthy and ready to live the rest of their lives in a loving home."
Thad, our super Handyman and Driver: "... My favourite thing about working here is that every day is so different and challenges me in a new way. I feel proud to be part of an organisation that makes animals and people that love animals happy!"
Andrzej, Vet: "I originally came to Lanta Animal Welfare to work as a volunteer for 2 months, but so far I’ve stayed 4 and a half! I have learned so much from working here. It is a very different environment from my previous job where I could use an X-ray, CT, USG, etc. Here you’re only armed with a stethoscope and your intuition! It’s really rewarding work...!"

Moving forward, I will be providing regular updates to share our Kitty City progress with you. If you have any questions, or would like more information on Lanta Animal Welfare, please let me know.

You should all be so proud of yourselves for helping us care for our rescue cats!

Marie - Adoption Co-Ordinator

Thad - Handyman

Andrzej - Vet

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Mar 10, 2017
Lanta Animal Welfare Update March 2017

By Perley-Ann Friedman | Project Leader and CFO - Lanta Animal Welfare

Educating the Local Children on Animal Care

Lanta Animal Welfare - Project Update Report - March 2017

Lanta Animal Welfare is so very proud to have your support. Our "Kitty City" Project is more than half funded and we are planning to begin construction in the spring.

Spring is a time for growth and renewal here on Koh Lanta. The winter tourist season will be over, providing a perfect opportunity to have available resources for our building initiative. During the tourist high season the locals are busy working for the many restaurant and bungalow/resorts on the island. But during low season these people are out of work and available for our Kitty City Construction Team.

Discovering Lanta Animal Welfare and our Founder, Junie Kovacs

This past winter a traveling freelance media team came to visit us. They were very taken with our work so they stayed with us a few weeks to prepare the attached video "Discovering Lanta Animal Welfare". Please accept this video gift as our thanks for supporting our Kitty City Project. You are very important to us and we want to share our history with you.

The Story of One of Our Rescue Cats

We rescue a lot of animals here on Koh Lanta. Unfortunately, many car accident victims just don't make it. Juju was one of the lucky ones. This poor cat was brought to us after a terrible car accident. Her almost lifeless body could have been left on the side of the road, but a local was compassionate enough to give her a chance. Her leg was crushed, the left eye was damage and her jaw was dislocated. Sadly the Lanta Animal Welfare vet had to remove her leg to save her life. Her eye is still problematic and weeps a lot. We call them her tears of happiness because she's still alive . Please enjoy the short video of Juju, who is beginning to adjust to life on three legs.

My Sincere Gratitude to You for Your Support

I want to sincerely thank you for your generosity and for helping us with our Kitty City Project fundraising. Please let me know if you have any comments, questions or suggestions. And by all means contact us if you are going to be visiting Koh Lanta. I will arrange a personalized tour of our centre, and show you the wonderful rescue work we are doing here on Koh Lanta.

Please visit our Web site for more information on Lanta Animal Welfare.

Piau, our Thai Vet in Surgery

Cat recovering after being sterilized

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Dec 16, 2016
Year-End Report From Lanta Animal Welfare

By Perley-Ann Friedman | CFO and Events Co-Ordinator, Lanta Animal Welfare

Hardworking Dedicated Volunteers

Lanta Animal Welfare has been busy the last couple of months!

A number of sterilization clinics were held; many new volunteers arrived at the Centre, and our new e-shop went live, during the past few months. While things have been hectic, it's the good that comes from our hard work, that keeps us inspired. And it is from all this hard work that over 130 animals have found their forever homes so far this year, and approximately 2,000 animals have been sterilized in 2016 to date.

We have been busy and loving it!

We have Amazing Volunteers

Our passionate group of volunteers is what keeps our Center running smoothly day after day. We couldn't do it without them! The volunteers work through heat, rain, and sometimes through the night, to save the lives of the animals in need. They come here for many reasons, but all are looking to make a difference in the world by taking a break from their normal day to day routine, and want to do something very different. Young or old, we welcome all who want to help with open arms and animal snuggles!

Looking Back over 2016

2016 has been a good but extremely challenging year for Lanta Animal Welfare. We had a very busy start to the year with so many visitors to our centre on Koh Lanta. Our tours, to over 2,000 visitors each of the winter months, allows us to share our work with many animal lovers. During our tours, we not only take the visitors through our facility to showcase what we do, we also discuss our future goals. Our GlobalGiving Project for the future Kitty City is prominent on our 'where we go from here' goals, and direction. Our conceptual Kitty City diagrams are located around the centre. We receive excellent feedback from the visitors, about ideas for the finishing touches, to suggestions for the various sections of our new cat area.

In 2016 we completed more than 12 sterilization clinics, here on Koh Lanta, and on the surrounding islands. Our success with these clinics is clearly measurable. Within 8 months to a year from a clinic, there is a noticeable reduction in the animal population. We know that sterilization is the best solution for population control. We are very proud of the positive results of our efforts.

With any good year, there are always the challenges. We seem to be suffering from our own success as each week more and more animals are brought to our centre for treatment. Unfortunately, this includes animals from very desperate living conditions. While we have the medical expertise to treat these animals, we find that more and more of them need to remain at our centre due to dangerous and unacceptable conditions where they used to live. This has greatly increased our animal populations, our daily workload to care for them, as well as the effort required to get so many of these animals adopted.

Looking Forward to 2017

We have our work clearly laid out for 2017. The priority, as always, is on the health and safety of the animals in our care, and our Kitty City Project is front and centre. We are more than halfway to our financial goal, and are putting many things in place so we can reach it in 2017.

Our list is not complete yet, but here are the current Kitty City fundraising activities planned for 2017:

Working with GlobalGiving Corporate Donors

We will be working with GlobalGiving on leveraging our Superstar Status to be introduced to their Corporate Sponsors to see how we can work together to tell their organization's members about our Kitty City Project

Encourage Gift Cards

We will be promoting GlobalGiving and our project and at our centre by introducing the concept of Gift Cards during our facility tours over the winter months. This will include promoting Gift Cards for special occasions, as thank you notes, and for holiday souvenirs.

Hold Special Events here on Koh Lanta.

We are planning monthly events for the busy winter tourist season. Our first even is a Run/Walk/Bike for the Animals, to be held on December 30th. While this is not quite 2017, it does take us a few days to receive all the donations from the various groups, so it is reported in January. We will also have an auction for prizes donated from local businesses in February. People will be bidding on dinners, dive trips, and other items, with the procedures going towards our Kitty City goals. In March will be hosting a Games Night at a local restaurant with funds raised by a raffle and the entry fee for the various activities.

Happy Holiday Season to all of our Supporters

Everyone here at Lanta Animal Welfare is very grateful for your wonderful support and encouragement. Our days are always challenging, but feedback from our supporters helps us continue our hard work with optimism and perseverance.

Thanks so much to all our supporters. Come visit us in 2017 and we’ll organize a private tour of our facility and a detailed overview of our Kitty City plans. Of course we’ll include a visit to the Kitty City building site.

We all sincerely wish you and yours a loving and peaceful holiday season.

Our Founder, Junie Kovacs

GM/Head Vet, CFO and our Intern at Local Event

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