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