By Dr. Perley-Ann Friedman | Global Giving Project Manager
All of us here at Lanta Animal Welfare are looking forward to 2024. 2023 was a difficult year at it came to a close. Many hard decisions were made during the final months, to ensure Lanta Animal Welfare was on a good path going into the new year. Managing an animal rescue charity on a remote island is not easy, and sometimes changes are necessary, to ensure a better future.
Every department went through their spending with a sharp eye, to identify redundancy, waste, and the unnecessary. New suppliers and medical resources were engaged, to ensure the rescue animals received the best, and most advanced treatments. And we analyzed the facility itself, and performed maintenance where it was needed.
By January 1, we were ready for the New Year. We all were looking forward to rescuing more animals in peril, sterilizing more animals, and finding forever homes for the animals that had no where to go, once they were released from our medical care.
Yes, we were ready to save more lives in 2024!
For this report I want to share a few stories of our recent activities. The first story is about Melly, a puppy we rescued. Her story is heartwarming and shows the best outcome for our rescue animals. The next story is about a mobile sterilization clinic we just held near the Burmese border. And the last story is insight into the process we follow for sterilizing cats. This story includes a video so you can see one of our medical teams at work.
Melly's Story
Lanta Animal Welfare provides medical assistance to a large provincial animal shelter in Trang City, about 2 hours from Koh Lanta. On the way there a few month ago, one of our medics saw something moving on the side of the road. The truck stopped to investigate. It was a very small puppy, that was emaciated, and full of fleas and maggots. It had a large wound on its back where the maggots were festering, and the poor puppy had small lesions all over it's tiny body. Immediately, the puppy was tended in the truck to by the medical team.
Weeks and weeks of medical procedures and ongoing treatments helped poor Melly slowly get better and make a full recovery. Melly joined our other rescue dogs at our centre, and we got to work to find her a forever home.
Jennie, from Sweden, was on our Website reviewing the dogs we were promoting for adoption. She had already adopted a rescue dog from us in the past, and was thinking of getting a second dog. Jennie fell in love with Melly as she read her story and viewed her photo.
Melly is now living her best life in Sweden, with her big brother Cartman. Both of these dogs clearly illustrate our best work. We are very proud to have been able to rescue them and turn their lives of suffering, into something wonderful, a loving forever home.
Ranong Mobile Sterilization Clinic
At the beginning of January our Mobile Sterilization Team and a truckload of supplies, headed north to Ranong. This 7-hour journey to a location on the Burmese border, is one of the furthest places we've held a mobile clinic.
Our team set up their clinic inside the grounds at a local temple. These clinics need a lot of room for the operating tables, the admitting area for the dogs and cats when they arrive, and a recovery area. The team included 2 catchers, who spent their days catching dogs and cats, and following up on stray and injured animal information, provided by the locals.
The clinic continued for 5 days and was busy from dawn til dusk. Our vets and catchers worked these very long days, and sterilized over 150 dogs, and 65 cats.
Doing the math for the cats, is mind-boggling. It is estimated that one cat can have up to 80 offspring in a year, with males on the higher side and females on the lower. 65 cats times 80 equals just over 5,000. And this means that the clinic prevented approximately 5,000 unwanted kittens. This clinic was an outstanding success for helping control the cat and dog over-population in the area.
Cat Sterilization at Lanta Animal Welfare
Every day Lanta Animal Welfare clinic is busy sterilizing (both spaying and neutering) dogs and cats. I have attached a short marketing video we recently made. It shows our clinic, and a medical staff, through the whole sterilization procedure. You might enjoy seeing our medical team in action. This process is the same whether they are in our clinic or out on a mobile clinic. You can see that the animal's comfort is of prime importance, and that the animal is treated gently and with respect, even when they are sedated.
- - - -
I hope you enjoyed this Report and have a better idea of the important work we do at Lanta Animal Welfare. You can also understand how your support of our GlobalGiving Projects, contributes to our mission of saving lives, and preventing the suffering of injured and rescued animals.
Please let me know any questions you may have. I always welcome ideas for future GlobalGiving Reports so please don't hesitate to contact me.
Links:
By Dr. Perley-Ann Friedman | Global Giving Project Manager
By Dr. Perley-Ann Friedman | Global Giving Project Manager
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
