By Hanna Kurtto
I just want to make clear that ‘SOS Cats and Dogs’ don’t work with us to arrange the clinics. Our association is ‘Save Cats and Dogs of Cape Verde’.
The German vet pool Tieraerztepool has confirmed they will be able to continue the co-operation with the association Save Cats and Dogs of Cape to arrange the 9th Sterilization Campaign on Sal, Cabo Verde. The campaign is planned to be held from the 20th of January to the 3rd of February 2015. We are ready for the next campaign but need the Sal Camara approval and support for it like the campaigns before this one.
This is so important for the animals over on Sal and to the whole island, also keeping the importance of tourism in mind.
During the two last clinic in the beginning of this year we reached amazing results. According to final counts we sterilised over 800 dogs and cats and there were also almost a 100 other operations performed at the clinics. Spaying just one dog prevents 16 puppies being born in a year and 128 puppies from being born in 2 years.
This means that on Sal as a result of the clinics more than 3.800 dogs and cats have been spayed and neutered so far. Thousands of animals have been treated agains parasites and hundreds of operations that could not have been done at all otherwise have also been performed during the campaigns.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has research the stray populations and concluded that the only way to reduce the amount of stray dogs and cats is to sterilize them. Killing the strays does not work, in fact it only makes the population stronger as the strongest individuals tend to survive and reproduce. Spaying and neutering is the only sustainable and humane way to reduce the stray population.
There are so many tourists who love the animals and even come to the island to see them again. The association Save Cats and Dogs of Cape Verde receives numerous emails and messages concerning the dogs and cats of Sal on a daily bases from animal lovers all over the world. Many of them say, that if street dogs were to be killed or poisoned as in the past, they would stop coming back to the island.
The island of Sal has the chance to be a leader and set an example not only to the other islands of Cape Verde but to Africa by choosing a humane and already proved affective way to deal with the stray animal issue. This is also a great way to increase tourism as most Europeans do not accept the inhumane ways practiced elsewhere.
At the 9th sterilization clinic as during the previous campaigns all spaying and neutering operations for street animals or animals owned by Cape Verdians will be free. European owners just to pay for the medicines used (3300 ecv or 30 euros). Any animal sterilized in this campaign (or in the previous campaigns) will be also offered free treatments against fleas and ticks, deworming treatment and mange treatment if needed. Also any other emergency surgical operation needed will be performed by the veterinary Team of the German association Tieraerztepool.
Here is the video from the clinic in January 2014. If you can’t be here to help in person as a volunteer in January 2015, we would still like a donation if possible, it will help with the next and further Sterilization Clinics here on Sal: LINK-YOUTUBE-SAL
Please also read our petition and sign it and share afterwards: LINK-SAVE-ANIMALS
Hanna Kurtto – President
Association: Save Cats and Dogs of Cape Verde – www.savecatsdogscapeverde
