NZ vets & nurses on inaugural one-week stint of 5-year programme to aid our pets and address Honiara’s stray dog problem
BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
A team of veterinarians are in town to help save our pets and help address Honiara’s longtime problem of stray dogs.
This is a welcomed relief for hundreds of pet owners in and around Honiara and is seen as a boost to the struggling, severely limited vet service in the capital.
Helping You Help Animals (HUHA), a charitable trust and New Zealand’s leading no-kill animal shelter yesterday began their one-week mission. This kicks off a five-year programme of such visits.
And, the team is not wasting any time getting down to work with more than 140 dogs alone lined up for medical attention.
Island Sun visited them at the local vet clinic in Chinatown as they attended to pet dogs and cats.
Debbie McKee from New Zealand, a Dentist by profession who made the arrangement possible said the HUHA team comprises two vets and two nurses.
“I’m Debbie McKee and I’m here from New Zealand, I’ve been here for three years and I’m a dog lover obviously and when I hit the ground, I noticed just how sad it is for the number of street dogs we’ve got.
“The main reason and objective here are to de-sex as many street dogs as possible under a desexing programme for our street dogs. The programme would run for five years. We’ve got over 140 dogs booked in and there’ll be more,” said McKee.
“By doing this it will reduce the stray dog population. So, the population will be much less than it is now. Which is exactly what we need. As I said the team would come back for a longer period so we could cover more ground. We are looking at January but otherwise, it will be this time of the year.”
She said the HUHA team arrived on Tuesday this week and will be in Honiara until Wednesday next week.
“We’ve had the support from Honiara City Council (HCC) and a couple of local businesses like Heritage Park and Pink and a lot of the expats have donated money to make this visit possible,” she said.
McKee shares that a lot of pets are facing medical challenges which the team will treat.
“There’s a lot of cancer, tumours in these dogs which is sad, so they’re struggling with cancer and that comes down to them not being able to have a normal life where they have access to clean water and regular food or any vaccinations, so it’s tough for them,” said McKee.
In line with addressing Honiara’s longtime problem of stray dogs, McKee said the programme aims to improve the health and safety of the capital’s communities in general.
“The message to the community or Honiara is if you’re in the position to get your dog de-sexed so we don’t have puppies and we can reduce the population on the street therefore keeping everybody safer.
“So de-sex your dogs but please try and feed them some food and clean water daily.
“They need that to function just like we do. The message is just look out for it and when you hear we’re coming back again, get on the list so we can get your dog de-sexed.
“The HCC are very supportive of this programme. So that’s good. So, they are supporting it. As in manpower, they’re going to give us some dog catchers,” she said.
Meanwhile, pet owner John Leps, 40, welcomes this news saying Solomon Islands desperately needs to improve its vet service more and more people are adopting pets and require this important service.
Mr Leps said only one commercial vet clinic is serving the whole city, which is not enough and is also struggling.
“HUHA’s visit is a big deal for me, a pet owner, we love our pets and have been traumatised over the past years losing our puppies to the Parvo virus and tumorous growths, profuse bleeding, etc which we could not get treatment for.
“We definitely need more HUHA visits in the future, and government to not overlook this important service, the vet service,” Leps said.
Established in 2001, HUHA advocates for rescued, rehabilitated, rehomed and released tens of thousands of domestic and wild animals in need.
