TARA Animal Shelter on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, in September ran a neutering programme for dogs and cats with the help of a Danish team of vets and nurses. Brian, a volunteer with TARA, reports on the success.
The dog and cat neutering project in Mogan county from 14 to 21 September proved a big hit for all concerned.
It was a most collaborative effort indeed: TARA Animal Respect Association recruited Danish Friends of Animals to supply professional animal medical staff to Gran Canaria providing the surgery skills and pharmaceuticals as a donation to the local cause of animal welfare.
The Mogan County Council authorised the project and approved their county veterinarian, Dr. Javier Castellano, to work alongside the Danish vets. (And thank you Danish Friends of Animals fabulous team including Mette, Kamilla, Dr. Christina, Dr. Karina, Dr. Anna, “Ricky”, and Sandra.)
Holiday Investment guru, Eugen Kaiser, offered at no charge five star accommodations at his gorgeous new Atlantic Sands resort in Tauro for the visiting professionals from Denmark. (And thank you Alexandra Jane and Csilla.)
Cafe, bar, restaurant, and entertainment venue entrepreneur cum mogul, Andrew Maconochie, provided the sustenance (food and beverage) for the visiting Danish professionals on five of the evenings of the eight day project at several of his excellent establishments in the south coast of Gran Canaria. This included the TARA/Danish Friends of Animals Celebration at the end of the project (famed TARA friend and songstress JEWELS donating the exclusive entertainment).
Diana Margaret Hulme donated nothing less than the round-the-clock use of her home to the project volunteers and surgery staff for the duration of the project. This amounted to an intrusion of some 200 dogs and cats and 100 volunteers with plenty of (how shall we put this) blood, guts, testicles, uteri, ear tips, fur, urine, feces, vomit, howling and yowling, barking and yapping, and enough aromas galore to make the toughest plumber puke. Brava Lady Di!
The partnership continued on from there: The Best Little Dog Shelter in Paradise (Mogan County Pound) and its dedicated volunteers worked together with TARA and Dr. Castellano to neuter all of the abandoned dogs in their care. (And thank you Dr. Susan, Dr. Javier Alonso, Dog Guardian Angel Sylvia, Eva Her Beatitudeness.)
Next TARA reached out to other animal welfare groups including AAGC, Anahi, Auxilio Animal, and Canarias Adopta to bring in their abandoned dogs and cats that needed neutering. (And thank you Lydia, Renee, Christina, Ann, Hassan, Michelle.)
Finally the call went out to the private volunteers, those animal advocates working tirelessly under the radar to improve the lives of abandoned and abused animals in Gran Canaria – the unassuming, selfless animal champions who care day in and day out for feral feline colonies and dedicate themselves to finding new humans for homeless dogs and cats. (And thank you Carmen Lilliane, Reinhard, Violetta, Claude, Sylvia, Jane, Inga, Richard, Master Dix, Jose Luis, Anita, Rita, and all the wonderful rest.)
and last, but not least, the dedicated TARA volunteers came together gathering up TARA’s abandoned dogs and cats, and feral feline colonies to include in the neutering efforts. Plus TARA Vice President Sanna Nevalainen (The Finnish Dog Whisperer) and her vital volunteers ran the charity stores, the charity flea market, crossed all the T’s and dotted all the I’s on lost animals, abandoned animals, mistreated animals, fostered animals, adopted animals, publicity, communications and documentations, administrative and logistic headaches, plus managed to scrub dirty traps and transportines, floors and walls and toilets, and sordid and soiled body parts, all whilst entertaining visiting project dignitary and what not! BRAVA ladies (and Austin and Alejandro). (And thank you Ana, Elaine, Enja, Lena, Ulla, and Ann again!)
Before it was all said and done, more than 200 people from 27 countries and nearly 300 dogs and cats were captured, inspected, and released, or captured, neutered, and released, whilst 68 dogs and 98 cats without homes were neutered. Since dogs require approximately thrice the time and money investment as cats, this figure far surpassed original goals of the project. Exponentially speaking, this amounts to an unborn reality of literally tens of thousands of homeless dogs and cats.
So in the name of animal welfare, volunteerism, collaboration, and good folks doing good things for the community — The Canary News offers admiration and congratulations to each and every member of this wonderful endeavour. BRAVA!