World Vets Launches Conservation Medicine Program on the Galápagos Islands

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Official announcement ceremony of World Vets Galapagos, Conservation Medicine Program, held at World Vets new facility on San Cristobal Island. November 6, 2021

World Vets, along with our founding sponsor Lakefield Veterinary Group, is excited to announce the official launch of World Vets Galapagos, Conservation Medicine Program on the Galápagos Islands.  Several years in the making, this ambitious program will work collaboratively to help protect the vast biodiversity of the Galápagos Islands especially as it relates to the unique challenges brought about by the interface of wildlife populations, domestic animals and humans.  World Vets will be working together with multiple agencies including the Galápagos National Park (Parque Nacional Galápagos, PNG), the Galápagos Conservancy, Agencia de Regulación y Control de la Bioseguridad para Galápagos (ABG), the Municipality of San Cristobal and Animal Balance.  World Vets CEO Dr Cathy King signed an official agreement with Galápagos Conservancy with support from Mr. Danny Rueda, Director of the Galápagos National Park and Dr Marilyn Cruz, director of ABG. The official announcement ceremony, along with the signing of an additional cooperative agreement between World Vets and Mayor Henry Cobos for the municipality of San Cristobal Galápagos, was attended by officials of the various agencies at an event held at our new veterinary facility on San Cristobal Island on November 6, 2021. The ceremony, attended by many dignitaries, included speeches from Dr Marilyn Cruz (ABG), Wacho Tapia (Galapagos  Conservancy), Emma Clifford (Animal Balance), Mayor Henry Cobos (Municipality of San Cristobal) and Cathy King (World Vets).

World Vets Conservation Medicine Program will include efforts in a variety of areas including work on marine animals and other native and endangered wildlife species as well domestic animals.

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A Galapagos sea lion naps on a bench on San Cristobal Island. Photo:Cathy King

 

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San Cristobal, Galapagos Mayor Henry Cobos and World Vets CEO Cathy King signing a collaborative agreement.

Programs will include:

-Providing veterinary support and staffing to respond to sick, injured and entangled marine animals, as well as other native and endangered wildlife in the field and at the new Galápagos National Park (PNG) wildlife facility on San Cristobal Island (primarily as it relates to causes related to human interaction).

-Working to build capacity and resources of the PNG Rapid Response Network, especially related to the large population of Galápagos sea lions on San Cristobal.

-Working to build additional capacity for stranding response and veterinary support for marine animals throughout the Galápagos Archipelago, working together with PNG and PNG veterinarian Dr Andrea Loyola (based on Santa Cruz Island)

-Research related to understanding and protecting marine species as well as other endangered and native wildlife, including health and disease monitoring.

-Working together with ABG to monitor invasive species in the Galapagos Islands

-Education and training programs

-Working together with ABG, Animal Balance and the Municipality to keep local dog and cat populations healthy and manageable though sterilization programs and year round availability of veterinary services provided free of charge to the local community. For many years Animal balance, led by Emma Clifford, has worked together with ABG to provide successful and ongoing community-based sterilization campaigns throughout Islands.  In recent years, the need for year round access to veterinary care has become an urgent priority.  Our work will build upon their foundation and ongoing work as World Vets opens our new veterinary facility that will provide access to year round veterinary medical and surgical services and spay/neuter programs with a primary focus on San Cristobal Island.

Over the coming weeks and months we will continue to share the details of the various programs.    We look forward to working together as part of this multi-agency effort to protect the Galápagos Islands.

We are grateful to Lakefield Veterinary Group for their support of this program and to all of the various agencies that have made this program possible.

 

 

 

 

Ride for 5 – Cycling Across the US for World Vets

62B8F318-DAF3-429F-B999-4C3738922888Kelly O’Keefe, a long-time supporter of World Vets, is biking across the country to bring awareness and raise funds for five charities of his choosing, including World Vets!

His journey started on July 31st with the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and will end on the East Coast in Savannah, Georgia. It’s a distance of over 3,000 miles through the center of the United States that Kelly hopes to traverse by the end of September.

Kelly has generously volunteered on a variety of World Vets projects across the globe throughout the years. His skills have reached animals in Peru, Albania and Brazil!  These experiences inspired him to choose World Vets as a recipient of donations on his Ride for 5 fundraiser.

We can’t express enough how thankful we are to have such compassionate supporters like Kelly. Follow along on Kelly’s journey by visiting his Facebook page: Ride for 5 – My Ride Across America for Awareness and Change.

Please help make Kelly’s ride meaningful and rewarding by donating to World Vets today!  Click the DONATE button to go to the fundraiser page for this event.

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Wish Granted for Gray!

Recently World Vets had the opportunity to bring seal enthusiast Grayson “Gray” and his family on a South Sound marine naturalist expedition! Gray is an amazing and wonderful kid who is bravely battling brain cancer.  He loves seals more than anything and he and his family recently visited Gig Harbor to spend quality time together with hopes of seeing some seals. Since we are regularly out helping seals (and lots of other marine mammals!) around the Salish Sea, the community reached out to us and got us connected to see if we could help grant a wish.

Two days later the weather was perfect and our CEO Dr Cathy King set out with Gray and his family on an adventure to see and learn about seals in the wild. Together we were able to view hundreds of harbor seals and sea lions in their natural habitat. Gray even spotted a white harbor seal that matched his eye patch, which he named Snowy (pictured below). Gray said it was the best day ever and gave it an 11 out of 10.  It was an 11 out of 10 for us too.

Gray’s interest and compassion towards marine mammals was truly an inspiration to the World Vets team. We’re all pulling for you Gray!  Best kid ever.

World Vets is an international veterinary aid organization based in Gig Harbor, Washington.  With programs in over 45 countries on six continents, World Vets works to bring veterinary services to underserved areas if the world by providing direct veterinary care to animals, disaster response services for major international disasters, veterinary training and education programs and long-term capacity building that improves the lives of animals, people and the communities in which they live.  Our programs benefit a wide variety of animals in a global scale including companion animals, working horses, livestock, wildlife and street dogs.

In the Pacific Northwest, World Vets work focuses on improving the health and welfare of marine wildlife by responding to injured or stranded marine mammals, and working to advance scientific knowledge an understanding to help protect and conserve the region’s critical marine ecosystem.  Learn more HERE.

World Vets Partners with MSD Animal Health to Help Animals Impacted by the Global Pandemic

World Vets is excited to announce that we have been awarded a $100,000 grant from MSD Animal Health to help animals across the globe that are suffering as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic.  Working with partners across 12 countries, spanning 5 continents, World Vets will provide urgent and critical care to pet owners who cannot afford services because of financial or other pandemic-related hardship. Thanks to this grant, we will be able to provide widespread veterinary relief in Ecuador, Brazil, Australia, Nepal, Italy, Spain, Peru, United Kingdom, Moldova, Tanzania, Guatemala and Dominican Republic.  We are very grateful for the generous support from MSD Animal Health as we work to bring much needed care to animals in need.  The project is recently underway and is already bringing life-saving veterinary care to those that need it most.  Below are just a few of the animals that have already been helped.  We look forward to sharing these stories of hope from around the world as we embark on this important mission.

About MSD Animal Health

For more than a century, MSD, a leading global biopharmaceutical company, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases. MSD Animal Health, a division of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA, is the global animal health business unit of MSD. Through its commitment to The Science of Healthier Animals®, MSD Animal Health offers veterinarians, farmers, pet owners and governments one of the widest ranges of veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines and health management solutions and services as well as an extensive suite of digitally connected identification, traceability and monitoring products. MSD Animal Health is dedicated to preserving and improving the health, well-being and performance of animals and the people who care for them. It invests extensively in dynamic and comprehensive R&D resources and a modern, global supply chain. MSD Animal Health is present in more than 50 countries, while its products are available in some 150 markets. For more information, visit www.msd-animal-health.com/ or connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

 

 

#GivingTuesday Update – Spend with a Purpose this Holiday Season

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#GivingTuesday started the year‑end giving season and we are off to an amazing start! Thank you everyone who has partnered with World Vets to help animals in need. Your gift is already at work making a difference!

We are grateful to have such compassionate supporters on #GivingTuesday and everyday.  Thank you!!

Didn’t get the chance to donate on #GivingTuesday, but still want to contribute to our mission?  It’s never too late to make a contribution to World Vets!  Donations up to $6500 are matched dollar for dollar until January 31st, 2021!#GivingTuesday animals world vets donate fundraiser

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