A Brand New Beginning for “Nico”
World Vets volunteer, Jenny Shilling, holds “Nico” during our Dominican Republic field operative
The international field service projects that World Vets operates have the potential to positively impact the lives of our volunteers and most importantly the animals they travel to treat. On our most recent field operative in the Dominican Republic, the experience of one volunteer, Jenny Shilling, demonstrates this perfectly.
Before veterinary services started, World Vets team was taken on a “community outreach” tour. This tour highlighted the communities and subsequently the animals that our local partners aid in Sosua and its surrounding areas. Upon driving through an abandoned sugar cane field, they spotted a dead-looking puppy on the side of the path. Before they knew it, the dog sprang up and started chasing down their vehicle as fast as his little puppy feet would go. They stopped and scooped him up.
He was a mess; a scrappy, flea covered, tick covered, extremely dehydrated, shaking
“Nico” gets his picture taken with Santa
mess. He had self-inflicted bloody flea infested wounds all over his head, neck, and back as he had frantically tried to scratch the fleas off.
Without hesitating, they wrapped him in a jacket and once back at their accommodations began treating him. After a dose of capstar, two flea baths, picking ticks out of his ears for over an hour, lots of water and food he looked like a totally different dog.
Shortly thereafter, he became the team mascot; staying at team accommodations, eating breakfast with everyone and even accompanying them to the clinic every day where everyone involved loved him unconditionally.
He has since been named “Dominico” or “Nico” for short and has been relocated with Jenny in the United States.
The abandoned sugar cane field is sadly a local dumping site for unwanted puppies. With the 375 sterilizations that World Vets provided in Sosua this year, we have helped to significantly reduce the number of undesired litters in and around this community. And as Jenny states, “This made the work the team did in the Dominican Republic even more rewarding knowing that even one less puppy would be dumped due to sterilization made the entire World Vets mission even more apparent.”
We thank Fondation Brigitte Bardot for their continual support of our spay/neuter operatives in the Dominican Republic
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part of our long standing small animal project there. We will be sending a team to Ibarra, Ecuador in November 2013 and would like to fill the LVT/RVT position as soon as possible. If you are an LVT/RVT and interested, please write to trips@worldvets.org to learn more about a potential special offering.