In a bid to address the stray dog issue in Fiji, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is encouraging communities to take part in the outreach clinics they offer.
Clinic and shelter manager Shaneel Narayan says their COVID-19 data revealed that stray dogs are a big problem in Fiji.
“With the support of international volunteer vets we are able to run outreach clinics to combat the issue,” Mr Narayan said.
“We are planning to run more clinics later this year to help control the stray and roaming dog problem. We are putting every effort into finding out ways we can minimise this issue,” he said.
The SPCA team held their second outreach clinic with the Wainadoi community earlier this week.
“The outreach first began in 2019 and has been ongoing ever since. Although we had to put the program on hold due to COVID-19, we have started to get back into it.
“This year we are doing things a bit differently by encouraging communities to take part in it — this is where we are asking the communities to reach out to us and have the clinic in their area. He said their first outreach clinic was held in Waituiri, Nausori, last week.
“We are also encouraging communities to take part in these outreach clinics and all they have to do is find the details and contacts on the SPCA Facebook page, shoot us a message and we will assist them on how they can set up a clinic in their area. Basically all that is needed is either a garage or hall where we can set up, we need running water for the surgeons and a washroom facility.
“We mostly do spaying and neutering, we are desexing the female and male dogs and this is basically to control future stray dog problems.”
Mr Narayan said the outreach clinics were free of charge.
