In collaboration with local animal welfare group, ARTEMIS, and with cooperation from the Municipality, we are proud to have our sterilisation clinic up and running in Taxiarchis! Unfortunately, our latest outreach for World Animal Day on 4th October was postponed due to a case of Covid in the veterinary team, but nonetheless, the clinic will continue to help many stray dogs in need.
During our last outreach in September, around 30 dogs were sterilised. One of the beautiful dogs Serafina (our Animal Welfare Programmes Manager) met, was Scooter. He is a young adult male who was living with a pack of dogs in a village near Taxiarchis. A local called ARTEMIS to let them know that the little dog was not in good shape and when they went to collect him, the problem became obvious, he was full of mange. Our vets examined him and cleaned the cracked, bleeding wounds that mange had caused. They decided not to sterilise him as his skin was so fragile and he was too weak. So, the ARTEMIS team are keeping him safe and giving him his prescribed medication, and already his skin is starting to heal! We hope to see him a lot healthier and stronger at our next outreach, and he will hopefully be recovered enough to be neutered. He was named Scooter because, despite his condition, he was full of energy and constantly running around like a little scooter!
Another dog the clinic has saved is Choco. She is around 14 years old and notoriously difficult to catch, consequently giving birth to new puppies all the time. A family who visited their summer house for the holidays saw her hanging around and kindly fed her and gave her water, while contacting the girls at ARTEMIS to come and catch her. Surprisingly, she was easily captured and finally brought in to be neutered! During the operation, the vets discovered that she had a large malignant tumour in her uterus, and if she wasn’t spayed, would have suffered a horrible painful death from the cancer. Thankfully, she is now fully recovered, and won’t have to give birth to any more puppies on the streets.
We would like to say a big thank you to the vets who performed these sterilisations and everyone who helped catch dogs, take photos and generally make the clinic a great success! Here’s to many more dogs being sterilised in Taxiarchis.
