SPRING NEUTERING CAMPAIGN IN BANICHAN 2025
In ten days, we neuter and spay 407 animals.
It’s only March but we are about to start our second neutering campaign of the year. It is a bittersweet experience. On the one hand, we wish there weren’t as many dogs and cats in need of neutering and spaying. On the other, the demand for our services plainly shows what our work means: more and more people taking responsibility.
People oftentimes bring animals to our clinic using their own vehicles. These guys had the chance to take in the scenery en route.
But if there is no transport available, we go out to pick up those in need. This dog found a safe place in a family’s back yard to have puppies in the winter. The family called us and asked if we could spay her.
Although the family has let them stay, no one is too keen to have four big dogs live on their property in the not-so-distant future. Especially when resources aren’t abundant for the humans either. We’ll probably have to come back here soon to take care of the puppies too.
We’ve been trying to catch the mother of this litter since November – small and skittish, she has evaded us with amazing skill. Now we find her latest litter, tucked away in a shaft behind an auto service.
This time around we finally succeed in capturing the mum, using her pups as bait. She is quite young and very shy. Locals tell us they see her cross a very busy road several times a day in search for food.
We decide to keep her in the clinic and look for suitable homes for her and her brood. In a few days’ time, she already trusts us enough that she allows us to pet her and handle her babies – a sign of her naturally sweet temperament.
Rarely, we have to resort to using tranquilizer darts, like in the case of this young dog that lives with her pack in an overgrown field. Last time we trapped the mother and spayed her, but our friend here was too young to be spayed. This time she’s of age but she’s also very fast.
Some we manage to neuter at an early age but others, like the female dog here, take three years to catch. She moved into someone’s shed a while back and he gave her food and shelter. But every time we had a campaign in the village, her sixth sense would kick in and she would disappear a day or two in advance – then stay gone for a week. At long last the man calls us to say that she’s at home while we’re in the area.
Most dogs we encounter are sociable and trusting.
Cats, however, are so quick that they almost always need to be trapped before we can treat them. Chickens and cats usually coexist peacefully together in many a yard. But the cat bait in our traps is very alluring for the local feathered inhabitants and occasionally we have to shoo them away.
A rare moment of quiet, with the last patient of the day waiting to be admitted.
He will be well treated and receive the best care from our vets, like all patients before him.
Together with the vets, we keep getting new volunteers too. It makes our work both easier and more worthwhile.
