Today I want to tell you about an exciting new project that is in the process of being fine tuned at the Animal Tracks centre. As you know we see a lot of orphan puppies being admitted and a lot of energy is put into trying to finding loving homes for them. Although many people do come and adopt puppies, there are also many who don't find a home and some fall very ill and end up not making it beyond the centre walls. I nearly ended up like that and I cannot express my gratitude enough to the people who saved me.Last month 25 puppies found a new home and I am so pleased that 17 of these were female. The reason for this is that just a few years ago local people believed that female dogs were useless as guard dogs and that all they do is attract male dogs and give birth to pups. Luckily the sterilisation programme has changed the attitude of many and likewise they have discovered that female dogs make excellent guard dogs, so many people now choose a female dog for their new guardian and friend.
To reduce the number of pups who end their days at Animal Tracks the vets have embarked on a trial sterilisation programme for pups aged between 3 and 6 months.
Earlier dogs would be sterilised no sooner than at 5 months but with this new procedure we may be able to send some pups back where they came from, thus giving them a chance to make it as strays. 'Why', I hear you wonder, 'when you are trying to reduce the number of strays are you allowing puppies back like this?' Well, once sterilised and vaccinated the dogs cannot multiply and it helps to create a stable stray dog population in any given area. This way there is less chance that new unsterilised strays find their way into the territory and the numbers in the particular areas will be easier to control. Therefore there are no disadvantages in releasing young dogs back into their territory.I hope you'll all join me in wishing our team of vets and nurses good luck with this new project which hopefully will save even more lives.
Olive x
