WHAT WE DO...
paws of nusa penida sterilisation program
Nusa Penida went from a sleepy, quiet, non-touristy island when I arrived to being the hotspot for Bali tourism with the advent of Instagram. The traditional method for controlling dog and cat populations on the island was to dump unwanted litters of puppies and kittens far from any houses where they would be left to live or die. Along came the tourists who found the abandoned puppies and kittens, rescued them and then called me to take them. With around 6000 dogs on the island and approximately 3000 cats at best guess, you can see that this will quickly cease to be a feasible option. The only way to control the population of dogs and cats sustainably and with compassion is to sterilise as many as possible. Prevention is better than cure. We want to limit the number of street dogs and have more dogs 'owned' by people who will care for them and get them vaccinated and sterilised so as to avoid unwanted litters from being dumped. This will improve the health of the general dog population.
To date every village we have been to, every person we have spoken to has said a firm “yes please” to our offer of a free sterilisation for their pet. Every time we go into a village to sterilise dogs and cats we are educating the local community. The majority of locals have never seen a sedation/anaesthesic of any description and have never seen an operation performed either. We get onlookers from every generation both male and female. They ask a myriad of questions, take a lot of photos and are generally fascinated by what we do. This is the most valuable education that we could ever hope for, we believe it is planting the seed in the mind of the next generation who will choose the option to call us to sterilise their pet over having to dump unwanted litters repeatedly. It is the only way to start to reduce numbers to a level whereby every dog and cat can have a home and someone to look after them.
In addition to sterilising pets we are also rolling out an education program with regards to animal health, basic animal welfare, the value of vaccinating & sterilising pets, zoonosis, the perks of having pets and of course the consequences of dumping unwanted litters which then leads to hungry dogs predating on livestock.