DOGS & CATS OUTREACH – IBO ISLAND – MOZAMBIQUE

Ibo is a little island North of Mozambique, with an estimated population of 5'000 inhabitants. Until a few years ago, less than 5 dogs were living on this island (but many more cats). Since the only way to spay/neuter your animals was to take them some 2500km away (Maputo), they were able to procreate at alarming speed. The population being muslims (moderate), only very few puppies were to find a home. The others becoming wild, at the mercy of the water supply (the island is without rain for over 6 months per year and has no lake/river) and food (only able to eat from public garbage at night) and angry goat owners and their machette.

2 years ago, I contacted an animal welfare in Mozambique to conduct a first outreach to spay/neuter the owned and semi wild cats & dogs on the island to control their population. We conducted a first outreach with some 30 animals spayed. Due to the success of the first outreach, we decided to repeat this experience every 6 months. We have finished the last outreach in October 2016 with a new approach, spreading the programme over 3 weeks and reducing the team to a veterinarian from Maputo and the help of friends of animals on the island and our famous dog catcher Albai (in charge of feeding stations all year-round) That was a large success as we managed to catch 13 wild dogs for spaying/neutering and rabies vaccination. We extended the intervention to two islands (Quirimba and Quirambo), and to a small town across Ibo on the mainland (Quissanga) and were even able to respond to a request from an animal lover in a larger town at 200km who found herself in trouble with too many adopted un-spayed animals around. We do remain with some 30 wild dogs on Ibo, and an increasing demand in all the villages around (where vaccinations are very important). This to avoid more abandoned puppies to starve to death in the bush or being cut by machette when getting too close to someone's food.

The next outreach should take place in March 2017. Our faithful veterinarian Sara is ready to come and we now need funds to cover the fees & travel expenses of the veterinarian and her freight from Maputo to Ibo (2200 USD), surgery consumables (20 USD per surgery including rabies vaccines x 50 animals), and a few expenses linked to logistics and food supplies (300 USD). The vet is hosted for free at my place (www.baobibo.com) and/or nearby hotel. We are then urgently needing 3'500 USD to make the project viable for the first quarter of 2017

If we are successful in raising this amount of money, we will continue to conduct it every 6 months (march/september) and will extend it to the town of Pemba, some 120km from here. Friends on Ibo and I were thinking of starting a kennel (I adopted 10 dogs and will need help if any more show up on my door) and/or some sensibilisation/teaching camps for young kids on all animal welfare issues. So in brief, ideas are many but money is little. If more money is received for this specific outreach, it will go toward the wild dogs feeding station (200 USD a month through the year) and the monthly salary of our local animal caretaker albai (100 USD a month throughout the year).

Many thanks to all in advance for your kind support