It has been some time since we have updated our blog...busy times! This past week, the representatives from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) came to Valdivia to visit some of the animal related projects that are currently underway. It was a fantastic visit, and we also learned a lot about what other projects are going on locally. Here are some pics of an awesome project with working horses run by the Animal Welfare group at the University Austral de Chile, called Amigos Veterinarios de los Caballos Carretoneros. This project has been in operation for some 15 years already, and the objective is to raise the level of health of the working horses in the city, give an opportunity for students to have hands on experience working with horses, and to teach the horse owners about essential health care and responsible horse ownership. Each horse has a "Health Passport" that travels with it for life. It is a really amazing project- we were all impressed with the success of the program and the community participation.
This is a group photo from left to right: Tamara Tadich Gallo-organizer of the cart-horse program, Maria Nelly Cajiao- WSPA South America, Luis Carlos Sarmiento Martinez-WSPA South America, myself and Guillermo.
These are some of the participants:
You can see that this young mare is underweight- part of the program addresses nutrition concerns for these hard-working horses...
