VWB/VSF Chile Canine Project

Dog Jog-a-thon Fundraises for Vets without Borders in Chile

2010-11-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

Guillermo and I were very pleased to receive the following email from Kaytie:

"On September 12, 2010 K9 Awareness held a Dog Jog-a-thon to raise funds for Vets Without Borders Chilean project. Our goal was to have at least one K9 treadmill running for 12 hours by dog owners purchasing a ticket to run their dog for 30 minutes each. We started at 8 a.m. and finished at 8 p.m. with a total of 42 dogs participating. Along with money raised from the sale of the tickets we had a wonderful silent auction with a great selection of donated items to bid on. A friend and business associate, Charmaine Hammond combined celebrating the birthday of her star dog “Toby” who is featured in her new book “On Toby’s Terms” with our event. Charmaine had the book on sale and donated $7.00 per sale to the fundraiser as well. Between the Jog-a-thon ticket sales, book sales and the Silent Auction, less the expenses of running the event, we raised $1,800!"

Have a look at come of the great photos:

Thank you so much for supporting Veterinarians without Borders Chile project. We really appreciate it.

Finding the Fifth Leg on a Cat

2010-10-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

People often ask us whether we think that mandatory dog registration would be one of the solutions to free-roaming dogs in Chile. Our answer has always been “yes”, but it now comes with a big BUT. Let me explain! Take the Chilean driving regulations as an example. I recently began to study the transit and driving laws to renew my Chilean driving license. The laws are all explained one-by-one in a 50 page manual, and I noticed that they are very similar to the ones we have in Canada (i.e., drive on the right side of the road and never under the influence), except for a few things like “seat belts are only mandatory for people sitting in the front seat”. That gives new meaning to the phrase “shot gun”! Anyways, what is really interesting, and often frustrating, about laws and regulations in a developing country like Chile, is that we find that here “rules are really made to be broken” and nobody seems to really care that they are there in the first place. Here are a few pictures to illustrate what I am referring to:

Like in Canada, in Chile, it is against the law to park in front of a fire hydrant, but do people respect it? Can you imagine doing this in Canada?

Also, in Chile one is ONLY allowed to park pointing in one direction, but, what does the evidence show?

Additionally, according to the law one cannot park within 10 meters of a corner, but I guess one can argue which corner?

Like these, there are many more examples. J-walking is an art! You have the “diagonal”, and the “I dare you to drive me over” crossing, just to name a couple.

BUT the biggest question of them all is; wouldn´t people get into trouble and be afraid that their vehicles would be towed away? To top it all, here is a picture of a street with a NO PARKING sign right next to a local police station (green sign in the background that says “recinto de carabineros”).

To make a long story short, Chileans are known for what they call “finding the fifth leg on a cat” (looking for ways to bend the rules). I think that in today´s society, it is often not a matter of bending the rules anymore, but instead avoiding them all together.

So getting back to implementing dog registration bylaws; even though registration is one of the most widely agreed upon solutions to battling irresponsible ownership and free-roaming dogs, understanding the perceptions of the people towards the issue will continue to be one of our number one goals.

Angelica Finds Vets without Borders Voluntary Work Gratifying.

2010-08-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

Dr. Angelica Romero is a new veterinary graduate from the university here in Valdivia, and has been volunteering with us for almost 6 months now. She has helped us with all kinds of projects, research, and general day to day stuff, and is a huge asset to our group. We asked her to make a few comments about her work, and this is her report below, first in her own words in Spanish, followed by the translation into English.

Angelica helping us in Dichato, Chile.

Mi nombre es Angélica Romero soy medica veterinaria, hace unos meses atrás tuve la ocurrencia de venir a hasta la oficina de Veterinarios Sin Fronteras en Valdivia, como parte de la búsqueda de mi perfil profesional, y también asumiendo mi oportunidad para experimentar nuevos conocimientos después de haber obtenido mi título profesional. Mi experiencia como voluntaria ha sido satisfactoria, ya que siento que comparto varios intereses en común con Elena y Guillermo, desde dar solución a los problemas derivados de la tenencia irresponsable de mascotas en Valdivia, hasta el respeto y valoración hacia las diferentes especies de fauna. Me siento muy cómoda después de integrarme a este equipo, como a su vez muy agradecida del intercambio de experiencias, puesto que he podido presenciar una forma de trabajo diferente, más ordenada, lógica y humana, algo que los chilenos generalmente evadimos para tomar el camino más rápido al abordar un problema.

Bueno además de participar en el quehacer de VSF-Valdivia, llevo un par de años trabajando con una especie endémica con problemas de conservación el “Pudú” (Pudu puda). Este ciervo habita los bosques templados de Chile y Argentina, su estado de conservación es vulnerable de acuerdo a la lista roja de la UICN. Las principales amenazas que enfrenta esta especie son: la fragmentación del bosque nativo, la caza ilegal, los atropellos, la introducción de especies domésticas, y dentro de éstas la más importante es el perro!!

Mi trabajo con esta especie es a través de un criadero privado donde mantienen alrededor de 25 animales, me encargo de velar por su bienestar y brindarles atención clínica periódica. Acá les dejo una fotos de esta especie, un adulto y un cervatillo, cuando son pequeños tienen manchas blancas en su pelaje, alrededor de los 3 meses estas manchas desaparecen por completo. A mí me causa mucha empatía este ciervo, ¿y a ustedes? espero que lleguemos a compartir este sentimiento...

Negro- Deer more than 3 months old.

My name is Angelica Romero and I am a Chilean veterinarian. A few months ago I had the idea to come to Veterinarians Without Borders-Canada (VWB) office in Valdivia, to look for ways to obtain new professional experiences and use the ones I obtained during my degree. My volunteer experience with VWB has been gratifying, as I feel that I share many common interests with Elena and Guillermo; from providing solutions to problems of irresponsible pet ownership in Valdivia, to ideas on how to teach respect and appreciation towards wildlife. I feel very comfortable after joining this team, and at the same time very grateful for the exchange of experiences, since I have witnessed a different form of work ethic, more orderly, logical and humane, different from the Chilean way which usually takes the fastest path to get the job done.
Well in addition to participating in the work of VWB here in Valdivia, I´ve been working on conservation issues of an endemic wildlife species, the "Pudu (Pudu puda), for a couple of years. This deer inhabits the temperate forests of Chile and Argentina and its conservation status is vulnerable according to the IUCN Red List. The main threats facing this species are fragmentation of the native forests, poaching, vehicle traffic, introduction of domestic species; and among these, the most important is dogs!
My work with this species is through a private captive farm where they have about 25 animals. I work to ensure their welfare and provide regular medical care. Here I´ll leave you with a couple of photos of this species, one adult and one fawn. When they are young they have white spots on their coat. At about 3 months, these spots disappear completely. This deer makes me feel empathy. How about you? I hope we share this feeling ...

Pudicillo - Fawn

Certainly, Chile is Interesting!

2010-08-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Today was such a weird day; we just had to share it with you. Well to tell you the truth, it wasn’t weird- it was so typical for Chile...just weird for Canadians.
Our day started at the hardware store where we had to buy a door handle. We got a quote at one place a few days ago for $11,000 pesos, so decided to go back and buy that one. When we told the clerk that we would take it, the price more than doubled to $28,000 pesos because apparently they had made a mistake with their earlier quote. Then when we got the final quote, the price had gone up again to $56,000 pesos...because they forgot to include the handle on the other side of the door in the original quote.....
Then we had to go the vehicle insurance place. Here in Chile, you get insurance for your vehicle, but every time you do something to your vehicle- like upgrade something or buy something new for it, you have to go to get it appraised again or else you won’t be covered if it is stolen or damaged. Our radio was stolen on our last trip to Dichato, and since we have now replaced it, we need to report this to our insurance company. Our original policy was purchased in Viña del Mar when we first moved here, but they can’t check our vehicle because it is about 14 hours away. So we decided to cancel the policy, and move it to Valdivia. Today we were informed that because they gave us “such a good rate”, they won’t allow us to cancel. Hmmmm, ok??? Most things seem to result in a frustrating dead end just like this.
On our way back to work, this guy launches himself off the sidewalk directly in front of our truck. We slam on the brakes...the guy doesn’t even give us a sideways glance! This happens so often, that we are starting to wonder if this is a strange form of suicide attempt....
Then we get a phone call from our volunteer veterinarian who usually works with us on Friday afternoons. It’s a cry for help. She has no vehicle, and rides her bike everywhere with a horse-riding helmet for protection. Her rooster has been seriously wounded, and she needs us to bring supplies to help out. We load up with a few essentials from the office...and here we go- Veterinarians Without Borders to the rooster rescue. Driving there, we come to an intersection that is always SO chaotic- with traffic squeezing through the tiniest areas and coming from all directions. Through the middle of it all, go 2 policemen on horses, followed closely by a street dog that looks like a shepherd with sawed off legs! This dog is following the horses so closely that he doesn’t realize he is coming to the end of the sidewalk, falls OFF the sidewalk into the street, then follows the 2 horses right through the middle of all the traffic, trotting along proudly as if he is a police dog in disguise. We arrive to help the rooster, but unfortunately the poor guy was dead on arrival....
On the way back to work, we see the same street dog. Now he is following a cop on foot. Definitely must be a police-dog wanna be.
When we arrive in front of the office, the post-lunch rush has ended and the street is jammed with parked cars. Two cars have parked on either side of this one little truck so that all 3 are actually touching. There isn’t a hope that the one in the middle is going anywhere in a hurry. Someone has parked again in front of our neighbour’s gate, and he can’t get in, so he is writing in marker on the violators door to never block his gate again....
So far that’s it for our day.... and it’s only 3pm!

Is there such a thing as a free lunch?

2010-08-06T11:00:00.001-07:00

Elena and I believe that one of the reasons why cats and dogs reach such high population numbers is because they are indirectly fed by humans (in a sense, subsidized). In Valdivia, we often see cats and dogs reaching into people´s garbage bags, ripping them open. We have asked different municipalities here whether they have an estimate on how much it costs to clean-up after free-roaming cats and dogs and assess whether it would be better to avoid/reduce those costs by implementing a better garbage disposal container and more regular garbage pick-up? Unfortunately, we have not yet received an answer. Is this issue of cats and dogs feeding from garbage “normal”? What do you think?

Based on this sign, which states "NO BOTE BASURA...DEMUESTRE CULTURA" , which translates to “do not throw garbage out – respect your culture”, someone wanted to make a difference and tell people to improve their garbage disposal customs. We are not sure that this sign has been entirely effective. Any comments?

More on Dichato...

2010-05-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well Erik pretty much covered what we did in Dichato. What an amazing experience it was! It was really shocking to see the degree of damage still remaining in the town 2 months after the tsunami, and hard to imagine what the people had gone through, and in fact continue to suffer through as they remain in a state of limbo living in tents in the cold weather. The army is building small huts for people for the winter, and we heard that last weekend some were ready for people to move into...so hopefully things have improved somewhat for them. But still...it is hard to imagine that all these families lost everything, their photographs and special memoirs, most importantly, but even the material things that now they will have to buy all over again, and with nothing left to start their businesses in- I really don’t know how they are surviving.

As for the dogs, there are more than I have ever seen in one area! They are everywhere! And most of them are intact males, so there were a lot of fights while we were there. I can’t imagine what is going to happen when the females start coming into heat, because there is nowhere to confine them to protect them from all the males.

So we are going back next weekend. We are making plans right now for teams to spread out to new areas and vaccinate more dogs, and for other teams that know the town better- like Roberto from Dichato, to try and find the puppies that we vaccinated the first time around to give them their booster.

I recently heard that one of the dogs that had confirmed distemper was euthanized by a colleague who was in Dichato last weekend. His symptoms were just too severe, and there were no signs of improvement. This distemper outbreak just adds insult to injury for some of these people that have nothing but their pets for comfort...

I’ve attached a few pictures for you to see, but also encourage you to visit our friend- Carlos Johnson’s website with more photos of us working in Dichato, and also a section on the damage that we saw from the tsunami, and of people living in the camps- they are really amazing photos! www.carlosjvfotos.com/vsf and www.carlosjvfotos.com/dichato

Here we go:

Eating breakfast at Roberto’s family’s house:Dogs hanging out / waiting?? on the dock where the beach front buildings used to be:

Checking dogs over prior to their vaccine:

Roberto Orrego and I working on a cute little cocker:

People arrived from outside the camps with all their dogs:

Dr. Patricia Pérez and Guillermo working together on a particularly difficult dog:

Dichato...used to be a quaint little beachfront tourist town:

Women getting their daily drinking water:

The camps:

This man was delivering mattresses to people in tents, and you can see us working in the background:

Cars piled up in the middle of the street that were destroyed in the tsunami:

The destruction:

But nothing can stop the Chileans from playing soccer!!!

Here we are at the end of a long weekend:

When you see something as beautiful as this little girl, in the midst of such despair and destruction...how could one give up! We’ll let you know how the next trip goes....

Comments from our Volunteer- Erik

2010-05-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

Hey, I’m Erik, a volunteer that accompanied the team from VWB/VSF to Dichato to control an outbreak of distemper in this earthquake and tsunami struck town.I’m a Chilean/American/Canadian that’s lived in Chile almost my whole life. I’m a biology student at the Universidad Austral de Chile here in Valdivia and met Guillermo and Elena last year and have kept in contact since then.

They invited me to participate in the trip to Dichato and I didn’t hesitate at the chance to go help in this disaster stuck area. Dichato used to have a population of around six thousand people and after the earthquake and tsunami struck the town it lost approximately 60% of its buildings. Now all the people that didn’t leave the town after their houses were destroyed or washed away by the sea, live in the tents on the hill on higher ground. Most people have dogs. And living in tents, it’s hard to keep your dogs leashed up. So the streets are plagued with dozens of dogs on each corner, most of them with an owner, but loose on the streets. It’s a perfect opportunity for viruses such as Canine Distemper Virus or Canine Parvovirus to get around.

So when VWB/VSF heard of a supposed distemper outbreak they jumped at the opportunity of helping to control it. On Thursday the 22^nd of April, we were on our way north on a 6 hour trip to get to Concepcion where we enjoyed some seismic movements during the night and moved on the next day to get set up in Dichato for the weekend. The team at this moment was comprised of Elena, Guillermo, Paty, Daniela, and me.

Entering Dichato we were welcomed be the devastating scenario of entire street blocks that used to line the sea front stripped to only a couple hollow cement structures and whole house uprooted from their bases and left 2 blocks away by the sea. We later moved up to the hills and to the camps to assess the canine situation. Extremely small sites holding up to 120 tents with tiny pathways in-between them is what we saw. Plus dozens of dogs tromping around loose.

So as soon as we got there a few people came up to ask what we were there for and before long we had people showing up with their dogs on makeshift leashes. Now it was time to take blood, do physicals, vaccinate, and extract as much information about the dog from the owner as possible. We did this to all dogs that were applicable for said things. So to do so we split into two teams. First team was Elena, our vet, Guillermo, our handler, and me, the bookie. The second team was Paty, the vet, and her assistant Daniela.

After the word spread around the neighborhood that we were vaccinating dogs against distemper for free, a small crowd started to form. Late in the afternoon another member of our team shows up from Santiago. It’s Carlos, our professional photographer friend. So by the end of the day we had vaccinated around 40 dogs in our first afternoon. And our second vet Paty and her assistant Daniela have to leave.

Now it was time to go find a place to crash. Thanks to our contact in Dichato, who is from an animal welfare group in a nearby town, we were set up in some rooms in the backyard of a very nice lady’s house, in the low part of Dichato.

Next day we have another member arrive. It’s Javier, our second vet all the way from Valdivia. So now I’ll be working with him and helping with holding veins and getting all the info from the owners. We start working mid morning and wait till the town starts to wake up. We set up in the plaza just outside the camp we were working at yesterday. Once it’s close to noon the people are answering their doors and soon they appear with their dogs to the plaza where we set up. By this time another vet and more volunteers from Concepcion show up to help, and vet from the near town of Tomé.

So know we have 4 teams working with a constant lineup of dogs. We have plenty of work to do and work well into the afternoon before it seems like we have pretty much covered all the dogs in this small area (over 120 dogs vaccinated). Now its time to move down to what’s left of downtown and see if we can find a few dogs around there to vaccinate. We are lucky to be there just as a traditional folklore event is finishing and there is a bunch of people walking around. So soon the people that lived close by hurried up to get their dogs and bring them over for their vaccines.

The day is over and we feel like our team of 5 (Elena, Guillermo, Javier, Carlos, and me) deserve a prize for our effort. And to our good fortune there is a small barbecue in the backyard where we are staying. Living in Chile- it would be a sin to not make good use of a grill. So like good Chileans we enjoy the last hours of the day with a nice barbecue.

Next morning it’s time to find the last location where we will work before we have to be on our way back to Valdivia again. Our reinforcements from Concepcion are back, so we have a good 4 teams working this morning. We work hard until we have to leave and come to a grand total for the 3 days of 200 vaccinated dogs aprox. and 100 blood samples.

This was a tremendously successful trip and personally an amazing experience.

We all got along incredibly well and worked hard for long hours without complaints. I want to thank Elena and Guillermo from VWB/VSF for this awesome opportunity and the great work atmosphere.

We are all planning to go back to Dichato on the 21^st of May to do a check up on the dogs we vaccinated and take blood from and vaccine more dogs if it is possible.

So stayed tuned to read about the next adventures of the VWB TEAM!

2nd Trip to Chaihuin

2010-05-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

Once again it has been some time since I wrote. We have been super busy with a number of projects and continuing to help in the earthquake/tsunami affected areas. So I’ll get going on you update right away, and check back shortly for the next update from Erik- our volunteer on our first trip to Dichato where the tsunami hit!

On the weekend of March 27^th, we went out to Chaihuin, Cadillal Alto and Cadillal Bajo again to vaccinate and deworm the community dogs, and to give talks to the dog owners about public health concerns regarding dogs, and the disease risks that free-roaming dogs pose to local wildlife. This time we set up in the local Posta (like a community health centre) in Chaihuin, and then went out to a community centre in Cadillal Alto, and one team went house to house in Cadillal Bajo (because it’s so small!). It was a success, and lots of people were interested in the talks, asked a lot of questions and provoked some interesting discussions.

This time two of the the Policlinico Movil students came with us from UACh, and they helped tons! Here is Lady taking blood from one of the dogs:

And Dr. Alejandro Aleuy from UACh weighing one of the dogs on the nurses scale!

And César giving talks to the farmers in Cadillal Alto:
And of course, our mode of transportation was the boat again:

I think the best thing was going back to the same community, recognizing the people and their dogs, and being able to follow up on some of the things that we saw the first time. The people are so nice, and seem genuinely interested in their animals’ health.

Here’s the group that we went with:

And that night in Chaihuin there was a community gathering that we attended, and got in on some local seafood, and other Chilean goods!

And finally on the last day, this dog that had been following us around all weekend, took a stroll with us down to the beach to watch the sun set....we had a few special moments together!

Earthquake in Chile 6

2010-03-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

Sunday March 7^th

On Sunday morning we were awakened by the last night watcher at 6am. After a quick hot drink, we headed out to Santa Rosa, and outlying area of Lebú.

When we arrived, there was already a hoard of people from the community lined up with their Red Cross ticket to collect their allotment of food and water!

Everything started out pretty civil, but grew increasingly intense as the food started being handed out. Thank goodness for the army was about all we could think. If they had not been there to keep order, I think there would have been trouble, and things could have gotten out of hand very rapidly.

We announced that in order to try to prevent any outbreaks of disease such as distemper and parvovirus in dogs and to interrupt parasitic cycles we would be vaccinating and de-worming dogs. About 10 minutes later people started showing up at our truck for vaccines with dogs of all sizes, shapes and breeds. There were so many, that we had to limit it to those at highest risk- young puppies between 2 and 6 months, and then if we could get through that age group, we would start with 6-12 months and so on.

We turned a lot of dogs away due to illness. Many had fevers, lethargy, runny eyes and nose, diarrhea, vomiting and other general signs of poor health. The majority of dogs we saw had signs of parasitic diseases that are potentially transmissible to people like mange and ringworm. Most had never been vaccinated or de-wormed before. We got through as many dogs as possible before the army just about threw us in the truck as it was time to get to the next small community of Lebú, and it appeared to us that there was some kind of trouble brewing at the back of the truck…but we don´t know. We got quickly into the truck and closed the doors and windows, with people crowding around the truck hoping to get something more from us…it was intense.

At the next community, it was much the same, but less intense somehow. We met the community at a small public school.

One of the teachers approached me to welcome and thank us for coming to their small community, and then broke down crying in my arms. She said it has been so hard, so much sadness and need. It was hard to hear, and know that there was really not much more that I could do for her, other than listen and hug her. Altogether we vaccinated 63 healthy puppies, and de-wormed a whole bunch more. It was a complete whirlwind of activity and stress, but we got as much done as we could.

We also gave small bags of food to the people who didn´t have any..it was all we could do for the moment. When all 10 tons of food we brought had been distributed, it was time to go. It seemed a drop in the bucket.

There were so many that needed so much more, and there were some that somehow never received their Red Cross ticket for a food box, and there was nothing we could do about it. There was enough for 400 families, and that was it. Our only consolation was that for those people and about 100 dogs, they were all probably sitting down to the first decent meal they had had since the earthquake. There were a few dogs that if exposed to common canine diseases in the next while would be immune, and for those dogs in close contact with owners, they would not be carriers of parasites that could potentially be transmitted to people. That would have to be enough for this weekend. It was time to head back to Valdivia, and begin plans for the next trip.

I have never asked for donations on this blog, but if anyone has a few extra dollars, it goes a much longer way down here than there. We are planning many more trips to the affected areas in the hopes of avoiding disease outbreaks and to help prevent some of these dangerous diseases occurring in people especially while they all are living together in close quarters under unsanitary conditions. Thanks so much!

Earthquake in Chile 5

2010-03-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

Saturday March 6^th

4:40 am we arrived at the Red Cross. We all were required to wear a Red Cross tunic and decorate each vehicle with flags and signs identifying ourselves as part of the convey heading out to the coast. We headed out to the highway, and starting seeing signs of damage on the highway right away, minor cracks and heaves in seemingly random spots. We met up with the rest of the convey arriving from the south, at a gas station about an hour outside of Valdivia. We were about 10 trucks in total, about 3 full of food and provisions, one water tanker, and the rest medium to smaller size trucks with equipment, supplies and volunteers.

We headed off together, and only after about 30-40 minutes, the lead truck encountered a broken piece of highway, and had to brake suddenly. Unfortunately, this caused a domino effect down the line- we were almost rear-ended by the semi truck behind us, who slammed on his breaks to avoid hitting us, and was rear-ended by the truck behind him. The driver suffered minor injuries, but the water tanker was done. The whole front end was smashed in, and he had to drain the tank, and wait for help to get back to Valdivia. Rough start....

Off we went again. Driving through Temuco we saw a number of pedestrian overpasses that had collapsed in the earthquake, one had actually fallen on a truck! The trip was long and slow, manoeuvring around damaged areas of the highway, and eventually turning off the highway heading toward the coast to Lebú, about 150 km south of where the earthquake hit the hardest.

We had to stop for gas, and the line-ups were so long, we would have been there for hours had the gas attendants not been kind enough to recognize that we needed to get going, and allowed us to jump the line, and fill up. We crossed a mountain pass, and started getting closer to the coast. Here signs of damage were everywhere-big wide cracks running down the middle of the road, closed portions of highway, broken bridges, damaged houses, and people everywhere- it seemed they were just waiting… when they saw the Red Cross convoy, they ran out, shouting and waving, so happy to see that someone was finally coming to the area with food and supplies. Probably one of the most touching moments was passing a small house, and a family was sitting on the side of the road yelling and waving to us. One of the little boys waved a hand written sign that said “Please help Lebú”.

As we got closer to Lebú, the road got worse, and there were more and more traffic line-ups to detour around sections of severely damaged highway. People were leaving the coast in hoards, packed into cars and trucks loaded with personal belongings.

We squeezed through narrow sections of dirt roads passing lines of vehicles amid clouds of thick dust, finally arriving at the other end, where we saw the sign for Lebú. The area was beautiful, a town set right on the ocean, surrounded by hills covered in thick vegetation. As we started the long descent into town, we saw all the people. Hundreds of small camps dotted the hills and the sides of the road, all shouted and waving for us to stop and give them food. Tents and lean-to´s lined the highway, with makeshift kitchens and living rooms out in the open.

There was a small roadside creek with a huge line-up of people waiting to fill their buckets because there was still no water.

We arrived in town, and went straight to the Red Cross. The army presence was felt immediately, and for that we were thankful because as soon as we arrived, people started coming to the Red Cross begging for us to give them a box of food.

It was all so chaotic, and the potential for riots was growing, so we parked the truck inside the yard of the Red Cross and the army gently herded the people away, as there was a city-wide curfew, and there would be no time that day to distribute any food. It was so sad to see the people loitering outside the gates…one woman was crying. They just wanted a box of food, and we couldn´t give it because the danger of looting and complete anarchy was very high if we gave in.

Everyone just had to wait one more day. We were told to park our truck in the yard, but beside the house next to us, because it was the less likely of the two houses we were parked between, to fall down in an aftershock!

And speaking of aftershocks…we were standing outside discussing our plan for the next day, when one hit. Wow! There was this huge shuddering jolt. The buildings all creaked and shook, and you could see the momentary panic in everyone´s eyes. It was short, but strong...and we realized all of a sudden- here we are in the earthquake/tsunami zone. Shortly after, we assembled to make an evacuation plan in the event of another tsunami..it was sobering.

Before the curfew, we walked through the streets a bit. It was eerie, like a ghost town. The roads were a mess, lots of damage to homes, and the road along the water front was destroyed. The concrete had twisted and buckled into creepy shapes like it was made of rubber, the river in front of the street was nearly dry, and the boats from the ocean had all been pushed up into the river bed with the tsunami, and there they lay, smashed up, lying sideways or upside down, most out of water...it was really disturbing to imagine the force that caused such destruction.

There was one cute little fella that seemed really happy to have the Red Cross building occupied that night. He showed up, and immediately made a bed in a pile of straw right outside the house.

That night we prepared our plan for the following day, packed dog food into smaller bags to distribute to those who had none, and prepared to sleep.

Six of the young Red Cross youths arranged a guard schedule to watch over us all and the equipment while we all slept. Apparently there were a number of violent aftershocks through the night, but the truth is that we were so exhausted, we all slept right through them!

Earthquake in Chile 4

2010-03-09T13:59:00.000-08:00

Friday March 5th

We haven’t had much time recently to put an update on the blog as we’ve been busy and out of town. On Friday morning, we went to the Red Cross in Valdivia to see if there was anything we could do to help out. They said that they would call if they needed us. Well, they called that evening, and needed our help loading a transport truck with supplies to take out to a village that had not received any outside help yet, and had apparently been hit with a tsunami minutes after the earthquake. At 9pm we arrived at the Red Cross, and with all their volunteers, we all starting packing boxes out to the truck. There were about 400 prepared boxes to hand out to families and a number of extra boxes with miscellaneous goods, blankets, clothes, diapers, etc. By the time we were finished, the truck was full. Then the president of the Red Cross asked us to come the next morning with them to Lebú, and help out in whatever way possible. We already had some dog and cat food donations and some vaccines and dewormer that we decided to bring to administer if needed. Our intention was to help out where we could, but also to assess the community situation for impending problems in the area of veterinary public health. We had no idea what to expect.

At about 11pm or so, a professor from the university showed up with a dog food donation, and after we were finished packing the truck, he took us to the veterinary hospital to equip us with some essentials for the trip in case of emergency. We arrived home at about 1am, threw together our personal gear, packed our veterinary boxes with whatever we could find, and tried to sleep a bit before the alarm went off at 3:30am. I'll write Saturday's story tomorrow....

2010-03-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

You can now donate funds to help support VWB/VSF's work in Chile. Please click here!

Earthquake in Chile 3

2010-03-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

Finally the army made it to Concepcion where it sounds like they are starting to restore some sense of order- at least with respect to the looting and violence. There is an 18 hour curfew now. The entire place is a mess, but they are finally bringing some essentials such as water, food, blankets etc into the city. They are moving more buses around the country, but only during the day. Gas is making it slowly into Valdivia but we haven´t been able to fill up yet. Still there is no organized effort to get volunteers into affected areas- it is still too early, but we are waiting to hear if and when they will need us. With regard to helping animals, we haven´t heard much; again it is still too early. There are still aftershocks in the 4´s and 5´s that rock the houses and apartments. Yesterday we learned that officials had made a mistake in the reporting of tsunami warnings- there actually was a high probability that the Chilean coast would be hit and in fact was hit in multiple places, but the Chilean president indicated that because the earthquake had hit on land, there was no risk. Pretty big error! Despite her announcement, we know that people around here still have their bags packed- just in case, and that water did recede on the beach near us, and that the town across the bay from us was evacuated. I guess people knew better after living their entire lives in such a seismically active area. Some things here in Valdivia are returning to normal, although everything still feels surreal, and there is a strange sense of reluctance to get back to work when there is such a disaster going on around us.

Earthquake in Chile 2

2010-03-01T12:25:00.000-08:00

Today we went to town to get food and gasoline to make sure we were well stocked...just in case. The line ups in the grocery stores were UNBELIEVABLE!!!! We probably waited over an hour to check out. It seemed that there was plenty in the stores despite the rumours that we are running out of food. There were some shelves empty, but still, plenty for everyone. However, gas is another issue. We couldn´t find any. The gas stations are open, but are only selling diesel now. Today they sent the first two buses from Valdivia to Santiago to see how long it will take to get there. Apparently from Chillan to Santiago, it takes as much as 15 hours, where normally it takes about 5 hours comfortably. I think the worst of it all is the reports coming in about the looting. It is happening everywhere. A friend phoned us this morning to tell us that people were looting the supermarket in Valdivia. It was also on the news about people looting in Concepcion...I guess it´s all over the place. The price of bread has already doubled in Valdivia, and we heard it was at least twice that in Concepcion. Here are a couple of pics from the grocery store today:

Earthquake in Chile

2010-03-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

People have been asking us to update them on how we all are here in Chile, and what really happened. First of all, we are all ok! It has been quite an experience, and we are realizing just how lucky we were, especially when we see the destruction that has occurred in some of the other places just north of us and realize that there are so many people still suffering.

We had visitors staying in the house with us who were in Valdivia for a wedding on Saturday of some mutual friends. Friday night, we all went to bed early- it had been a long week. At 3:30 in the morning or so, everything just started shaking like crazy. We jumped out of bed and huddled under the doorway in our bedroom, but then it got more intense, and we thought we should probably make a run for it, and get out of the house. It was hard to get down the stairs with everything moving so much, but we made it, and with our two visitors, we all crammed into the doorway of the front door, so that if anything happened we could either go in or out- whatever seemed safer. It seemed to last forever, but eventually it did stop, and everything was just dead silence. People started coming out of their houses and into the streets. There was no electricity, and no phones, so we had no idea where the epicentre was. There were more aftershocks, so we just stayed close together outside, waiting to see what would happen. Lots of people started leaving in their cars and on foot- presumably in case there was a tsunami as we are only a few blocks from the beach, and in 1960, the worst earthquake ever recorded, was right here in Valdivia, and people are pretty freaked out about earthquakes and tsunami´s.

Anyway, eventually those people who decided to stay, started heading back into their houses, but we were pretty soon back in the doorway when the house started rocking again- not as forcefully as the first one, but enough to make us bolt for protection. The rest of the night was mostly lying awake, feeling the aftershocks, listening to the dogs howling, and ready to bolt if needed. Eventually we all fell into a fitful sleep. In the morning we started trying to make contact with family and friends in other parts of Chile, and bits and pieces of what had happened started filtering through. There were lots of rumours about evacuation, tsunami´s, more earthquakes and so on, but eventually the electricity came back on, and the real horror of what had happened the night before started coming through on the internet. There were no radio stations, and the phone networks were swamped, so communications were intermittent. However, we did manage to get the word out to family, that we were fine, as well as find out that all our family in Chile were also fine- although suffering a ton of damage to their homes, and the cities they live in.

The strange thing was that we were all supposed to go to a wedding that very day! It was walking distance from where we lived, but it seemed such a strange thing to do after the night we had all had, and when we knew so many were suffering. We phoned to find out if it was still on, and they were going to go ahead because most of their friends and family had already arrived from far away, and would not be able to come back in a week or so if they rescheduled. So we went. As I said, it was pretty strange. But it turned out to be about the best thing that any of us could have done. There is really nothing any of us can do to help right now. The highways are blocked, and people in need are completely cut off from the rest of the world. So we decided to celebrate their wedding, and that´s what we did. There were a lot of tears and laughter, moments of happiness, and intense sadness. It was good to be surrounded by friends, and not to be in the house, just waiting for the next aftershock. The wedding was beautiful, and it was a surreal night of bonding.

Now we are all sort of waiting. Last night there were a bunch of aftershocks again, and after one bigger one, the town siren went off at about 1:30am. Shortly after, a truck pulled up in front of our house, and everybody jumped out yelling “Get up, get up!!!” People were running out to see what was going on, and neighbours were bolting into the street with their little children wrapped in blankets. They kept saying we had to get out, into the hills and that a tsunami was coming. Finally a neighbour came out, after having contacted an official in town, saying that it was a fire, and there was no tsunami. Everyone was to go back home. Needless to say, I´m sure most people are not getting much rest around here.

Most of the infrastructure throughout Chile is down, there are warnings and recommendations to suspend all unnecessary travel, the airports closed, all buses going north and south are cancelled, Concepcion is still completely cut off, and towns are starting to ration food as the highways are still not safe, and so food is not being delivered anywhere. People are stockpiling food, water and other resources, gas is rationed to $5.000 pesos ($10.00 Cdn) for each customer, only a few bank machines are working and we just heard that the grocery stores are pretty much cleaned out. Details...we are so lucky to be alive and well and have suffered nothing compared to those in Concepcion, Talca, Santiago, Viña del Mar and surrounding areas. We are trying to find out if there is an organized volunteer movement so that we can go to areas where we are needed, and try help out. We will keep you posted though on whether we go or not, and what happens around here. Right now all we can do is wait. Thanks to so many of you for checking on us.

This is our friends office down the road from ours:

This crack runs way down the sidewalk, and right through the middle of this planter.

This is the costanera in Valdivia that collapsed.

Working in Chaihuin

2010-02-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

With Christmas and New Year festivities something of the past, we finally got things organized and headed out in the field to start our first disease sampling project. So here’s the story, with a bunch of pictures- I owe you guys a good posting!

Last Saturday night, we headed out on the ferry to Corral across the mouth of a huge river to the other side, where there is a small town with an old fort where they used to protect the access to Valdivia from invading Spaniards.

From there, we drove about 45 minutes inland on a really rough gravel road to a smaller town called Chaihuin, and camped at the edge of a huge Nature Reserve.

The next morning we started work- going from house to house in 2 teams of 4 people each. There were students from the University here in Valdivia, from the University of Minnesota, and from Santiago. Everyone was studying something a bit different, but we all worked together to make good use of each dog or cat we handled.

We asked people about their type of animal husbandry, perceptions about animals in general, and then did a physical exam on each dog, and took blood from all owned dogs and cats we could get our hands on.

The point of this first step is to try to understand why people here do the things they do...and what if anything might change their behaviours toward their dogs. For example, most people don´t believe that dogs feel pain, so when their dogs are too old to work, or if they do something that they don´t like, they “get rid” of them.... They also kill all the female puppies as a form of population control. So- lots to do, but having said that, it comes down more to an animal welfare issue than an overpopulation issue, because out of the 70 dogs that we sampled, there were only 3 females!

The second day we wanted to get to Cadillal Alto which is a small community up the river from Chaihuin, to see if there was a difference between what we saw and learned in Chaihuin and the outlying areas which have fewer people, much less money, and more dogs. It was quite the adventure- accessible only by boat, we packed our kits and newly purchased supplies (thanks to Prevost Veterinary Clinic donations!!!) into the boat and headed off among a buzz of millions of enormous black and orange flies! But what a spectacular view!

We spent all day walking from one house to the other in the blinding heat. The people were so nice, pretty poor compared to what we’re used to in Canada- but really friendly and accommodating.

There is no access there to vets or doctors for the local people...nothing. Anyway, we found the dogs extremely skinny, worked really hard with their owners and only fed every few days (wheat skins and milk whey)...so needless to say these dogs have a huge impact on wildlife in the area because they have to hunt to feed themselves. These dogs were semi-wild; it was a huge adventure trying to restrain dogs long enough to take a sample, and there were a few rodeos- but generally we got the short end of the stick with the dogs high-tailing it off into the horizon and us stunned and covered in dirt, sweat, and assorted canine body fluids…

Some of them were really gentle and sweet though….

From the blood taken from all these dogs, we will be looking at the prevalence of distemper and parvovirus to see what the disease risk is for some of the native fauna such as the fox, otter and wild cats. So our next step is education. We will be heading out again in March to start an education campaign based on what we learned this time around, and we will also be vaccinating if the disease test results prove that it is indeed a risk there. Education is really the key though, and we will be working with teachers to implement something into the school system.

Anyway, that´s it in a nutshell. We had a great time. Guillermo got an enormous cat bite on his finger, we got stuck once and ripped off the front bumper, but despite that, we headed home exhausted but happy.

Good News!

2009-12-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

Christmas is on its way, and we had some Christmas cheer yesterday...one of our proposals was successful and we received funds to carry out a sterilization program in one of the towns nearby! Obviously, with the global economic crisis, non-profit organizations have been hit pretty hard as funding agencies have been unable to fund at their normal level...so, for us this is REALLY great news.
Summer is around the corner here, and hot weather is upon us. With it comes dogs in heat and packs of males fighting and barking all night long. Another thing is the increase in skin problems as fleas, ticks and mange flourish in this weather. Poor dogs spend most of their time scratching themselves raw! The other thing that changes with the season is tourism- loads and loads of cars full of people coming to the beach towns. I have definitely seen more dead animals on the highway and more abandoned animals in town these last few weeks....
Our race sure has an impact! That's why we'll be spending a lot of our time and energy on supporting the implementation of education programs to teach people about how to properly care for their pets.
Once Christmas and New Year is behind us, we'll begin our planning for early 2010. We'll let you know when we'll be starting projects, and will post lots of pics for you!
Elena

Catching Up

2009-11-26T17:04:00.000-08:00

It´s been a long time without any updates! Unfortunately due to a family emergency, we have been in Canada for the last 2 months. Now we´re in Chile again, and back at it.
We´re working on a really interesting project design with a conservation organization in the south of Chile, on the huemul (Andean deer) and the negative interactions with domestic dogs. Hopefully we´re successful with funding for this project as it is much needed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocamelus Check out this link for some info on the critically endangered huemul in Patagonia.
Yesterday we gave a presentation to the students at the vet school in Valdivia on what VWB is doing here in Chile, and just who we are in general. Tomorrow we´re off to Santiago, on a horribly uncomfortable bus ride for 12 hours, to go to the first Conservation Medicine Symposium where there will be talks on all kinds of animal to animal interactions, diseases human can get from animals, and in general how we manage the health of the environment in light of the endlessly growing human population. This will be the first time that VWB has made a public appearance at an international level conference here in Latin America, and we´re looking forward to representing VWB- Chile, meeting new colleagues and reconnecting with familiar faces from conferences in other countries.
Well that´s about it for the moment, not a lot of news, but certainly wanted to put an update here so that any followers know we are still alive and well!

Chau for now!

Life (and death) in the fast lane.....

2009-09-08T16:52:00.000-07:00

Is anybody looking for you?

Did you have a home, and an owner that loved you?

Were you loved, and taken care of?

Will you be missed?

OR...

Will you just lie there until the birds clean up the mess?

Will nobody notice that you´re missing?

Was your life so insignificant???

Cart horses

2009-08-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-08-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

This young fellow was here for a full lameness exam:

We were really impressed- the whole event was quite the community event. You can see in the pics below how many owners, vet student and local children turned out to watch!

Animals and fences....or lack thereof.

2009-07-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

I know we've discussed problems concerning dogs being in the street, but this week, I want to focus on it a little closer.

Over the last two weeks, we've been thinking a lot about the lack of good fencing keeping dogs and livestock within their respective properties, and what kind of problems we are seeing as a result. Although people visiting Chile from other countries automatically assume that the street dogs they see are all dogs who have been abandoned or born in the street without owners, the reality is actually that the majority of the dogs that we see in the streets have owners that do not contain them in their yards , and generally maintain a low level of responsibility for their pets. These dogs roam the streets looking for food, breeding with dogs in heat, chasing (and often killing) livestock and/or wildlife and spreading diseases among themselves and to other species. Additionally, they pose a great risk to themselves and others when they run across highways, and cross busy city streets.

Here are a few pictures of the type of fencing that allows for free passage of owned dogs in and out of their yards (click on the pictures for a much better quality photo):

Here are a few pics of uncontained dogs and livestock- you can imagine the problems they could cause in busy traffic! We have barely escaped hitting numerous dogs ourselves since moving here, and are coming to realize the daily risk of hitting something larger like a horse or cow.

This mom and all her pups were all standing in the highway when we stopped to take pictures. One puppy barely escaped being hit! We ushered the pups back to the side of the road where they stood for a family photo!

Think of the potential environmental contamination (parasites and diseases) from this very common event....

This little guy walked right in front of our truck way out on a back road one day, and gave us this look...we had no idea where he was coming from or where he was going.

After seeing some of these pictures, it seems obvious that if people were to fence their yards properly, it would solve a lot of problems. However, if the solution was so simple, we would probably not be here working together with Chileans! Consider this: the culture of animal care and what constitutes responsible pet ownership in Chile is very different from that seen and expected in Canada for example. Certainly dogs that are contained safely in their yards pose no risk to the general public, other dogs or livestock. But what about the quality of their lives? What about their ability to access supplementary food and water if they are not receiving enough? Is it fair to expect that owners struggling to earn a living, or those whose pets are just not a priority in their lives, should be expected to spend time playing with their dog, training them, socializing them and taking them for daily walks?

This dog for example, is well-contained, safe from traffic, and poses absolutely no threat to others. What do you think about the quality of this guys life?

So perhaps some people should not have a dog...??

With respect to dog welfare- this may be true. Yet if you do a search on Chile and crime... just have a look at what is happening here. People use dogs for personal and home protection. In the three and a half months since arriving here, we have already been robbed once and been seriously chastised many, many times for being "careless" - for example driving in the city with our backpacks on the back seat where they could be easily stolen if someone broke our window at a stop light, leaving anything in the truck including an empty bag or box, leaving our house door or gate unlocked at any time of day or night, leaving a laptop in a locked office, etc, etc, etc - all things that seem strange to us as newcomers. This past weekend, we found out that we are recent victims of identity theft... so before jumping to any conclusions we have to think of all the repercussions of our assumptions and actions.

What would happen if the majority of people had no dogs???

Lots for us all to think about...comments are most welcome!

Winter in July

2009-07-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

It´s been a wet couple of weeks here in Valdivia, normal winter weather for here apparently. Being so close to the ocean, the storms are intense with buckets of water spraying in every direction, and windy weather causing lots of damage to peoples homes, fences, and out buildings.

Below you can see the trees bent over nearly in half from the wind off the ocean:

Animals suffer during this weather- it is hard to find shelter, and a dry place to sleep. This dog found cover in a weekend food market, curled up out of the rain, but he was still wet and shivering when I took this picture.

These little guys were just standing in the rain, totally soaked, they both approached our truck, maybe hoping for us to throw them a bit of food.

The electricity is frequently out in the city and all the towns around Valdivia, flooding is extensive, and life is generally harder for some families- especially those with fewer resources.

Think about the challenge of convincing people that animal welfare and conservation are issues, when their homes are flooded, money and food is scarce, it´s cold, and jobs are hard to come by….. this is the reality in every developing country. Clearly there are other priority problems other as well….

Yesterday we stopped by the Wildlife Centre to see what happened with the little pudu, but unfortunately he didn´t make it. He was humanely euthanized as his foot was not healing properly, and he would never be able to be released.

While in the rehabilitation centre, we met a Chilla fox that was brought to the centre after falling in an open pit full of ash, where the university burns the garbage. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonian_fox for better pictures, and more information on this Chilean fox.

We also saw a Magellanic penguin in the centre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Penguin who had been caught in a fisherman´s net and brought to the centre to rehabilitate. He is doing very well and will be released in the next few days. Amazingly friendly little guy - apparently very difficult to keep them wild as they are so drawn to people, but he is in the last stages of being checked to see if he is strong enough to manage back in the ocean, and they will let him go quickly to avoid permanent habituation to people.

Hasta luego!

Good days, Bad days...

2009-06-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

Some days are just great here! There are so many exciting things going on, and we are truly honoured to be included in some of them.

Some days are not as good.
On Monday, we saw a dog that had just been hit by a car. It was a gorgeous, big, black cross-breed with an unusual blonde colouring on it's face and ears, paws and tail.
About a km down the road we saw another dog that looked almost identical, trotting down the road...looking lost.
On our way home that night, we looked where the dog had been hit, and there was the other one, lying right beside it!
Every day this week, we have gone by this scene, and the dog is still there. Today is Friday, and the dog is still there, waiting loyally beside his dead friend.
It is such a sad sight, and brings us such feelings of despair, wondering how long this poor fella is going to wait for his buddy to get up.
It is strange to be inspired by such a sad event, but it is a reminder for us to dig in our heels and work hard at what we are trying to accomplish here.
Until next week,
Elena

Daily life in Valdivia

2009-06-15T08:33:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't posted for a while, although lots has been happening. H1N1 is running it's course in this area now. It's heavy flu season here because it's winter, so combined with the introduction of H1N1, people are lying low, and many are sick. Chile is fourth in the world for number of confirmed cases right now.
I had confirmed contact with a little girl with H1N1, and I've also been sick for the last week....but all is well.

So I wanted to let you know about a few of the interesting things we have heard people tell us since we've been here- specifically on the topic of animals. Hopefully these quotes will give you some sense of why it is so important to develop long-term sustainable programs that are community-driven, because if you don't address the problem at the source, as soon as the organization running the program pulls out, everything goes back to what it was before because that is the way the people think.

Note that many of the following quotes were made by professionals and highly educated people:

"Animals have no feelings"

"I would rather see my dog dead than have him neutered"

"If you spay or neuter your dog or cat, they'll get fat"

"Castrated dogs are not aggressive anymore, so they won't protect us or our house"

"Surgical sterilization is cruel"

"I didn't know it was even possible to sterilize male dogs!"

"All female dogs should have at least one litter before spaying, for their health"

"It's not our responsibility to pay for surgery to sterilize my pets, the municipality should pay"

"My male dog needs a girlfriend, so that he can fulfill his destiny to breed" (We see posters just like this one all over town)

These are just a few examples of what we hear every day, and you can see that things are different. It will take a great deal of time to change peoples minds about the benefits of pet sterilization. Lowering the reproductive rate could alleviate a lot of the dog suffering that we see everyday, but it will only last if the people here believe in what we're doing.

Education is the key, and this is where we will be focusing a lot of our attention!

Week of May 25th

2009-05-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

This week was busy with a number of different things on the go. We´re looking for a more permanent office space to establish Veterinarians Without Borders in Chile, so we met with the Director of Extension Services to discuss our role within the university and the community here in Valdivia. Our meeting was very positive and exciting, and will likely lead to something collaborative and long term in the future. Regarding an office space…well we´ll have to be patient while we all start investigating possibilities on and off campus.

It was also a big week in the wildlife department. There is a big project here with a multitude of undergraduate and post-graduate veterinary students working together to learn as much as possible about the pudu, for example: exposure to diseases acquired through contact with cattle and that are a risk to humans, reproductive characteristics, age and gender distribution, general health, intestinal parasites and response to a general anesthetic protocol. These students and the doctor of the wildlife rescue centre worked together to collect as much data as possible in the short time provided by the anesthetic. Everything went well, and all pudus recovered nicely from the anesthetic. Here are some pictures taken in the field:

So what do pudus really have to do with the dog program? Quite a bit actually…let´s talk about interfaces. An interface is simply an area where things meet. We are considering the dog – wildlife interface, and it is quite a problem here as well as in other parts of the world. Pudus live in rural and semi-rural areas all around Valdivia, and it is these pudus that come into unfortunate contact with roaming packs of dogs. Most of the pudus brought into the wildlife rescue centre at the university are those that have been found by members of the community after being attacked by dogs. Here are some of the ones we´ve seen recovering from attacks:

The last time we were in Valdivia, in November 2008, there was also a young puma who had lost his mom when she was also chased then attacked by a pack of roaming dogs. Although it was never clear what happened to her in the end, the result for her baby was that she never returned, and he was brought to the centre. Unfortunately, he was determined to be unreleasable and now lives in a zoo. Here he is when he was first brought to the centre:

Another major issue at the interface between wildlife and dogs is disease transmission. When you have such high numbers of unvaccinated dogs roaming in and around the cities, they can potentially come into contact with wildlife living in the same areas. Many of these species of wildlife are susceptible to canine diseases such as distemper and parvovirus, and any form of contact can result in transmission of the disease. It´s a similar scenario to when smallpox was introduced into indigenous populations of North America in the 1700´s - when a population is completely vulnerable because they have never come into contact with a particular disease before, the results can be absolutely devastating. Very little is known about whether this is happening or not here in Valdivia, but we do know that there are foxes, small wild cats and marine mammals very close to the city that are all susceptible to some of these canine diseases. We hope to investigate this interface together with local wildlife veterinarians, epidemiologists, ecologists and biologists.

This first picture is of the fish market in town right along the water’s edge. There are lots of dogs hanging around during the day hoping for a scrap of food, and at the end of the day, the whole market is hosed down, with much of the water running back into the river. You can imagine that if any of the dogs in the area are sick, and shedding virus in body discharges, this provides the perfect area of contact between dogs and the huge sea lions (or lobos marinos- see bottom picture) that are begging for food on the river side of the market. In this way, transmission of diseases and parasites can occur without the two animals ever having direct contact.

For more information on some other canine outbreaks in wildlife with staggering consequences, follow these links:
1. http://cheval.vet.gla.ac.uk/vetscape/vet-x/lions/
2. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071025094914.htm
3. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no6/kennedy.htm
4. http://www.iws.org/island_fox_studies_Santa_Catalina_Island.htm

Here is one last picture for this week, of me working with a young captive fox ¨Tachi¨. She was part of the breeding program on Catalina Island that was built in an attempt to recover the population after a canine distemper outbreak devastated this population (see 4th link above).

Just FYI, the pictures are much better if you click on them and blow them up.

Enjoy, and chau for now!

Week of May 17th

2009-05-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

This week we've been busy working on a proposal for canine sterilization. Although we're planning on addressing this dog problem in a holistic manner, we need to make different applications for all the different parts of our program to the appropriate funding agencies that have interests in each specific area.

So why sterilize dogs???

Well, the obvious reason is to limit the existing population from reproducing, further contributing countless puppies to the ever growing population of dogs. But the less obvious reasons are for reasons of animal welfare. When roaming populations are too large, nutritional resources are low, body condition and immune responses are therefore compromised, and diseases spread easily through susceptible animals. Let me show you a few pictures of what we see:

This first dog has mange, and most dogs spend the majority of their time scratching at fleas, like the one below.

This poor dog had bloody diarrhea in the middle of the street, and the puppy below was very sick with runny eyes and nose, emaciation, weakness and dehydration- and was available for adoption!

The other welfare issues we run into are dogs being hit by cars. If you're squeamish, don't look at these ones!

Some people take the problem into their own hands, and poison dogs with strychnine, this poor guy didn't make it....

Overall, the overpopulation problem means that there are lots of unwanted and uncared for pups, resulting in some dogs spending their whole lives sleeping in the street like this old girl in the bottom picture.

Luckily things are changing. People are starting to push really hard for new legislation protecting animals, and making it illegal to treat them badly or let them roam in the streets. There are lots of organizations and associations working together to care for abandoned animals, and then adopt them out to responsible families. The goal is to foster this growing movement in Chile...there is evidence of change and a growing respect for animals everywhere! Here is a sign for a meeting to discuss and debate pet ownership in Chile, a policeman using a trained canine assistant, and a young girl hugging her new puppy.

Lastly, this family near Rancagua, Chile fostered a family of abandoned dogs- one mother and all her puppies. They helped raise the puppies until they were ready for new homes, and then adopted all the puppies out. The mom was taken to a local veterinary clinic where they paid to have her spayed.

Hats off to this family! See you next week!

Week of May 10th

2009-05-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

This week we had some bad news...unfortunately we were robbed and both our cameras were stolen. So I have no pictures for you this week! We will be buying a small camera to get us going again this week, so stay tuned next week, when we´ll be back to normal posting pictures again.
I spent some time working on a pudu this week with the wildlife veterinarian that runs the Wildlife Rescue Centre at the University (follow this link http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pud%C3%BA to see what a Chilean Pudu looks like). The pudu had been attacked by dogs, and was just recovering when he punctured his foot, and was limping badly. We anaesthetized him, cleaned the puncture and took an xray, then bandaged up the hoof and woke him up. The injury is quite serious, but at this point we´re really hoping for a complete recovery, as this species is threatened. This is the other side of the dog overpopulation problem...when they exist at such high numbers and roam freely, they form packs and attack wildlife. We hope to expand our work into this area as well.
Until next week....

Week of May 3rd

2009-05-08T08:08:00.000-07:00

This week I wanted to give you some idea of where we are working and living. The name of the city is Valdivia, and we live about 15 minutes from the city, in a small village called Niebla, right on the coast (http://encarta.msn.com/map_701517329/valdivia.html ). There are a lot of resident dogs here that are either loosely "owned", or just live in the streets near our house, and live off whatever they find, including garbage. They occupy a territory, and are just always there. Here are a few pictures of the dogs in our neighbourhood.

Our area is called the Rivers Region. The landscape is beautiful, and the culture is a real cross between modern and very traditional, people with higher incomes, and those with very few resources. There are lots of wildlife in the area. Here are a few pictures from the area to give you a general sense of where we are working:

1. Our own dogs enjoying the beach
2. University Austral de Chile marine research centre
3. Hiking to the beach
4. The beach near our place
5. Horse and delivery cart in town
6. Produce market
7. Selling grains at the local market
8. Pelicans
9. Sea lions- right on the sidewalk in town!

Lastly for this week, we had a meeting on Wednesday evening with a student group called Policlinico Movil. They gave us a presentation on what they have been doing, and we were so impressed! For ten years now, this group has been operating in conjunction with private veterinarians in town, bringing valuable mobile veterinary services and education to rural communities around Valdivia. We are looking forward to working together with this creative and vibrant group!

Week of April 30th

2009-04-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

This week we made contact with our former government partners in Valdivia. We are planning a meeting with interested professors and students from the Veterinary College sometime next week, just to catch up and see what they've been up to regarding their dog programs, in the last few months. Then, we will be facilitating a workshop to start putting a framework together for our next year of work together. I've attached some pictures of everyday dog sightings. Overpopulation is a complicated issue, involving long term changes in human behaviours, such as city waste management and responsible dog ownership- it is not just about spaying and neutering as many animals as possible.

2009-04-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

2009-04-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

2009-04-23T13:47:00.001-07:00

Mostly we worked with people and their dogs, doing health checks, vaccinations, deworming and talking to them about general health. It was also an opportunity for the veterinary students to get some practice working with clients and their pets.

2009-04-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

They were also doing human surveys to find out if there was evidence of diseases that are transmitted from sheep to dogs to people (Echinococcus granulosus).

2009-04-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we headed out to a small village called Curinanco to help with a vaccine clinic.

This is just past where we live, on our way to the village.

Settling in Valdivia

2009-04-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to Chile...it has been a real adventure! Lots of difficulties getting set up here, things are just moving really slow. We are living in a town called Niebla, near Valdivia. We have a small office kindly donated by the University of Austral Chile, Animal Science Dept. We've been working very intensively on a detailed proposal for 2 years worth of funding here in Chile, and yesterday it was submitted...so keep your fingers crossed for us!

2009-03-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

2009-03-13T11:07:00.001-07:00

Packing up last minute equipment, almost ready to head off to Chile!

2009-02-27T11:28:00.000-08:00

Drs. Elena Garde and Guillermo Perez are in the process of packing up their belongings and relocating to Valdivia, Chile to work on a canine management project. Visit this blog to read their updates and follow their exciting work!