Areas covered: De La Costa and San Jose in Montalban
Team:
Denise Wood (CARA), Rosemary Yates (CARA), Adrian Wood (CARA), Michael
Stiell, Scott Hitchman, Dr Lyn (volunteer vet) and Dr Jenil (volunteer
vet).
Transport: 2 four wheels drives and a hired van.
DE LA COSTA
We
started the day in De La Costa; at least this time it wasn’t raining
which made life slightly easier. We set up at the barangay office to
offer anti-rabies, medical assistance and food. The people started to
come with their dogs and even some cats. It wasn’t really busy in this
area because a lot of their animals perished in the floods, but we had
a slow steady stream of animals. As the whole team wasn’t needed for
this, a few volunteers went street to street to feed the stray animals 
and announce to the
people to go to the barangay office for medical
assistance for their animals. The streets are still very bad, the
people are still trying to recover, very deep mud on most streets apart
from the main
roads. We fed dogs and cats wherever we found them , this time we also
had fresh water and bowls - clean water in that area is virtually
impossible to find for a stray animal, they would get sick from
drinking the muddy water which is full of all sorts of disgusting
things. We made the discovery that the local dogs have no idea what to
do with proper dog biscuits, t
hey
almost turned their noses up at it. Their stable diet is normally rice;
the leftovers from their human companions. Faced with ‘proper’ dog food
they sniffed at it suspiciously and then hesitantly take a few bites!
These are dogs whose ribs are showing….
It was decided a further trip should be do
ne
to De La Costa when the people have recovered more, they really are not
in the frame of mind for animal relief, they are still living in such
miserable conditions. On the next trip we will give them collars and
leashes because of course they lost everything in the flood.
58 anti-rabies shots given, medical cases treated and dog/cat food given out.
SAN JOSE
In
the afternoon we went to San Jose, also in the Montalban area. Here
they are well into the recovery stage and we were literally swamped
with dogs and cats.
We
treated medical cases and gave anti-rabies inoculations to the healthy
animals. Dog and cat food was given to everyone; we had a lot with us
this time as we had hired a van for that prime purpose so we didn’t run
out as on previous occasions. We did however run out of anti-rabies so
a further trip will need to be done and on that trip collars and
leashes given out. Lots of rope and bits of wire were being used
inplace of collars and leashes.
We saw lots of 
very skinny companion dogs but a surprising number of healthy looking cats. One man 
came
with six dogs in a van, I was suspicious he might be breeding them for
dog meat but of course I had no proof. He certainly wasn’t gentle with
them, I saw him throw one literally in the back of the van, he then got
a lecture from me in English which of course went on deaf ears. I need
a crash course in Tagolog!
A successful day but of course the help needed is never ending.
121 anti-rabies shots given, numerous medical cases and dog/cat food.
This project has been made possible with the support of the International Fund for Animal Welfare http://www.ifaw.org
