Sterilising in style at Victoria Falls

At the request of the ZNSPCA, AWARE performed a sterilisation and vaccination programme up at Victoria Falls town between April 18 and 28. Since the town lies within the Kavango Zambezi Trans Frontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) and is entirely surrounded by National Parks (flanked on the east by Victoria Falls NP and on the west by Zambezi NP), it fitted in perfectly with AWARE's objectives to mitigate the threats posed to wildlife from domestic animals. The local community got together to give the team free hotel accommodation at the first rate Elephant Hills, Ilala Lodge, Lokuthula Lodge and Victoria Falls Hotel, which made life much easier than our normal forays into the bush. By the end of the programme we had done a total of 79 sterilisations, which included 26 bitch spays, 23 dog neuters, 20 cat spays and 10 cat neuters; we had also vaccinated a total of 300 dogs for 7’n’1 and Rabies, 22 puppies for Parvo and 36 cats with 3’n’1 and Rabies. Read more in April 2010 newsletter.

Donkey medicine course and clinic

Early March 2010 saw Communications and Veterinary Directors of SPANA, Simon Pope and Dr Karen Reed, come out from the UK to take a course in donkey medicine and welfare that was organised by AWARE in Gweru. 23 vets and animal health inspectors practising in rural areas where many donkeys are encountered were invited to the course. This included inspectors from the SPCA countrywide. A day of lectures was followed by a donkey clinic where 40 donkeys were treated for a range of veterinary problems including some spectacular abscesses and the usual axe and spear wounds and lameness problems. The course was very well received and all participants learnt alot and went away much more confident in dealing with donkey issues. Read more in March 2010 newsletter. 

Machuchuta sterilisation campaign

Between the 1st and 9th of November 2009, AWARE spayed 33 bitches and castrated 22 male dogs in Machuchuta making a total of 55 sterilisations. 254 dogs were vaccinated, Frontlined and de-wormed and several more were treated for veterinary conditions.This year AWARE has sterilised 145 dogs and vaccinated 419 in the Greater Mapungubwe TFCA. We believe this has prevented approximately 450 puppies being born this year, and stopped the potential transmission of fatal diseases into wild carnivore populations. There has been a recent outbreak of distemper which has caused fatalities in a number of lions in the Kgalagadi TFCA in Botswana. Thus we feel our sterilisation and vaccination programme has enormous conservation value, as well as improving the welfare of village dogs, and raising awareness of animal welfare at grass roots level. Read more in November's newsletter

Juvenile vervet monkey patched up after car accident

Molly, a juvenile wild vervet monkey was hit by a car at an outdoor restaurant in Harare’s suburbs and thrown into a dustbin on 21^st December. A concerned member of public brought the concussed and shocked monkey into us for treatment. She responded well to fluids and supportive treatment and after 2 days was feeling strong enough to bite us every time we returned her to her holding cage. On Christmas Eve we returned to the site of her accident where the rest of her troop was casually playing in the trees.  She was released and accepted without hesitation back into the troop. Read more in March 2010 newsletter.

White rhino monitoring starts at Lake Chivero

AWARE has started assisting PWMA with monitoring rhino at Lake Chivero National Park, where we hope to perform ear notching and dehorning exercises later in the year. This involves once weekly trips to Lake Chivero to record individual animals details to assess how many individuals exist in the park so that the dehorning exercise can be properly planned. Read more in March 2010 newsletter. 

Find us on World Animal Net!