Turks & Caicos Feral Dog Project

Improving the Quality of Life for People and Animals

 

Global Wildlife Resources developed the first capture pen to humanely capture entire packs of dogs. These photos describe how we protected the local pets while removing the feral animals.

	The foundation of our kickstart efforts for long term solutions was education on animal stewardship and spaying and neutering. Global Wildlife Resources spoke to every elementary school and passed out over 1,000 free collars to encourage people to claim ownership of their dogs.
Global Wildlife Resources developed the first capture pen to humanely capture entire packs of dogs. Volunteers transported dogs to the clinic for neutering to help the owners. Dogs uncollared were considered feral (wild) and first anesthetized then humanely euthanized to reduce human pain and suffering. Long term solutions depend on spaying and neutering.
	Many free-ranging dogs are community dogs and very special to both children and adults. At the end or our departure, most of these community dogs wore collars.
Neutering of dogs is entirely free to the public with the support of the TCSPCA and government funding. If collared dogs were captured, they were quietly transported in kennels to a veterinary clinic for neutering and returned to the capture site.

Our project last November/December truly made a difference and it is an important and exciting story to tell. As a collective team, the TCSPCA, HSI, Global Wildlife Resources, Inc. (Wildlife VR), and a myriad of volunteers initiated cultural change that is improving the lives of both people and animals. Our work was diverse, multi-faceted, creative, and thoughtful.

Every day we provided public education on spay/neutering and animal stewardship through both official gatherings and interactions on the street.

We empowered people with ownership of their dogs by passing out free collars and thus allowing them to proudly identify their claimed animals. And as we shuttled each collared animal to and from the veterinarians for neutering, it was the first time the people witnessed their government acknowledging and caring for their dogs.

We designed an entirely new capture method, the colony capture pen, and conducted our animal handling and euthanasia with calmness, respect and care. Our methods and actions were embraced by both children and adults. The feral dogs responded remarkably well to the capture pens, casually walking in and out as the pens lay idle, and often responding to their capture by eating the table scraps which had baited them in.

In less than three weeks, we captured 370 free-ranging dogs. Seventy of these dogs were collared and transported to and from the veterinarian for neutering. I recall the children applauding us as we arrived to return their animals. During this period, an additional 113 dogs were neutered through TCSPCA’s outreach, who provided free spays and neuters with government and private support. In our last week, we began capturing collared dogs which were already neutered, much to our excitement, and immediately released them onsite, much to the dog’s excitement.

Three hundred of our captured free-ranging dogs were uncollared, a remarkable number, and were euthanized. Although I acknowledge the sadness of this experience, I came to understand, during my month on the island, its importance. The international community hears of how feral dogs attack or threaten resort visitors and threaten the tourism industry. Yet we do not hear how these thousands of dogs compromise the lives of the local people. It is hard for most of us to imagine living in a neighborhood where we are afraid to walk at night for fear of being attacked and afraid during the day of having our child bitten. It is hard to comprehend what it is like to have dozens of dogs barking and fighting outside your window all night, every night. Dogs transmit skin diseases to the children, cause property damage, and kill family dogs. Euthanasia is an important tool on Providenciales for providing immediate relief to people’s pain and suffering.

Our euthanasia technique involved two steps, which is unique for animal control. We first anesthetized each animal with an intramuscular injection, usually using a syringe pole. Once anesthetized, the dog was then euthanized with an intravascular injection. It was not uncommon for us to be surrounded by children and adults as each person witnessed and embraced the respect given to each animal. I recall one boy shouting at an anesthetized uncollared dog, ready to poke it, knowing we were going to put it to sleep. I kindly stopped him and taught him how we were treating every animal with respect just as we should treat every person with respect and I watched the boy’s eyebrow raise as he realized the truth he already knew.

This cultural change in animal stewardship and improvement in people’s lives
continues as the TCSPCA and the people we have trained continue to capture free-ranging dogs and provide outreach for continued neutering. One trained gentleman is Oliver Ferguson, a pastor striving to improve the lives of both islanders and Haitian immigrants. Oliver instantly recognized the importance of this project, volunteered to learn with a reverent approach, and is dedicated to making this program last. Since we have left, he has captured over 85 dogs.

I am currently in the process of working with Beth VeenKamp, director of the
Turks and Caicos SPCA, to write a summary report to the Turks and Caicos government. I will make this report available to you ASAP and will distribute it to all of the investors and interested organizations.

I thank you all for your support and interest in our project. In October, we did not know if this would indeed happen, but persistence and collective support from so many people and organizations have created the beginning of a long term solution for the Turks and Caicos Islands. Global Wildlife Resources has a long term commitment for this project. The TCSPCA has already discussed the possibility of us returning in another year. We hope you will provide us with your continued support and we truly welcome discussions with any of you about this and other projects.

Mark Johnson, DVM
Director, Global Wildlife Resources