Over the last 10 years the Philippines has seen a huge surge in the number of stray dogs roaming its streets and so our focus has moved to try and control those rising numbers, as well as to help prevent the spread of diseases, in particular Rabies.
One of IWCT’s key strengths is our brilliant Veterinary team, lead by Dr Roland Arciga, who has worked with IWCT for over 10 years now. Dr Roland, together with a team of fully trained vets and Veterinary assistants, as well as a number of trainee vets and volunteers, now run twice weekly clinics, offering Spay and Neuter surgery, as well as life-saving vaccinations for dogs of the Philippines.
We hold our clinics in varying locations, both in our Treatment Centre in Tarlac and as a pop-up mobile clinic, travelling to the areas that need us most. Then two or three times a year, the team travel much further afield to the more remote islands in the Philippines.
All mobile clinics are walk-in and the vaccinations and surgeries are provided completely FREE of charge, supporting both stray dogs and those dog owners who simply can’t afford expensive veterinary treatment. As well as the spay and neuter surgery, we offer essential and life-saving vaccinations, including Rabies, which is still a prevalent disease in the Philippines.
The numbers that we see and treat vary at every clinic, but on average we aim to spay or neuter between 20 and 30 dogs a day, depending on the number of Vets operating, and we always try to vaccinate approximately 100 dogs a day.
In addition to treating dogs, we also offer spay and neuter surgery to cats, helping to control their population numbers. In the last 3 years we have begun holding occasional Carabao Clinics. Carabao are the Philippine cows, who are essential for Philippine farmers in helping them to work their paddy field crops, where modern machinery simply cannot operate. We hold the clinics in areas where Carabao numbers are high and farmers walk their animals to the village centres for worming and vitamin treatments. In the majority of cases the farmers wouldn’t be able to offer this to their animals and so we are preventing illness in the future, helping to secure the farmers livelihoods, as well as protecting the Carabao.
All of this work costs a huge amount to fund and as is only possible thanks to the generosity of our supporters.
Will feed one IWCT resident dog for a week
Will provide the 5in1 vaccine for 1 dog
Will enable an IWCT vet to neuter 1 dog
Will cover the cost of the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of 1 dog
