On the 18th of February the Care For Paws service organised a sterilisation camp in Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, Colombo. This camp was an opportunity for the community in the area and beyond to bring their pets to get them cared for and treated through; vaccination, sterilisation, rash treatment, worming ex.. However, as a service group our main goal for this camp was the sterilisation aspect for the stray animals in the area. Overpopulation of strays has always been an issue in Sri Lanka, which has left many cats and dogs malnourished and uncared for on the streets. Therefore, we used the money we raised from doing bake sales in school and selling our ‘Care for paws’ t-shirts towards funding animal doctors to perform the sterilisation surgery + all the other procedures. These doctors came all the way from Kandy for the day, which was more than a 3hr drive. They helped with collecting the stray dogs and cats using nets, to eliminate the risk being bitten.
The process of the camp definitely wasn’t very pleasant, everything was a bit more gruesome and roughly handled than I would have anticipated. It was my first sterilisation camp so I didn’t really know what to expect from it. However, I collaborated with my fellow service group members and looked after the dogs and cats that came out of their sterilisation surgery. We covered them with cloth, so that no insects or bugs would infect or tamper with their fresh wounds. The doctor team gave us the opportunity to participate and be very hands during this process . They allowed us to watch the surgeries, vaccinate the animals and put the IV for the animals that came out of surgery. However, with my fear of needles and blood I didn’t really take part in those activities. I made up for my lack of participation in other ways, like helping with the books, and paperwork- to note down how many animals came and what procedures they went through.
The entire camp wasn’t as successful as we would have hoped because not many animals that were brought needed sterilisation. This was because we noticed most of them in this neighbourhood had already had it done. Hence, most animals that were brought came for more simple things like vaccinations, skin rash treatment, worming ex. We overall had only 9 sterilisation which compared to the year before (50 sterilisations) was much lower. Nevertheless, this camp was a great experience for me, I learnt that saying you love animals is one thing but really helping them even when things get a bit ugly and uncomfortable is where true love and care is shown.