After three years away, The Rock Vets Niue have finally returned to the island. Arriving last Monday, the team of 16 volunteers and Rock Vets Trust Founder Sasha Nowell have been working tirelessly at the old Halamahaga school buildings to see and treat as many cats and dogs on the island before they leave.
“We’ve desexed over 130 pets already, cats and dogs. We hope to get through that number again. So over 250 desexings while we are here on the island. We’ve done three leg amputations that are from dogs with sort of chronic diseases, broken legs, and injuries to their legs. We have taken some eyes out that were badly infected”, Sasha told BCN News on Monday this week.
Rock Vets Founder Sasha strongly encourages the people of the island who have pets to contact them directly at phone number 888 7762 to make a booking for a general health checkup while they are still on the island.
However, for surgeries the people are advised, as urged from DAFF (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), to contact DAFF directly for bookings.
“We are hoping to get as much done this week as what we can. We don’t feel that we are going to get through all of the work because it’s been three years since we’ve been here unfortunately. We’ll be back at the end of March.”
“All those little puppies and kittens will be able to desex them in March before they can breed. There is still hope really young ones but our goal is to get the adult dogs in for desexing. Both the males and the females by Friday. There will be a residual team of vets on the island until the 11th (November) and we can deal with emergencies up until we leave then. But we won’t be doing any desexing unless it’s urgent,” says Sasha.
Meanwhile, the only concerns of the Rock Vets is their equipment.
According to Sasha, ten of their cat traps have not been returned out of the fifteen they have. They are urging those who have any of these to please return it to them as they are expensive and are also limited to the amount of cages they can provide for the pets that they continue to treat.
Despite their brief return in the last week, Sasha told BCN News that they are planning to set up a long-term vet clinic once the DAFF building is ready. In this way, they would be able to return to the island on regular intervals without having to worry about accommodation and the tedious task of unpacking and packing their equipment when they arrive and depart the island as usual.
Most of the team will leave the island this Friday.