Paws of Nusa Penida
We are the only organisation on Nusa Penida island, east of Bali that helps animals. We offer a sterilisation program free to local Indonesians who have dogs and cats. We also sterilise street dogs and provide emergency medical help when they are in distress.
Nusa Penida went from a sleepy, quiet, non-touristy island when I arrived to being the hotspot for Bali tourism with the advent of Instagram. The traditional method for controlling dog and cat populations on the island was to dump unwanted litters of puppies and kittens far from any houses where they would be left to live or die. Along came the tourists who found the abandoned puppies and kittens, rescued them and then called me to take them. With around 4000 dogs on the island and approximately 2000 cats at best guess, you can see that this will quickly cease to be a feasible option. The only way to control the population of dogs and cats sustainably and with compassion is to sterilise as many as possible. Prevention is better than cure.
To date every village we have been to, every person we have spoken to has said a firm “yes please” to our offer of a free sterilisation for their pet. Every time we go into a village to sterilise dogs and cats we are educating the local community. The majority of locals have never seen a sedation/anaesthesia of any description and have never seen an operation performed either. We get onlookers from every generation both male and female. They ask a myriad of questions, take a lot of photos and are generally fascinated by what we do. This is the most valuable education that we could ever hope for, we believe it is planting the seed in the mind of the next generation who will choose the option to call us to sterilise their pet over having to dump unwanted litters repeatedly.Our aim is to go out 6 days a week sterilising dogs and cats with our own fulltime Veterinarian. It is the only way to start to reduce numbers to a level whereby every dog and cat can have a home and someone who will look after them.
In addition to sterilising pets we are also rolling out an education program with regards to animal health, basic animal welfare, the value of vaccinating & sterilising pets, zoonosis, the perks of having pet and of course the consequences of dumping unwanted litters.