In October 2021 and until January 2022, two of our Paws2Rescue vet scholars joined the research team for CANLEISH, an international research project that aims to develop a non-invasive, electronic detection method for canine leishmaniasis, part of an international consortium of 8 countries, of which our organisation is one of the non-governmental dissemination entities.
Beyond research activities that included giving talks on various topics (bioethics, sustainable development) to undergraduate and graduate students, our scholarship recipients were active on the local rescue front, helping spay underprivileged dogs, participating in rabies vaccination events, volunteering in local clinics, and organising spay campaigns that we will develop in conjunction with the University of Pamplona mobile intervention unit next year.
Furthermore, they volunteered in the Unit for the Rescue and Rehabilitation of Wildlife (URRAS) of the National University of Colombia, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Together with our team, tour Paws2Rescue vet scholars identified urgent needs and tangible solutions to recurrent problems, and Paws2Rescue donated an oxygen concentrator and basic supplies that ended up transforming processes at the wildlife centre – it helped the inhalatory anaesthesia unit become operational, and on its second day of functioning, the concentrator ended up saving the life of a baby Leopardo tigrillis that came in critical shape.
Paws2Rescue are now working together with the wildlife centre and our vet scholars to see how we can implement targeted interventions that improve the welfare of patients in a cost-effective, sustainable manner that produce tangible results. For example, the oxygen concentrator and the supplies we donated to the URRAS wildlife unit in November have saved over a dozen patients in its first month alone, from birds coming in shock following migration (cuckoos), accidents (turtle doves, potoos, tanagers, eagle) to reptiles (turtles) and mammals of all sizes coming in differing stages of distress (a sloth that had been shot, opossum orphans, ant-eater female needing a c-section, and even a spider monkey with dental issues).
Paws2Rescue.
