MNC DOG PROJECT WEEK
The previous week has been super busy on the trust side with the Mara North Conservancy Dog Project. Karen Blixen Camp Trust is a Kenyan nonprofit organization located in the unique and fragile ecosystem of the Masai Mara in Kenya. Together with donors and partners, they support conservation of wildlife and wilderness, community empowerment, and childhood and vocational education hence coming up with the Mara North Conservancy Dog project.
The workshops take place twice a year carrying out neuter surgeries on domestic dogs, vaccinating against rabies, canine distemper and parvo-virus, treating against parasites and taking blood samples for health-related research. The aim of the project is more than a simple focus on the dogs themselves, though. By controlling the dog numbers and keeping the dogs healthy, the dog project contributes to the protection of wildlife of Mara North Conservancy.
The team of approximately twenty veterinarians arrived at the camp towards the end of the week, marking the beginning of an intense one week full of activities. The team comprised of Danish Veterinary students from Copenhagen University in Denmark, Tufts University in USA and Nairobi University in Kenya.
A small briefing was done to get to know each other then later commenced to the business of the day. The set up was made at the permanent MNC Dog Project clinic at Mararianta center near the dispensary. With the local liaison James, the camp pick-up truck was making back and forth trips within the locality collecting dogs that were scheduled for neutering. The past few days the surgeries were done in the field away from Mararianta despite the heavy cross winds and slight rains that they experienced in the course of the surgeries but all in all, all the surgeries were successful.
The team also got an opportunity to visit the local primary school to teach the local community children the purpose and importance of having dogs in their homes vaccinated and neutered. They even got to demonstrate the neutering process to the pupils with a dummy dog just to show them how it is done. Such activities not only aim to educate the students but also motivate them to work hard and also become veterinarian doctors.