Wednesday, June 13, 2012

JUNE NEWSLETTER 2012

the Shelter Staff and dog Walkers
and Dr. Innis, one of the Vets at the Shelter Clinic

IN THIS ISSUE:
***We had our AGM on April 4th
1. management committee:
2. fundraising:
3. members:
4. the shelter and staff:
5. education:
6. visitors:
7. spay & neuter clinics
8. clinic:
9. projects for the year:
10. pound:
11. volunteers:
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1. MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE:
Regular monthly meetings have been held throughout the year.  Action items were agreed and Financial Statements reviewed, to ensure that we are in full control of our expenditure in relation to our income.  The Committee members work on a volunteer basis and are to be commended for their hard work and dedication.

2. FUNDRAISING:
- We continue to rely heavily on fundraising projects and private donations.
- Book and jumble sales are ongoing projects together with the collections from our dog boxes,  placed in shops and hotels.  The last Saturday of each month a white tent is erected outside “Stumpys” and there you will find Mrs. Pamela Phillips and her volunteer assistants and a wonderful collection of books for sale.   We are indebted to Pamela Phillips for her continued assistance.
- Through our fundraising Committee, we held events which were well attended and proved successful particularly our pre Carnival Party at Stonehaven.  Thanks go to Duane Kenny and his crew for their support. 

3. MEMBERS:
New members were approved.   We continue to welcome new members.   $100 for life membership

4. THE SHELTER AND STAFF:
- Check out our new Sign at the Entrance given by an anonymous donor.  
- The Shelter has a new laptop, printer, washing machine and freezer all donated.   We are so grateful.
- We have maintained the same staff throughout the year and their loyalty is commendable. Bonuses were awarded at Christmas in appreciation. Throughout the year the staff have been sprucing up the Shelter by cleaning and painting the buildings, repairing doors on kennels, retiling the dogs’ bathtub area etc. We purchased a Weed Whacker so the grounds are now maintained by the Staff.
We continue to work with the Staff to update them on their job discriptions and any staff issues they may have  and  their role in helping the TSPCA follow their mission and vision.                                 
“A stray free country, where animals are treated with love and respect”
At the end of March the number of animals at the Shelter: 27 dogs, 5 Boarders, 11 puppies, 5 cats and 6 kittens.
- During the year we sent 7 dogs to Germany and the UK, all adopted by Visitors to our Island.  
The rules for sending dogs to the UK or any EU country has changed and instead of having to spend 6 months in quarantine,  the dog can be micro chipped, given a rabies vaccine and travel to any EU country 21 days later.                                             
- Many of  our animals have been adopted from the Shelter and at our Adoption Drives held at the Gulf City Mall.
- Dr. Paul Crooks hosts a regular programme called “Ask the Vet” on Tobago Channel 5 on the “Rise & Shine” morning show, on the second Monday each month.   This  is an interactive show and deals with both pets and farm animals.

5. EDUCATION:
The Animal Welfare Network in Trinidad are working on a programme on Education with regards to the welfare of animals and will be testing the pilot programme in two schools.   On completion they will forward us the programme together with activity books and we will introduce it into our Primary  Schools  in Tobago.  
We  are looking for Volunteers for this programme.    We  must empower  students to realize they can apply the concepts of respect and kindness towards animals in their own lives.

6. VISITORS:
- We said goodbye to Miguella-Carew a fulbright Scholar from Cornell University USA who had paid us several visits during her stay in Trinidad & Tobago.   She continues to keep in touch and promise s to assist us with our next SPOTT programme.
- Alexandra Rothlisberger, Program Manager for the Caribbean from the Humane Society International paid us a visit early March.    She has promised to assist us in our next SPOTT programme.
- Phillipe LeFarge, from Ireland, organised a golf tournament, while he was in Tobago and came to visit us with a donation, proceeds from the tournament.
- Dr.Charlotte Balcombe from UK  spent the month of September in Tobago and  assisted Dr. Crooks by spaying and neutering all our animals at the clinic.
- Many other visitors came, viewed the Shelter and left us a donation.   We are indeed grateful to one and all.

7. SPAY & NEUTER CLINICS
- Since our last SPOTT (Spaying prevents overpopulation in Trinidad  & Tobago) in January 2011 we have received no funding from Humane Society International due to the recession in USA. We have  worked very hard since 2008 on advertising and holding the SPOTT programmes and in total have spayed and neutered 425 dogs and cats so preventing many unwanted litters.   In March we got a comittment from the Humane Society International for some funding and we are making arrangements to hold SPOTT clinics in July 2012.   We are hoping to get some assistance from the Tobago House of Assembly.

8. CLINIC:
- Dr. Paul Crooks renewed his tenancy of our Shelter Clinic. Dr. Crooks does pro-bono work on our Shelter animals and we are very grateful. It is reflected in the general health of the animals in our care.
- The Clinic is being extended with the generous help of Ms. Luise Kimme.   
- The Clinic is open to the public from 4 – 6 pm daily and 8.30 am – 12.30 pm on Saturday.
- The Clinic offers the general public affordable safe veterinary care and medications.

9. PROJECTS FOR THE YEAR:
- New Kitchen:   This was finally completed, when Mrs. Beverly Smith, one of our Committee Members took over as Project Manager and was ably assisted by two of our staff, Keishon and Leston.
- Boarding Kennels:  We have been unable to obtain the required funding for our new Boarding Kennels which we planned to build to generate funds for the Shelter.   We have collected some funds and with a promise from an overseas member, living in the UK,  who will match us dollar for dollar we are going to build the foundation and as we collect further funds we will  add each kennel.   (10 in total)
- Extension of Clinic: Almost completed

10. POUND:
-This is the responsibility of the Tobago House of Assembly but we have offered to let them set it up at the back of the Shelter and as in Trinidad, the TSPCA would run the day to day operations.   We had a promising meeting with representatives of the Public Health division in September and a recent promise from Mr. Melville, secretary for Agriculture to set up a meeting with the Secretary for Health with a view to setting up a POUND to alleviate the problems of the stray and roaming dogs on the Island.   We await the outcome.

11. VOLUNTEERS:
We depend heavily on the services of Volunteers to help with walking our dogs, socializing with our puppies and kittens and helping at our fund raising events.   Those volunteers who do spend time at the Shelter we are indeed grateful.    If you have time to spare please come and walk a dog.
We need foster Homes for dogs to help socialize them before adoption.


As Chairman, I would like to thank our Manager, Ms. Clare Joseph and her staff for their support during the past year.
I would like to thank Mr. Alan Porter for auditing our books for 2011.
I also wish to thank our Committee for their support .   We have been able to achieve some of our goals and we are making progress on others.

Mary Soodeen (Chairman TSPCA Tobago Branch)

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