Sunday, August 25, 2013

SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER 2013

2 kittens adopted in Tobago and are happy in their forever home. 
Please visit out Adoptions page - Click Here

IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Report of the Chairperson 2012-2013
2. Dr. Paul Crooks
3. Fundraising
4. Caribbean Animal Welfare Conference
5. Education Programme

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1. REPORT OF THE CHAIRPERSON 
- Mary Soodeen:  For the period April 2012 to May 2013

1. Management Commitee.
Regular monthly meetings have been held throughout the year.   The business of the Society continued, with Minutes agreed on a monthly basis.    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. Projects
(i) Extending and Upgrading our Clinic:   Thanks to Luise Kimme’s assistance this was accomplished.  We were sad at Luise Kimme’s passing .   Her support of the Tobago Shelter will always be remembered.   Even now her book “Tobago’s Kimme, her dogs and art” is being sold with all proceeds going to our Shelter.

(ii) Boarding Kennels: The Boarding kennels are almost complete.   We hope to increase our revenue by having these additional 10 kennels to offer Pet owners.

3.  Fundraising:
- We continue to rely heavily on fundraising projects and private donations.
- Book  sales are ongoing projects together with the collections from our dog boxes,  which are placed in shops and hotels.  The last Saturday of each month outside “Stumpys”  you will find Mrs. Pamela Phillips and her volunteer assistants with a  wonderful collection of books for sale.   We are indebted to Pamela Phillips for her continued assistance and Peter Brimacombe for emptying the dog boxes.
- Through our fundraising Committee, we held events which were well attended and proved successful,  particularly our parties at Sandy Point Village.
- We participated at a Christmas Fair at Bucco Community Centre and took part in the Night Market at the Cinergy Film Festival.
- We benefited from part proceeds of a  Musical Dance Concert put on by Mary Lou Beddow.
- We benefited from the sales of subway tickets and the Animal Welfare Calendars. (which we sold in Tobago)

4.  Members:
Fourteen new members were approved.   An annual subscription of $100 paid to the Society within any financial year shall constitute the subscriber an Ordinary Member for that year.   Overseas membership will be granted on the payment of a one time subscription of $500.00.

5.  The Shelter and Staff:
Throughout the year the staff have been sprucing up the Shelter by cleaning and painting the buildings, repairing doors on kennels , maintaining the grounds, etc.  Bonuses were awarded at Christmas in appreciation.  We continue to work with the Staff to update them on their job descriptions and any staff issues they may have .
           
At the end of May  the number of animals at the Shelter: 22 dogs,  8 Boarders, 22 puppies, 5 cats and 5 kittens
During the year we sent 2 dogs to Germany and 2 dogs and 1 kitten to the UK, all adopted by Visitors to our Island.   Many of  our animals have been adopted from the Shelter and at our Adoption Drives held at the Gulf City Mall.

- Dr. Paul Crooks, our resident vet,  hosts a regular programme called “Ask the Vet” on Tobago Channel 5 on the “Rise & Shine” morning show once a month.This  is an interactive show and deals with both pets and farm animals.
- Dr. Miguella Carew, from the USA paid us a visit and did some free heart worm testing while in Tobago.
              
6.  Clinic:
Dr. Paul Crooks renewed his tenancy of our Shelter Clinic.
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.                                                  
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.

7.   Education:
  - The Animal Welfare Network in Trinidad have initiated  a programme for primary schools in Trinidad.   Ms. Mitra De Souza, from AWN paid a visit to our Tobago Shelter to familiarize us with this programme. We hope to  introduce the programme  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.

8.  Visitors:
Many other visitors came, viewed the Shelter and left a donation.   We are indeed grateful to one and all.
- Philippe Le Farge, from Ireland, dropped off a donation from the golf tournament he organised in Tobago.
- Alexandra Rothlisberge, Programme Director for the Humane Society visited us while on her way to Trinidad to choose a location for the Caribbean Animal Welfare Conference which was held in Trinidad in April.     Dr. Crooks, Mrs. Soodeen and Ms. Clare Joseph attended this conference.  
Members of the Shelter also attended the Caribbean Veterinarian Conference which was held in Trinidad.

9.    Spay & Neuter Clinics:
In August we held our free Spay/neuter clinics with assistance from the Humane Society, TTSPCA Council and the Tobago House of Assembly.    We held two clinics, under the direction of Dr. Paul Crooks and Dr. Adana Mahase,  one at  the Shelter and an outreach Clinic at Charlotteville.   We spayed/neutered 100 animals and the Charlotteville clinic also attended to 68 animals for various ailments.
We  have worked very hard  on getting funding, advertising and holding the SPOTT clinics each year since  2008 and in total have spayed and neutered 525 dogs and cats so preventing many unwanted litters.
We hope to continue these SPOTT clinics as we believe this is the way forward in making Tobago a stray free Island.

Dr. Crooks also participated in a spay week organized by Animal Welfare Network.
              
10.     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.  To 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 also need foster homes for dogs.  


- During the Year our Vice Chairman Mrs. Patricia Faraday relocated to Trinidad.   We do appreciate the time she spent on our Committee.
- I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Manager, Ms. Clare Joseph and her staff for their support during the past year.
- I would like to thank Mrs. Beverly Smith for assisting in preparing  our books for auditing.
- I wish to thank Mr. Robert Rivers and Mr. Nigel Pawan for drafting the plans for the Kennels and communicating with the building contractor while they were in Tobago.
- I also wish to thank our Committee for their support.   We have achieved some of our goals and are making progress on others.
- SPeCiAl   T-Shirts are on sale at the Shelter as part of our fundraising

- Our photos are taken by Inken Janning…..   www.tobagophoto.com

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2. Dr. PAUL CROOKS ...
was voted in as the Chairman for the coming year



3. FUNDRAISING
i) Dance show gives donation to TTSPCA
The dance Shows that was put on in aid of the TTSPCA by Mary Lou Beddow and a team of Tobago Dancers… great!

The Tobago Dance Team performed an incredible journey around the world to see dances and hear music from several countries. Held at the Gulf City Lowlands Mall on April 14th. Proceeds for the show will benefit the TSPCA and the Nicare Home for the Aged. 


Photo of Mary Lou giving donation to TTSPCA 

ii) TTSPCA had a stall at the Cinergy Film Festival



iii) Carnival Fete
TTSPCA had our Carnival Fete


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4.  THE CARIBBEAN ANIMAL WELFARE CONFERENCE 
TTSPCA Tobago was represented at the Caribbean Animal Welfare Conference which was held in Trinidad in April this year.



5. EDUCATION PROGRAMME
We are still working on getting our education Programme into the School in Tobago