Behind the scenes
In March 2015, Chris Robinson, the Executive Director of CAAT, received an email requesting that CAAT provide an Animal Health Care Clinic in Bella Bella, British Columbia. On September 11-14, that clinic will become a reality.
Although the clinic is always the star of the show, each CAAT clinic is the culmination of months of preparation work. Here is a sampling of the preparation required in advance of a CAAT project:
Invitation Only: CAAT will only consider supplying veterinary services in communities where the leaders of the community want to make a change in the animal welfare and population control in their town or village and invite CAAT to help them achieve those goals. Once a request is received, we explore the community’s needs, long-term goals and whether they are able to provide the necessary team support to host a clinic.
Approvals: If the preliminary discussions show a good fit, a project needs a number of different approvals: CAAT’s Board of Directors, any local veterinarians and the applicable governing entity – depending on location that could be a veterinary board (as in BC) or government (as when going to foreign country).
Nuts and Bolts: The logistical challenges can feel like they are on scale with a major military operation:
Facility – We use the term “facility” loosely when describing where surgeries are conducted. CAAT project facilities have ranged from a tarp sheltering a gravel washout in Botswana, to an abandoned fire hall in Hazelton, to a Wildlife Office and RCMP garage in Nunavut. In Bella Bella we will set up our temporary hospital in a local community hall.
Budget/funding – While the target community does most of the legwork to find an appropriate facility, our CAAT project organizer (Chris Robinson or Donna Lasser) sets the budget and explores funding opportunities for the project expenses (medical, surgical, educational supplies, etc.).
Team – After a date is set, the project organizer chooses the team from the pool of applicants, handles related paperwork and organizes transportation that can involve car, boat and/or plane for 4-30 team members hailing from different locations.
Supplies – Each project requires sufficient medical and surgical supplies to be purchased/donated, organized and transported to the project location in order to set up a field hospital. The supply logistics for Bella Bella illustrate some of the challenges of staging clinics in remote locations – the supplies must travel to and from Bella Bella by ferry, and the closing time of the clinic is dictated by the fact that if the return supplies don’t make the last boat on September 14 they will be stranded for another four days.
Education. Pet owners need to know about the clinic and how they and their pets can benefit from it, so preparation of education materials and coordination of an education program in the community is an important part of the process. In Bella Bella, CAAT will send two team members a couple of days before the start of the clinic to hold a workshop for local volunteers who will then be able to run an ongoing Humane Education program to teach children about dog bite safety and empathy/compassion toward animals.
Communication between all parties remains crucial throughout the preparation period to bring these elements together.
While the actual clinic is the “star of the show”, without the prep work that goes on quietly in the background, by the CAAT project coordinator and the local community volunteers, the projects would never happen and be so successful. After seven months working through this process for Bella Bella, it’s almost time for the reward – the team members will arrive to meet the first furry patients in less than a week!
– by Sarene