CAAT in Saint Lucia

While 90% of CAAT’s work is in Canada, we do some international collaboration and we are excited to be helping out a relatively new animal welfare organization starting this weekend.   A CAAT team will head down to Soufriere in the southern part of the island of Saint Lucia.   Each team member is paying their own way to the island to volunteer their time for 4 days to help our a local group called Helpaws (www.helpaws.com).   Helpaws has launched a new “visiting vet” program to address the stray animal population problems on the island. CAAT is partnering with Helpaws to help them make a difference in the animal welfare in Saint Lucia.

CAAT’s international projects are quite different from our domestic ones in terms of preparation. There is the usual work of getting donated and purchased medical and surgical supplies, the somewhat more complicated coordination of team flights, and the work with the local coordinator in St. Lucia to prepare for the team’s arrival.   However, for international projects we also have to satisfy veterinary licensing requirements, obtain government permits to bring our supplies into the country, as well as be prepared to potentially deal with different diseases and parasites that are not seen in Canada.

When we work with an established organization in the local community, CAAT provides valuable experience and expertise, but the local organization’s efforts are critical to the sustainability of the program. We work very closely with them to help build local education programs and to plan for continuing veterinary services through their visiting vet programs.

We can’t wait to kick off the CAAT-Helpaws project!