Mê Thú Cưng - Pet Magazine for Vietnam Số Tết | Số 6 | Tet Issue | Issue Six 2015 | Page 74
Mê Thú Cưng
Cứu hộ, Chăm sóc và Phúc lợi động vật tại Việt Nam 70 77
Veterinarian Capacity Building in Vietnam
By Catherine ‘Cat’ Besch
Với trụ sở đóng tại Hội
An, những nhà sáng lập
của Tổ chức Bảo vệ Động
Vật Việt Nam (VAWO),
Catherine Besch và
Emma Bolton, làm việc
với những bác sĩ thú y
địa phương và với cộng
đồng để hoàn thiện sự
đối xử với động vật thông
qua việc giáo dục bảo vệ
động vật, chương trình
triệt sản/tiêm phòng vắc
xin, giải cứu và nhận nuôi
động vật, và xây dựng
năng lực cho những
nhóm bảo vệ động vật
cũng như bác sĩ thú y địa
phương. VAWO tìm kiếm
những nơi tiêu thụ thịt
chó và nâng nhận thức
bằng ấn phẩm bảo vệ
động vật tại Việt Nam.
As they feel such
passion for both
their new country
and the animals
that inhabit it,
VAWO is prepared
to stick around
for a long time in
order to share their
contagious love of
animals in Vietnam.
As anyone who has a pet and has visited a vet outside (or even
inside) the largest cities in Vietnam can tell you, Vietnam is
lagging behind in veterinary care. It does not take a vet to tell
you that an unconscious animal is preferable to a conscious
animal when being operated on, yet this is the standard of care
that is the norm for the majority of the country. Vaccines are not
widely used, both rabies and for the more expensive multiple
disease vaccines. Sterilization is not routinely practiced and
even often discouraged by veterinarians, the people who should
be most heavily tasked with the practice of preventing unwanted
births and of ensuring animal welfare on a large scale. If we
look deeper into the causes of these gaps in knowledge, skills,
and practice in protection of animal welfare, we can see that
the institutions that are supposed to be fostering these ideas
are skipping them altogether. My organization, Vietnam Animal
Welfare Organisation, seeks to bridge these gaps along with help
from all the major (and minor) animal welfare organisations in
the country as we work together to raise the veterinary capacity
of Vietnam.
The reason all of this is a
problem is that as animal lovers,
rescuers, or even just individual
pet owners, we cannot progress
in the movement of increasing
the status of animal welfare in
society or in politics if the voices
that the people respect, the
veterinarians, are not the voice
promoting good pet care and
positive anima welfare. If our
vets are not well educated, are
not aware of welfare issues, and
are not even in the business for
the animals at all, then this voice
we need behind the movement is
not standing up for the animals
and is, in fact, hurting our cause.
All pet own ers want the best for
their animals, and not only are
we not presented with the best,
but our options outside of Ho
Chi Minh City and Hanoi are so
far from good that we are often
left to be our own vets, using
Google and the local pharmacy
to hopefully cure whatever ails
our pets. I would like to see
more vets involved in the animal
welfare movement in Vietnam
as they have the opportunity to
represent animals as sentient
beings in need of our respect
for their pain and sufferingall this backed up by modern
science and veterinary medicine.
They can be the voice that the
government listens to when we
go to them for animal welfare
legislation. When the laws are
CONTACT MS. BESCH | GOFUND ME (DONATIONS) | VAWO WEBSITE
72
Số 06 | 2015 | petmagazine.vn
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