Spay/neuter campaign helps aid in pet crisis in Ecuador
For three years, Scott Bainbridge and his Dundas West Animal Hospital team have participated in four sterilization programs in Ecuador. To date, they have helped sterilize more than 1,000 animals
When Scott Bainbridge, HBSc, DVM, and his wife were researching for a place to retire in the future, Ecuador kept coming up on their radar, which was not surprising. A quick online search would show a country rich in many aspects—culture, geography, and biodiversity. After all, it sits on part of the Andes Mountains and the Amazon River basin.
These, among other things, appealed to Dr. Bainbridge, owner of Dundas West Animal Hospital in Toronto, Ont., and an avid traveller. “Despite its size, Ecuador has a lot to offer,” says Bainbridge. It did not take long before he booked the “trip of a lifetime” with his family in March 2016.
Their two-week vacation was partly spent on a liveaboard around The Galapagos, where they mostly explored sea life and the unique terrain of the islands. The second half of their trip was in the quaint mainland towns off the Ecuadorian coast. There, they were not only immersed in the culture, but were also exposed to an alarming reality: pet overpopulation.
“Every town was inundated with malnourished and sickly dogs and cats wandering through the streets looking for food,” says Bainbridge. “Once settled, I knew my goal would be to eventually help combat this pet overpopulation crisis.”
Bainbridge ticked off his first agenda of owning a beach house in this part of South America, but the veterinarian also knew this adventure of a lifetime presented itself as a bigger mission: helping the community.
Man on a mission
In 2018, Bainbridge met with a local animal charity in Ecuador and began planning what would be an annual sterilization campaign. They started in the town of Montanita, where Bainbridge described the overpopulation to be “one of the worst.”
“They knew these towns thrive on tourism and having packs of dogs roaming the streets and beaches would not be popular with vacationers,” says Bainbridge.
While he had the support of the Montanita officials, the veterinarian did not have the resources offhand. So, along with locals and expatriates who agreed to work with him as volunteers, Bainbridge started a GoFundMe page for the sterilization campaign. They approached friends, colleagues, and industry leaders for donations.
The campaign inaugurated in Feb. 2020 with a team of three veterinarians, two veterinary technicians, and three veterinary assistants from Dundas West Animal Hospital, along with a team of local Ecuadorian veterinary professionals.
In just two days, the volunteer group sterilized over 120 animals free of charge to the local townspeople.
“It was heartwarming to watch people lined up with their pets for hours, waiting for their turn for surgery, and not once did anyone complain,” says Bainbridge. “We were just so grateful for being given the opportunity.”
The bigger problem
In a 2019 survey, the free-roaming dog population in Quito, Ecuador, alone was estimated at 107 dogs/km2 in the urban parishes and 211 dogs/km2 in the rural parishes.1 This means sightings of 6.15 dogs/km in urban parishes, and 5.41 dogs/km in rural parishes on average. This overpopulation is beyond the problem of animal shelters.
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), rabies is prevalent in over 150 countries and territories. Alarmingly, 40 percent of those afflicted by this devastating disease are children under the age of 15.2
With pets in Ecuador roaming the streets freely, they can be more prone to the infectious disease and more likely to be involved in bite incidents and traumatic events, impacting public health and safety, as well as wildlife.3
While there is no one way to solve the crisis in stray dog overpopulation, one method animal health experts and officials can turn to is sterilization.4 However, mass efforts, such as spay/neuter programs, are impacted by many factors, Bainbridge explains. The lack of access to veterinary medicine, the cost of pet health care, and cultural mindsets are a few of the challenges for pet parents in Ecuador.
“Pet owners [in Ecuador] tend to be more reactive than proactive,” he says. “[They] put less effort on preventative veterinary medicine and more on emergency medicine, such as, vehicular accidents, snake bites, scorpion stings, and infectious diseases, such as tick borne and heartworm disease.”
Bainbridge emphasizes the critical role veterinary professionals play in making a change through volunteerism. “There is so much need for pro bono work in our field right now,” he says. “Veterinary costs have never been so high and the shortage in our industry is making it even more difficult for marginalized people to get help for their pets. Speak to your colleagues, local politicians, and rescue groups to see where you can make a difference within your community or abroad.”
Worth the hard work
For three years, Bainbridge and his Dundas West Animal Hospital team have participated in four sterilization programs in Ecuador. To date, they have helped sterilize more than 1,000 animals.
The 2019 Ontario Veterinary Medical Association (OVMA) Award of Merit recipient says he is committed to doing volunteer work and encouraging others to do the same.
“I think all my colleagues will agree that giving back ‘fills your bucket,’” Bainbridge says. “For years, I have worked very hard building my practices, veterinary camp, and client base, [and] I have always encouraged our team to get involved in community work—whether that be working with rescue groups or helping with homeless shelters to people with pets. Giving our staff the opportunity to become involved in these campaigns is priceless. I see how it recharges their batteries and allows them to form bonds with colleagues that would never happen within a regular working day at the clinic. In my opinion, these trips make for happy employees and help form lifelong friendships.”
Further, Bainbridge says volunteer work, particularly that in Ecuador, has made him “more conscious” of the importance of “sometimes-overlooked” skills.
“I feel North American veterinarians can become quite reliant on their state-of-the-art clinics, with their in-house bloodwork, radiology, and other diagnostics,” he says. “In Ecuador, our lack of diagnostic equipment forces us to rely more on patient history and doing a full physical exam.”
Bainbridge plans to continue his team’s bi-annual campaigns in Ecuador, with hopes of expanding to other countries that need help.
References
1 Cárdenas, Max & Grijalva, C. & Torre, Stella. (2021). Free-Roaming Dog Surveys in Quito, Ecuador: Experiences, Lessons Learned, and Future Work. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 8. 10.3389/fvets.2021.766348.
2 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/rabies
3 Matter, H. C., T. J. Daniels, C. N. L. MacPherson, F. X. Meslin, and A. I. Wandeler. “Dogs, zoonoses and public health.” Wallingford: CABI (2000): 1-382
4 Taylor LH, Wallace RM, Balaram D, Lindenmayer JM, Eckery DC, Mutonono-Watkiss B, Parravani E, Nel LH. The Role of Dog Population Management in Rabies Elimination-A Review of Current Approaches and Future Opportunities. Front Vet Sci. 2017 Jul 10;4:109. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2017.00109. PMID: 28740850; PMCID: PMC5502273.
