Transcript
CASEY QUIMBY: Someone had sent a message to our Animals Fiji Facebook page and had said that this dog had this horrific injury. They were in Lautoka – which is about 30 minutes from out Nadi clinic and head office. We were trying to see if anyone could help us with transportation to see what we could do. As we were co-ordinating the logistics of that, the owner and his family have brought the dog in and said that Ranger had gone missing for a day or two. He was an uncastrated male so he went missing - assuming he probably went looking for the ladies on heat. When he came back had this perfect, what appeared to be a cane knife injury – probably a good 20-25cm in length right to the back of the spine. He was assessed by one of our vets and talked about it with the owner. And with a cane knife injury to the spine and our limited diagnostic and tools, there was really nothing we could do.
TIM GLASGOW: Have you seen instances on dogs having similar injuries or being attacked in similar ways?
CQ: I would say that cane knife incidents aren’t common, but we will probably see, say one a month maybe 10-12 a year.
TG: That’s quite an extreme reaction to a dog showing annoying behaviour or doing something it shouldn’t. There’s been an issue with dogs being poisoned over there in Fiji [too]. Why are the reactions to them so extreme?
CQ: I think the bigger issue in regards to the caning knife issue – if you take one specific case. And I’ve had five of my own dogs poisoned in Fiji in 11 years – since I’ve lived there. And I try to tell people to get distracted by the shiny ball. They look at one case, or one incident and they get up in arms. Really we need to step back and look at the big picture. The two big issues we have, particularly in Fiji is one – an overpopulation, people can’t control their own animals or their pets multiplying and number two, which is that we have a lack of vets – so we have a very small number of practicing veterinarians. Currently Animals Fiji is the only one operating outside of Suva and we have a clinic in Nadi full time and a part time clinic in Lautoka and we have three other part time clinics in the Northern division. For a population just shy of a million people, that’s not very many veterinarians. But on the other hand, most of the issues we see in Fiji, for example with Ranger, the owners didn’t come to us for 24 hours, which is neglectful, but because of ignorance.
TG: what do you think could be done in Fiji to make sure people are more education about animal welfare?
CQ: It’s going to take a multitude of things, but I just increasing the number of vets and trying to and trying to increase the knowledge of animals – pets but also farm animals. That’s a long term plan. But day to day if tourists come here and see something, do something about it.