The operating area of the last clinic held in November 2007 in Pinders Point. Photo: Tohni Blower

The Humane Society of Grand Bahama (HSGB), in partnership with The Kohn Foundation's Bahamian Animal Rescue Committee (B.A.R.C.) is pleased to announce its next major field spay and neuter clinic to be held April 14-18, 2008, in West End. 

We are extremely grateful to have 13 veterinarians, techs, and assistants coming in from the U.S., all volunteering their time, and paying their own way here once again! Their time here is best served with the technical aspects of the actual surgeries, and the more ancillary support we can provide, the more surgeries they can do. 

Here is how and what we need.  Please email me, Tip Burrows, AND HSGB board member Gloria McGlone if you can help in any way.  Gloria is an angel who has agreed to help with much of the organizational aspects.  We are scrambling to get our new shelter ready to move into so we are a bit snowed under.  However our spay/neuter project is what will make the biggest difference in the work we do.  Neglecting this while we make preparations to move will only mean more future residents for us - we aren't building a bigger and better shelter simply to house more animals.  Our goal is to house fewer animals in better conditions - we are determined to make this surplus of homeless pets a thing of the past on Grand Bahama.

1.  Immediate need:  We are going to do a community survey, door-to-door, in the West End community; starting with Deadmans Reef and working our way west, to determine the number of animals in need ahead of time.  This will help us immensely with our scheduling.  This will begin on Thursday, April 3rd - we hope to finish it by Saturday, April 5th, but it depends on having enough volunteers to do it.  I have been promised volunteers from the West End area to act as guides.  This will require duty paid vehicles and at least half a day of your time.  If anyone with a bonded vehicle is willing to help with this, I need your car information asap to get a letter into Customs for approval.  It would be great if we could get people to do early mornings as well as late afternoons so as to catch the most people home...Saturday would likely be the biggest day. 

2.  After the community canvas is done, we then need a few people to help with collating all the forms and scheduling which needs to be completed by Tuesday ideally as I need to then use all this to assign our drivers their daily pickups. 

3. Clinic help: We need help with paperwork and intakes and discharges, this is so important, we have to be organized and each animal must be identified properly and have accompanying paperwork.  Those of you who helped last year know the drill already; I don't know if there is a need this time for an orientation; if so, it could be held in Freeport possibly.  We need volunteers to ride along with our drivers to expedite the paperwork.  We ran short of volunteers to assist with discharges in November - there is a lull mid-afternoon and then it gets crazy again.  Intake is critical but having an extra one or two people to help with discharges would be much appreciated this time. 

- Anyone with animal handling experience is needed once again. 

4.  Transportation:  Our vets and techs will be staying at Old Bahama Bay during the clinic, but we still need 3-4 vehicles for them to use that week. We would appreciate the loan of vehicles.  They will only be used for transporting people, not animals. 

5.  Educators: We need people willing to traverse the community daily, go into the local schools and talk to the kids, also help organize and conduct clinic tours.  We didn't have any help with this in November; and we really need it this time! 

6.  Bonded Vehicles:  If anyone would like to help, but only has a bonded vehicle, I need to ask Customs for exemptions for those vehicles for that week.  I need to get this in asap, so even if you can't commit yet, but might be able to help please email me the following:  (I need to get this in no later than Tuesday, April 1st.) 
a)Plate number, b)Name on registration, and c)Year, make and model of vehicle

6.  Crates and collapsible wire cages (all sizes); if you have any we can borrow, we would be most grateful.  Please make sure your name and phone number is clearly marked on them.  It would be a huge help if we didn't have to pick them up and return them, but we will if we need to. 

Water and food dishes, also canned food, both dog and cat. 

You will notice I'm not asking for food, beverages or ice.  We are very fortunate that our funding for this clinic makes provision for that.  Since it has occurred at this late date we don't have time to coordinate food and deliveries or pickups.  West End is a long way to go.  Having said that if anyone wants to donate some snacks or fresh fruits or baked treats etc. those are always welcome.  :-)

Those of you who have helped before know what what it's all about.  Those who haven't I can promise you a rewarding and incredible experience which you will not regret being a part of.  There is no one person in this more important than another; it takes a whole lot of dedicated people to make these clinics a success.  We would be very grateful as always for any help any of you can provide. 

Contact info:
Tip      tip@coralwave.com or tjburrows7@gmail.com
          cell 242-727-2477 home 352-3645

Gloria   gmcg9@hotmail.com
             242-373-2887