A study by Purdue University (US) scientists published in January 2024  reviewed the existing literature concerning access to veterinary care, in order to understand how “access to veterinary care” has been defined in the literature, map a broad list of potential barriers that may influence access to veterinary care, and identify how access to care impacts the welfare of animals, both companion as well as livestock species.

When most of your work is with your laptop in the office; writing reports, going through accounts, planning projects and budgets and addressing staff recruitment needs, there is nothing better than a little adventure in the form of a field work trip.

Over the last couple of years with the WVS India team, I have been focusing on developing the concept of owned dog spay/neuter campaign clinics as way of complementing the traditional, shelter-based and stray-dog focused ABC program approach. The reasons why we have taken this approach are multiple and some of them have been explored in my previous posts.

The suffering of abandoned kittens and puppies seems so unnecessary when we have a good solution to prevent unwanted pregnancies and unwanted puppies and kittens. Surgical sterilisation continues to be the best and most recommended and life-long solution for population control in cats. And by the fact that such appeals for help as just this one from Sushmita are so common, it is clear that there is huge need for cat owners to be able to have better access to spay/neuter surgery services.

On this World Veterinary Day, as I sat down for my morning coffee and to check on messages in my phone, I was very happy to see first the message from Dr Shireen Lawrence, thanking me for the mentoring I had provided to him over ten years ago, as he was beginning his career as a veterinarian. It was fully unexpected message and I felt very honoured and humbled by him remembering and recognising me in such a role, so many years later.