6 Vets, 6 Hours and 7,000 Animals
02 June 2005
(Amman, Jordan) A team of 6 Jordanian vets has completed an amazing feat by treating over 7,000 working and farm animals in just 6 hours under the blistering desert sun. Vets from the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad (SPANA), the Brooke Hospital, and the University of Jordan joined together after villagers in the rural Wadi Rum area made a plea for help to a member of the Jordanian Royal Family.
Dr Ghazi Mustafa, SPANA’s country director in Jordan said - “In many remote areas of Jordan, vets are few and far between, and SPANA’s mobile clinics are a lifeline for poor families and communities who depend on their working and farm animals for survival.”
“The vets each saw and treated an amazing average of 194 animals every hour – that’s 3 every minute for 6 hours!”
Wadi Rum is a remote and harsh environment and the communities and families who live there are dependent on their animals. Villagers in the area asked for help from HRH Prince Asem Bin Nayef who is President of SPANA in Jordan. SPANA liaised with the Brooke Hospital and University of Jordan vets to ensure that as many animals as possible were treated, but even they did not expect to deal with quite so many.
Typical cases seen amongst the camels, donkeys, horses, sheep and goats treated were internal and external parasites, lameness and wounds. A farrier from the Jordanian Farriery Association was on hand to mend broken shoes and much of the medicine used to treat the animals was donated by local businesses.
Jeremy Hulme, Chief Executive of SPANA said: “This was one of a series of open days that we run in conjunction with the Jordanian Ministry of Education. They have proven to be extremely successful and as can be seen by the huge number of animals brought in for treatment, there is a real need for this sort of help.”
Planning for future open days in other parts of the Kingdom is already underway.
For More Information - Simon Pope - Head of Communications, SPANA - 020 7629 2689 or 07811 404 874
Or email simon@spana.org