Heal Me.
Kinship Circle DART TeamsJune Towler, Tracie Dawson, Ron Presley, Dr. Madi Graham, Dr. Dan Meakin, Peter Crowe, Maureen Valentine, Sister Michael Marie, Cheri Deatsch, Courtney Chandel, Penny Koncz
LocationLota, Chile
Field LogJune Towler, PIO May 2010
Since a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami struck Chile, all mining operations remain shuttered in this town where most incomes rely upon jobs at the underground plant. Lota now has the highest unemployment rate in all of Chile. Job loss leaves residents without financial means to rebuild from the disaster. Many feel overwhelmed and hopeless. There are spikes in alcoholism and drug use here, with an overall sense of despair. Still, a large number of displaced residents evacuated to military-run camps — with their companion animals in tow. Others stayed in damaged homes, with their animals. Kinship Circle and SACH establish an emergency veterinary clinic, with stations erected across an outdoor asphalt lot. A majority of residents have never taken their animals to a veterinarian before this disaster. Plus, rural Chileans rarely leash or crate animals. So cats and dogs (even a guinea pig!) show up in wheelbarrows, strollers, nestled in aprons, and peeking out of potato sacks.
Four treatment tables are each staffed with veterinarians and animal technicians, to treat mange, ear infections, fleas/parasites, distemper, allergies, eye and dental issues, mammary cancer, nose cancer, TVT, and one colon-rectal prolapse with rectal laceration. Some surgeries are conducted atop the open tailgate of a pickup truck. There is nothing vets can do for TVT (Transmissible Venereal Tumor) cases of the genitals or nose. Chemotherapy, the only cure, is not feasible. TVT animals painfully decline and are highly contagious. It is a horrendous situation and SACH-Kinship teams are deeply frustrated. During this six-hour clinic, we treat more than 200 dogs and well over 50 cats. A municipality rep records 93 residents with animals. Numerous stray animals are examined and treated as well. SACH and Kinship Circle travel Chile's battered coast to set-up emergency vet clinics for animals in earthquake harmed areas. PLEASE DONATE so we can replenish vet supplies and treat as many animals as possible.
LocationCoronel, Chile
Field LogJune Towler, PIO May 3 2010
We awaken to find a parvo puppy dead and survivors in decline. By mid-morning we have to euthanize the little white pup, whose seizures lead to a coma. Everyone is distraught. We bury the two puppies in the backyard, beside their brother. DOGS CULLED HERE, HEROIC LOCAL TRIES TO SAVE THEMLater, a team of nine SACH-Kinship Circle members attend a meeting with Senora Leticia Quezada Jerez in Coronel. Since the quake/tsunami, strays have quadrupled. Kinship Circle responder Peter Crowe coaxes out dogs who cower in trash and debris piles alongside roads. Senora Jerez recently secured homes for some, but later learned they'd been shot or beaten dead before their adoptions. Chief of Investigations Hector Espinosa Valenzuela, Prefecta Provincial Concepcion, claims police do not kill animals. But eyewitnesses attest differently. Senora Jerez had a necropsy done. Findings show thoracic trauma, suggesting the dog was kicked to death. We attempt to visit Coronel's tiny municipal shelter, but a security guard blocks entry. The shelter is situated within a walled compound. We hear no evidence of life. SACH and Kinship Circle want to investigate allegations against this shelter, but authorities forbid it. It is thought that the municipality captures dogs to kill them. SACH believes we can change this mindset via contact with government health services. It is also assumed that police investigators ignore most cruelty cases. One officer threatens Ms. Jerez by phone: “Get rid of your dogs or we'll kill them.” They stop her distribution of food. When confronted, this officer denies it. We express concern for Ms. Jerez' safety. She admits fear, but won't stop fighting to save animals.
HOW SACH AND KINSHIP CIRCLE CAN HELPWe can advise veterinary strategies as alternatives to culling, plus highlight a humane education plan and improvements, including long-term spay/neuter programs, for the existing shelter. If animals are treated, this resolves many health issues. Kinship Circle can also help facilitate deployment of a spay/neuter organization to curb populations. During our meeting in Seniora Jerez's home, we experience a 6.4 earthquake. We collectively hold our breath and resume when the ground stops rolling. In Coronel, 78 dogs are rescued, many cats (no concrete number), with 59 animals presently under care.
LocationChiguayante, Caleta Tumbes
Field LogJune Towler, PIO Apr 2010
BREATHING LIFE INTO A DOG
At a clinic in Chiguayante, SACH and Kinship Circle conduct procedures for quake-harmed animals. Residents often have no access to vet services, so many animals are seen for the first time in their lives. One dog, while under anesthesia for spay surgery, stops breathing. Kinship Circle's Madi Graham, a veterinarian from California, swiftly performs emergency-assisted breathing into an intubation tube — until the dog breathes on her own again. She fully recovers.
We assist at a makeshift veterinary clinic in Chiguayante. Nearly every animal undergoes spay-neuter surgery, along with treatment for other conditions. Nine veterinarians — Camilo Salazar, Luis Seguel Olea (Shiry), Laura, Rodrigo Flores Tepia, Georgia Zelada Corbalán, Enrique Reyes, a student vet, and Kinship Circle's Madi Graham, DVM and Dan Meakin DVM — are on hand. Also present: Kinship's vet tech Penny Konz, responders Tracie Dawson, Ron Presley and June Towler, translator Maureen Valentine, eight locals, and the community building's owner, Hector. In the empty structure, we create surgical tables from boards and cinder blocks, separated by plastic curtains. The room's right side is transformed into a prep/exam area. The back left corner becomes a sterilization station, with the front left corner designated for recovery. A critical supply shortage forces us to become very resourceful. For example, when we run out of saline drip, we resort to salines intended for other purposes. We scrounge up used bottles with traces of saline left. In the prep area, an animal is examined, sprayed for fleas, sedated, shaved, disinfected, anesthetized, and tagged with a number, name, and caregiver's name. The animal next goes to a sterilized operating table with several vets. One performs surgery, another assists, and one more acts as vet tech for post-op disinfection. Animals are monitored in a heated post-surgery area. PLEASE DONATE, so we can buy vet supplies for clinics up and down Chile's quake battered coast! Your kind heart ensures that no animal is turned away for lack of medical supplies.
A mother and daughter bring in a wounded kitten for partial tail amputation. A SACH vet suggests the kitten undergo spay surgery while sedated. The girl freaks out. She hits, kicks, and spits on the vet. SACH head coordinator Alejandra Cassino calms the child down, only to see her temper flare once again. Mom does not intervene. Chilean culture fosters an anti-sterilization attitude, an emotional outlook that clouds reason and blinds people to Chile's tragically ignored stray population. A local brings in a pregnant stray. Kinship Circle's Dan Meakin, DVM, performs a North American spay — based on a center incision, as opposed to the Chilean side-incision spay. The anesthetized dog is injected with a solution to kill unborn pups. The dog is fine, but we grieve the loss of life. Still, the streets are so dense with animals who fight starvation, mange, TVT and other diseases, the decision is understandable. Later, in Caleta Tumbes, we repeat our vet clinic set-up. We also visit evacuee camps, heavily policed by military units, where displaced residents live with their animals. Innumerable dogs roam the tent camps, yet animal food and supplies are scarce.
LocationConcepcion, Tumbes
Field LogJune Towler, PIO May 1-3 2010
Kinship Circle team members Peter Crowe, Dr. Madi Graham, June Towler and Tracie Dawson arrive in Concepcion at 8:00 am. Team members Ron Presley and Dr. Dan Meakin fly in by 12:30 pm. Later that afternoon, the team assembles to travel to Tumbes for an day-long emergency veterinary clinic. At the volunteer house, SACH veterinarian Laura holds a dying puppy, one of four rescued pups who live at the house. One passed away the previous night and now this little guy has seizures. They euthanize him within the first 15 minutes we are there. Chilean vets suspect the puppies have Parvo. A German Shepherd, Lykia, recuperates from what resembles bullet wounds on her back left hindquarter. However, x-rays and bloodwork later show Lykia has a tumor. At university clinic, Kinship Circle's Dr. Dan Meakin removes the tumor and sews Lykia up. She is also undernourished, with dislocated ribs. We've been unable to raise funds necessary to erect a temporary tent clinic/shelter, so the worst-case animals join vets and volunteers at our base house. One of two kittens recovering here undergoes leg x-rays that reveal two breaks. Dr. Dan and SACH vet Rodrigues later insert a metal pin into her bone. But supplies are scarce, so they creatively build a pin from a hypodermic needle. While the makeshift pin works quite well, the shortage of vet supplies and equipment in Chile can be daunting. PLEASE DONATE for critical supplies, veterinary aid and mobility on the ground! Your generous heart lets us reach more forgotten animals and save lives. Later that afternoon we depart for Tumbes, where two veterinarians hold a spay/neuter clinic. Surgeries are performed in an unoccupied house damaged in the quake. Sheets hang as room dividers between surgical and recovery areas. Local volunteers handle administrative tasks and two vets perform spays.
LocationTubul, Chile
Field LogCheri Deatsch, PIO Apr 26 2010
TWO AND A HALF POUND MIRACLEThe floppy-eared puppy was born just days before an 8.8 earthquake and tsunami swept over Chile's coastal towns. We don't know how he escaped a tsunami swell that left 6-foot water lines. We don't know where he hid as structures collapsed into rubble. We do know the puppy dubbed Francisco de Tubul, found in the village of Tubul, did it alone. Perhaps his mother and littermates died in the disaster? Somehow, a crippled and starving puppy stayed alive. While searching for the town's tent camp, we spot a female dog and her pup scavenging garbage. We stop to feed them and eye another puppy in a distant field. We wonder why this pup does not want our food. We learn why as soon as we reach him. This dog has terribly deformed legs. His eyes are dull and fearful. He tries to hobble away, but is overcome by hunger. He lies on his belly to eat. His can't bear weight on his front legs. The pup's paws splay out at 90-degree angles. He limps on his inside lower legs while his paws flip out uselessly. We immediately decide to take him back to Concepcion. He'll surely die if left on his own. In addition to malformed legs, the pup's worm-filled belly is severely distended. His hair and skin are scrappy with mange. Children watch the rescue. One of our vets asks them to name the pup. They pick “Francisco.” We add “de Tubul” to recall his birthplace and rescue.
TUBUL'S SECOND CHANCEExams bring good news for two rescues. At the University of Concepcion, a veterinary ophthalmology specialist examines the little dog Pirate's eye wound. The vet believes antibiotics can heal his him. Francisco de Tubul travels with us to the University of San Sebastian, where most SACH vets are alumni. His twisted limbs are x-rayed and several teaching vets and students stop by to view his deformity and x-rays. The primary veterinarian even takes photos to document Tubul's case. X-rays reveal that the bent-in limbs, which force Tubul to walk upon his knuckles, are due to malnutrition. Please donate to Tubul's recovery! Your kind heart gives this puppy and more forgotten animals another chance at life. Tubul, born of the quake-tsunami, may heal with leg splints and good nutrition. He needs ongoing vet care until healed enough for adoption.
Disaster aid for animals + action for all hurt by greed, cruelty, hate.
KINSHIP CIRCLE2000
info@kinshipcircle.org314-795-2646
7380 KINGSBURY BLVD
ST. LOUIS MO 63130
NONPROFIT CHARITY
IRS SECTION 501C3
TAX-DEDUCT ID20-5869532
KinshipCircle.org
PRIVACY POLICY
SITE DESIGN: BRENDA SHOSS
