By LEDEDRA MARCHE

Senior FN Reporter

lededra@nasguard.com

After numerous attempts to take the spay and neuter program to the eastern end of the island, the Humane Society of Grand Bahama (HSGB) was finally able to set up shop on Sunday and begin surgeries Monday morning.

The goal, Executive Director Elizabeth Burrows says, is to sterilize at least 200 cats and dogs this week.

The volunteer program was initiated back in January of 2007 when 253 cats and dogs were sterilized during the first spay and neuter clinic with the help of Veterinary technicians from New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Wisconsin.

U.S. volunteer assistants from Royal Palm Beach, Jacksonville, New York, and California were also on-hand to help local veterinarians and HSGB organizers exceeded their expectations.

Burrows said there was a great need to go to East End as the shelter has received a fair amount of calls from residents there with complaints about the stray dogs problem or the fact that there are too many puppies or nuisance animals.

"As you know, eliminating the animals isn't going to really solve the problem because people still have pets and they are procreating too much and that's why they have the problem," she said.

"We are going to spay and neuter as many as we can and for those who cannot get to a vet. We will also be doing vaccinations and de-wormings so that the animals we deal with will be healthier, which will be good for public health."

The clinic is being set up at St. Nicholas Anglican Church Parish Hall in High Rock

"The clinic space we are using is smaller so we have fewer vets and techs than we normally do, so of course that will affect how many we can do," she pointed out.

"We'll be happy if we can do at least 200, but we're hoping for more. We'll be stationed here all week, so anyone can come down and bring their pets. We'll also be picking them up. We're going to have two vans picking up animals from out here all week."

Burrows also plans to identify a boat driver who will bring the dogs and cats in from neighbouring Sweeting's Cay.

As in the past, the clinic is being provided free of charge. The East End clinic is being funded through a private donor in the United states who wished to remain anonymous.

"We were really lucky because we were having a hard time finding funding for it," she acknowledged.

Burrows revealed that before now attempts to have the program go to East Grand Bahama much sooner via the Local Government and the representative for the area proved unsuccessful and it was necessary to get the job done as it was long overdue.

"We need to do more of this for the whole island and we need to do it quicker because we can't get to all of these animals in one week anywhere on the island. So when you consider that a female dog could have two litters a year and cats could have more than that and we possibly have upwards of 8,000 to 10,000 animals that need to be sterilized, we've got to do it faster," she said.

Four veterinarians and three licenced vet technicians from New York, Massachusetts and Florida to assist the staff from the HSGB society which also includes drivers and technicians.

The spay and neuter program is intended on curbing the problem of overpopulation of stray dogs in the community.

The last clinic was carried out last January where another group of volunteer veterinarians took part in a week-long spay and neuter clinic in central Grand Bahama.