Neutering trips and students..

In 2004 we arrived at our current policy of not providing placements for newly qualified vets from the UK. Despite this we are frequently emailed by British students and new graduates wanting to join a neutering trip to gain experience.

First and foremost we are an animal welfare charity and the needs of the animals come first. Routinely having new graduates along when we have enough experienced vets volunteering seems counter intuitive to say the least. Many graduates email us wanting to "gain experience" and "further their skills". These are laudable aims but they can be easily and safely accomplished at home. We look for volunteers who are interested in making a difference to local animal welfare.

Feral cats are not the best animals to gain spay practice on. Yes, there is no owner to sue you, but again, we are an animal welafre charity where the animal comes first, not the vet or the owner. These cats are routinely returned to site the next day after surgery after which they will get limited or no monitoring. They frequently take fright after trapping and may hide for the first few days after surgery. Even if they are seen, catching them to deal with a complication is not possible a lot of the time.

We also work in shelters but again have concluded that these animals may also not be appropriate for this kind of work, because of the sheer number animals often being looked after by a few people.

The other problem with spay practice on ferals is that as a new graduate you may be lulled into a false sense of security thinking all your ops have gone fine when in fact a number of the animals have had complications or even died, it's just that you don't find out.

Also, neutering projects frequently take place in temporary facilitiies where there is no gaseous anaesthesia (and so time is of the essence) or where there may be poor lighting. Speed is often also important because there are so many animals to do, with the visit being the only opportunity to neuter entire colonies or even districts. In these situations, an experienced and fast veterinary team is essential to actually make a difference to the local animal population. As well as this, these sorts of projects also throw up all manner of complictions meaning that few spays end up routine. Pregnancies, cryptorchidism, the has-it-already-been-spayed scenario, the apparently Alpha 2 resistant cats, haemmorrhage (particularly in areas where this is parasite related) and pyometra are common.

That being said we are a group whose second objective is professional education. We do offer training placements but these are to local vets in the area we are working with, especially those who are working in municipal, academic or charity fields. More often than not these vets already have clinical or surgical experience and are learning new techniques with us. We use these projects to help build local experience of feral animal handling, minimal invasive techniques, early neutering etc. There is a real need for this kind of work and we are happy to provide this. Other groups are content to fly students and new graduate vets abroad to gain experience on foreign strays (often as a revenue generator for the group and to the exclusionof locals). We don't believe that this does anything to enhance animal welfare, build local relations or develop local skills.

We're sorry to disappoint but we feel it is better to be honest about this area, if in your later career you have developed an animal welfare ethic that makes you want to volunteer, please do get in touch.