About Us

Animals Worldwide was born of a neutering project run for three years in Cyprus from 1999 by teams of young vets from Liverpool Veterinary School. Their aim was to neuter the feral cat population that inhabits the island's hotels and put an end to the horrific sight of unwanted, starving and sick cats and kittens dying in the sun.

The project had the support for the Minister of Agriculture; hundreds of animals were successfully neutered and some were re-homed, and the young vets had excellent "hands-on" experience. However, with opposition from some Cypriot veterinary surgeons, the team had to withdraw. The progress made was lost and now the situation is as bad.

Drawing on the team's experience in Cyprus, Suzy Gale has since created a network of some three hundred organisations and individual animal welfare workers worldwide, and discovered that there are many small animal shelters operating on pitifully modest funds throughout the tourist resorts and expatriate communities around the Mediterranean, Commonwealth and beyond. Whilst the larger and internationally recognised animal welfare organisations are doing sterling work, they are not well-placed to give hands-on support to these smaller projects. There is, therefore, a gap in the provision of care for, particularly, feral and stray cats and dogs and unwanted and discarded equines. It costs a great deal of money to send out teams of veterinary surgeons to run catch/ neuter/ return projects - and it is not always certain that the local authorites will give permission. Animals Worldwide accepts that only through sustained education programmes, preferrably attached to animal welfare clinics and shelters, will a long term change in attitudes to the treatment and management of animals be achieved.


Education


Animals Worldwide proposes programmes for school children through the provision of teachings aids and, where possible, volunteer staff. We believe that an ongoing educational programme is essential in the hope that future generations will view animals with respect requiring care and attention.

SPANA already runs an excellent education programme through its’ clinics visited by hundreds of schoolchildren annually. Animals Worldwide would like to help to expand this programme throughout clinics and shelters run by other organisations and groups and to work to impress upon future generations throughout the developed and the developing world the essential role of working animals and the part they play in the welfare of the family..

Animals Worldwide also recognises the value – and the sad scarcity – of scholarship programmes that enable young veterinary graduates from developing countries to spend time (usually a year) in French, British and other university veterinary schools. There is no doubt that the skills, enthusiasms and cultural attitudes thus exchanged can play a major part in the short and longer term endeavour to improve working animal welfare and husbandry.

Animals Worldwide will therefore seek to promote such scholarships and to help to raise funds to provide for them. Through its own dedicated website Animals Worldwide will offer help, exchange advice and ideas, and will provide links to all of the existing major animal welfare websites.


Tourism

Animals Worldwide seeks to build relationships with travel companies and to harness the eyes, ears and energies of the travelling public to identify both good and bad practice. AWW believes that it is in the interest of both the industry and of animal welfare that we recognise and seek to exploit this opportunity to make real progress. With the co-operation of the tourist industry, Animals Worldwide would like, when appropriate, to offer welfare-friendly gradings for resorts and hotels.


Projects

AWW seeks to promote and support project-specific schemes. Through the AWW website, approved and verified projects will be given space to explain the nature of the proposals and to appeal for direct funding and support. We hope, by this means, to by-pass even our own minimal bureaucracy and to put prospective supporters in direct contact with those large or small organisations seeking assistance.

Animals Worldwide will seek to develop prototypes and best practice for the establishment of neutering projects and shelters, will look to the provision of field-service portacabin-style veterinary and support stations, and will assist in the provision of mobile veterinary surgeries, education, scholarships, veterinary placements and crisis intervention.


Registered Charity Number 1121753

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