Before Sweet Pea Animal Hospital was built in Forster, Rob and Sam undertook a range of animal welfare projects across the globe. Sweet Pea strives to offer ongoing sponsorship opportunities for these projects into the future.
Free the Bears - 2009
Cambodia
Free the Bears now has wildlife sanctuaries in Cambodia, Laos, & Vietnam, and also runs a fully equipped wildlife hospital at its Cambodia sanctuary.
Sam travelled to Cambodia in 2009 specifically to spend 5 weeks volunteering with Free the Bears at their Phnom Tmao bear sanctuary, where Asiatic Black Bears (Moon Bears) & Sun Bears rescued from bile farms and wildlife trade are housed & cared for.
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In 1993 Perth grandmother Mary Hutton saw a television program that would change her life. The segment contained horrifying footage of moon bears (Asiatic Black bears) held in coffin sized cages unable to move, with dirty catheters inserted directly into their gall bladder to 'milk' their bile.
Mary learned that thousands of bears were being held in these horrifying conditions throughout Asia, regularly milked for their bile to be used in traditional medicines.
The next day, Mary drew up a petition and stood at the entrance of the local shopping mall collecting signatures to help “Free the Bears”. She collected thousands of signatures and a group of like-minded people determined to help bears and in 1995 registered Free the Bears Fund as a not-for-profit charity.
This volunteer work was very much hands-on with their day to day needs – feeding, watering and cleaning. The days started with food prep, food is then scattered and hidden around the outdoor enclosures prior to the bears being let out of their dens. While the bears are out having breakfast & browsing, the dens are cleaned and hosed out. After lunch, it all happens again. Food is placed inside the dens for the bears and they are let back inside. And then the outdoor enclosures are cleaned and prepared for the following day.
Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA) is a non-profit organisation based in Bali, Indonesia. BAWA works to save, protect and improve the lives of all animals in Bali and beyond. Sam travelled to Bali in 2010 and spent time at BAWA in Ubud volunteering with the shelter animals.
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BAWA directly relieves the suffering of animals by providing emergency response and rescue, food and medication, rehabilitation and adoption. BAWA practices humane population control, disease control and runs intensive education and advocacy programs for sustainable improvement to animal welfare now and into the future.
BAWA will respond to alerts of any animal in distress – from snakes to dolphins. A key focus is Bali’s Heritage Dog – the island’s genetically unique street dog that is under threat. BAWA is funded entirely by donations and relies heavily on a staff of dedicated volunteers.
Sam travelled to Bali in 2010 and spent time at BAWA in Ubud volunteering with the shelter animals. This included assisting the vets with surgical procedures, providing medical treatment and wound management, feeding and medicating, walking some of the shelter dogs, and general smooching and cuddling time.
This was a bit of a reconnaissance trip, with the plan to return with Rob and fellow Vet Nurse, Anne Ditton, the following month to assist in a Rabies Vaccination program. Unfortunately, the Balinese Government decided at the last minute that they didn’t want any outside assistance for the program. This may have related to concern about the impact on tourism created by the huge increase in rabies cases.
KWPLH – 2010
Borneo
Rob & Sam travelled to Balikpapan in 2010 to volunteer their time at the KWSAP Malaysian Sun Bear Sanctuary. The Sun Bears at this sanctuary are so healthy and happy that there was little to be done for them, so Rob & Sam set about looking after the 112 rescued cats and handful of dogs also kept at the sanctuary.
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This work included multiple many routine desexings and dentals on the cats, as well as a couple of more unusual procedures such as entropion eye surgery. The manager here also organised a couple of days where Rob and Sam went out into the community and spent long days at private homes desexing dozens of cats from the local communities. On one of these days Rob and Sam desexed 55 cats in total!
The Kawasan Wisata Pendidikan Lingkungan Hidup (KWPLH) which translates to Environmental Education and Recreation facility, is a 10 hectare environmental education facility located 23 km north of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.
Environmental education is the primary mission of KWPLH. The Environmental Education centre will provide critically needed educational programs about the loss of sun bear habitat due to unsustainable forestry practices, illegal logging and forest fires.
The poaching of bears for trade in their parts and as pets will be highlighted. Methods for farmers to protect their crops from sun bears will also be on display (such as metal sheeting to protect coconut trees).
They also run a Domestic Animal Program which aims to:
- Educate visitors about caring for pets (currently cats and dogs);
- Promote the sterilization of companion animals;
- Educate about and illustrate the differences between domestic species and wild animals and thus discourage the keeping of wildlife as pets.
For further information, please visit their website: beruangmadu.org
Animals Asia – 2011
China
Sam travelled to the Animals Asia Chengdu Bear Sanctuary in 2011 and spent 3 months volunteering as a Veterinary Nurse in their hospital. The veterinary team there, carry out regular health checks and dentals on the bears in the sanctuary.
Rob also travelled to the sanctuary during the time that Sam was there and spent 3 weeks as an honorary vet, assisting wherever he was needed.
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A health check for a bear entails a general anaesthetic, blood tests, ultrasound, full set of x-rays, nail clip, and samples for their research work.
Often these bears suffer from mobility issues relating to being kept in tiny cages for so many years, and also from abdominal tumours caused by permanent catheters placed in their gall bladders to collect bile. The dentals are done regularly as poor dental health is another result of their captive lives, gnawing at the bars of their cage through boredom and frustration.
Animals Asia promotes compassion and respect for all animals and work to bring about long-term change. Founded in 1998, the Animals Asia team has been rescuing moon bears since 1994 and is the only organisation with a bear sanctuary in China.
Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson MBE, is widely recognised as the world’s leading expert on the cruel bear bile industry, having campaigned against it since 1993.
Animals Asia has rescued over 400 bears and works to end the barbaric bear bile trade, which sees over 10,000 bears – mainly moon bears but also sun bears and brown bears – kept on bile farms in China, and around 2,400 in Vietnam.
Animals Asia also works to end the trade in dogs and cats for food in China, and lobbies to improve the welfare of companion animals and promote humane population management. They also campaign for an end to abusive animal practices in zoos and safari parks in China, and works closely with governing authorities to improve animal management and increase awareness of the welfare needs of captive animals.
For more information visit their website: animalsasia.org
Rob and Sam travelled together to Brasov in 2012. The trip was originally planned to coincide with the rescue of 12 European Brown Bears kept in captivity for tourism and entertainment purposes. There was a delay in the completion of the new enclosures for these bears and so the rescue was postponed; instead, Rob and Sam ended up working at a massive dog shelter also run by Millions of Friends.
Here they were involved in many different surgical procedures including orthopaedic and routine desexing for dozens and dozens of dogs and puppies. This shelter rescues dogs from the streets of Romania and then transport them to England and Germany where they are rehoused. There were approximately 600 dogs at the shelter at this time but there have been up to 1000 dogs there at any one time.
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Asociatia Milioane de Prieteni translates to Millions of Friends. AMP was founded in 1997 by Cristina and Roger Lapis. There were so many stray dogs in the streets of Brasov, many of them ill and hungry, injured by cars. Cristina wanted to help them and began building a shelter… that was the beginning of the Dog Shelter Triage. These dogs are rescued, desexed, vaccinated, wormed and then rehomed in the UK and Germany.
In 1998 AMP began investigating tourists’ complaints about bears kept in horrible conditions in cages outside restaurants and petrol stations all over Romania. This eventually led to a collaboration in 2005 with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) to construct the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in Zarnesti.
Today, AMP runs the Dog Shelter Triage and Libearty Bear Sanctuary. In addition, the association also works to protect all animals in Romania through local projects, campaigns and education programmes.
Please explore their website, meet their animal friends, and come and visit them in Brasov!
AMRRIC – 2013
Pilbara, Australia
Sam travelled to the Pilbara with AMRRIC in 2013 and spent 3 weeks travelling to two different remote communities – Cotton Creek and Jigalong – assisting in their annual desexing program.
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AMRRIC – Animal Management in Rural and Remote Indigenous Communities.
AMRRIC have been going into remote communities for over a decade working to reduce the number of puppies and kittens born. Long distances are travelled to get to these communities and then two or three intense days of desexing happens.
On this trip there were 4 vets and 2 nurses and a big line-up of doggies waiting to be desexed. In one of the communities, a large breed female dog and her 10 pups were all desexed on the same day!
In remote Indigenous communities healthy dogs play an important role in the health of communities. AMRRIC (Animal Management in Rural and Remote Indigenous Communities) is a national not-for-profit charity led by veterinarians, academics, health and animal management professionals.
They work to improve the health and welfare of companion animals in remote Indigenous communities, to improve the health and welfare of whole communities.
For further information on the work that they do, visit their website: amrric.org
Koh Chang Animal Project - 2015
Thailand
The Koh Chang Animal Project is a non-profit animal health clinic that was established by Lisa McAlonie in 2002. It is located on the island of Koh Chang in Thailand, near the Cambodian border. Rob travelled to Koh Chang in 2015 for two weeks and spent time at the health clinic treating patients.
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The main focus of the project is to educate the local people how to provide their animals with good general health care and offer the services necessary to do so.
The services provided at the project include: General health care, initial vaccinations, yearly booster vaccinations, sterilization (for population control), parasite control, wound management, emergency services (most common are hit by car and poisonings), and hospitalization/critical care.
Sam's is a not for profit charity that works with the community in Vanuatu to provide animal welfare services and education programs on humane treatment of all animals in Vanuatu. Sam travelled to Vanuatu in 2015 for a bit of R & R, but just couldn’t help herself!! She spent some time helping out with one of the local desexing programs, where members of the community can bring their dogs along on the day and have them desexed. Not quite as sterile as a hospital procedure, but apparently the pergola worked just fine!
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Sam's aims to provide desexing to pets of families in the community that would not otherwise afford the procedure, and to educate the community on how to look after and manage animals humanely.
Sam's is a not for profit charity registered under the Vanuatu charitable associations act and member society of the World Society for the Protection of Animals.
Sam's Animal Welfare Association was developed from humble beginnings after a very generous donation from a widow in memory of their shared love of animals. Sam was their most beloved dog and the namesake for this charity.
The slow loris in Indonesia is in serious danger of extinction and the greatest threat to its survival is the illegal trade in wildlife. Its huge brown eyes and soft fur make this small nocturnal primate highly prized as a pet and the victim of an online craze created by videos on YouTube. Sam and Rob travelled to a facility in Ciapus, Java, to provide specialist treatment and care for slow lorises confiscated from the markets or surrendered by their owners.
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Thousands of slow lorises are poached from the wild and illegally sold on the street or in animal markets.
The lorises’ teeth are clipped off by the traders to make them easy to handle, resulting in the death of many of them from blood loss or infection before they are sold. International Animal Rescue runs the only slow loris rescue and rehabilitation centre in Indonesia.
The goal is to return as many slow lorises to the wild as possible. However, many of them have had their teeth cut out and may no longer be able to fend for themselves. Veterinary dental specialists are helping to determine whether these teeth can be repaired or replaced. The centre provides a permanent home for lorises that can never be released.
Working closely with universities and scientists, they are also carrying out research into successful rehabilitation and reintroduction programmes for slow lorises. A number of lorises with their teeth intact have been released wearing radio collars and are being closely monitored by the team.
The centre also works closely with local authorities and the police to catch wildlife traffickers and dealers and bring them to court. Education of local communities and better law enforcement are vital if this endangered primate is to stand a chance of survival. For further information, please visit their website: internationalanimalrescue.org
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