Spey/Neuter in India

As I write this I am sitting in an airport; I’m sleep deprived and craving the creature comforts of home that I’ve been missing… namely a warm shower – something I haven’t had in over a month. This is because I’ve been In Tamil Nadu, India, developing my surgery skills as a part of animal birth control (ABC) charity work on behalf of the Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS). For people who are involved in ABC work already through any number of organisations (Vets Beyond Borders and AMRRIC to name a couple) what I am about to share will likely be very familiar. This is what a spey/neuter project in India is like:

My Story

I recently had to fill out a scholarship application which asked the question: “What’s your story and what are your plans with your degree?” What I wrote surprised me, not only because I managed to sum it up in less than 500 words, but also because it drew my focus back to what I’m actually at University to do. All too often we get caught up in the here-and-now and we lose track of what we are aiming to achieve. The exercise in remembering how I got here and also where I’m (maybe) going was really rewarding, and I’d encourage everybody to take some time to think about your answer to this question,

“What’s your story, and what are your plans for your life?”

My answer’s below the cut.

This is a part of what the future definitely holds for me – lots more dog population control. – At WVS India

Why I Eat Meat

The question of why I eat meat is one I am asked a LOT by my vegetarian and vegan friends. “If you love animals so much, why do you eat them?” is normally how it is phrased.

Firstly. I think that the term ‘I love animals’ can be taken literally, I like animals a lot, but in my case I can’t describe that as ‘love’. My definition of love is that you value [them/it] more highly than yourself. Sure, if I had to rank myself against certain species of animals (Red Pandas anybody??) I’d probably lose out. But against individual animals? No way. If I had the choice between giving life-saving medicine to a child or to a kitten I would give it to the child without a second thought, and I sincerely hope that if you are reading this you can empathise with that position.

That answers the ‘if you love animals so much’ part, now on to the ‘why do I eat them’ part: