Community Vet Programmes
Spay Clinics
Spay Day clinics offer surgeries free of charge to owners of pets who are not able to afford veterinary care. Spay and neuter operations drastically reduce the number of unwanted puppies and kittens and improve the quality of life of the animal. LSPCA carries out spay and neuter clinics twice a week in Lilongwe and revisit the same communities until the demand for sterilisation is met, before moving on to the next area. All the animals sterilized are vaccinated against rabies, dewormed and issued a vaccination certificate. Our vet team also provide basic first aid treatment to all animals present at the clinic.
Our services are free to communities living in high-density areas where animals are not enclosed and are free to roam which increases the risk of multiple pregnancies and transmissible diseases.
Veterinary students and animal care volunteers regularly help out at our mobile Spay Day Clinics, assisting the veterinary nurses with pre-and post-operative care. This project is a great way to build your professional skills whilst improving the welfare of animals in less privileged communities. Moreover, it is a fantastic opportunity to deliver animal welfare messaging, especially to children about the importance of sterilizing their pets. We know that our efforts encourage children to take a more active role in animal welfare and help them understand the sentience of animals.
Stray Dog Population Control
Similar to Spay Clinics, our objective is to maintain a healthy dog population in our urban areas and prevent unwanted litter. Our stray dog population control programme responds to demands by the public when a pack of dogs becomes a nuisance. In Lilongwe we do not have a significant number of stray dogs, rather dogs are allowed to roam by irresponsible pet owners.
We are the referral organisation for the Lilongwe City Council to assist in dog population management and following the Government’s forward thinking policy to end the previous policy of shooting stray animals.
The rationale behind dog population control: If LSPCA or the Government culled dogs instead of sterilizing, those dogs which are not culled will continue to breed at a very high rate; one unsterilized female can produce 30 to 45 puppies in a year. These puppies will then breed and move to surrounding neighbourhoods where there is often a large source of food waste. Furthermore, in terms of the spread of rabies, if a vaccinated dog population was controlled by culling but a food source was still available, non-vaccinated dogs would start to occupy this territory and thus rabies would begin to spread to neighbouring vacant territories which pose an increased risk of rabies being transmitted to humans through bites from unvaccinated dogs. So if we sterilize, vaccinate and release dogs, we slowly decrease the stray dog population, rather than opting for a quick fix to reduce the stray dog population which is not effective in long-term dog population control and can increase the spread of rabies.
Donkey CLinics
Donkeys are often neglected animals in this part of the world. Fortunately, Malawi’s donkeys are not neglected, together with the Donkey Sanctuary UK, we have the opportunity to bring change to the donkey’s lives.
In Malawi, donkeys support many households by providing a regular source of income to families who own donkeys. Until this project started, no farmers in Malawi were using the carts and harnesses specifically designed for donkeys to ensure good welfare. We have been seeing positive changes- fewer wounds, correct cart, and harness use, better hoof care, and recognition of donkeys as sentient beings ( so they feel pain like we do).
The 12 lead farmer donkey owners (representing 36 villages) and the LSPCAs project coordinator visit and monitor over 2500 donkeys around Lilongwe and Dedza and deliver veterinary treatment at monthly intervals to 100s more. The improved welfare of donkeys is attributed to their owners. The owners have all been trained to use a diagram called a ‘hand tool’ (because it is designed to look like a hand to help everyone remember the main welfare issues) to assess and monitor the health and well-being of their donkeys. Our donkey clinics put the donkey at the forefront for veterinary care, one donkey at a time and up to 350 donkeys visiting a clinic on a single day.
Farm Clinics
LSPCA delivers qualified veterinary care to farm animals alongside the government’s Department for Animal Health and Livestock Development.
We support rural communities to improve the welfare of their farm animals, boosting health and production to secure income and better livelihoods and food security for small-holder farmers.
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Every farm clinic opens our eyes to the glaring need for veterinary care as we often treat up to 350 animals (donkeys, cows, goats, pigs, chickens, rabbits ducks, sheep, cattle, and guinea pigs) at one clinic. Our farm clinics, in the heart of local villages, treat as many livestock as possible; without our effort, the majority of these animals would easily live their entire life without receiving proper veterinary attention. Our education team on-site delivers animal welfare messages to livestock owners and is slowly building a 'fee for service' understanding to promote responsible livestock ownership.