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| Christopher Garg, VMD |
| RAVS's Dr. Scarlett teaching surgery technique in Armenia. |
By Eric Davis, DVM
There's a standing joke among RAVS staffers that we could send Dr. Scarlett to Mars and she would successfully assess animal welfare problems, reach out to the locals and set up a successful program to solve the situation.
Scarlett's traveled to the far corners of Earth with RAVS: Guatemala, Bolivia, Romania, Palau, Guam, Yap, and most recently, Yerevan, Armenia. As a RAVS staff veterinarian, Scarlett divides her time between RAVS, the San Francisco SPCA, and her surfboard. Hurri, her Catahoula dog, is always available to help.
Scarlett rescued Hurri from Hattiesburg, Miss., while working in the HSUS field clinic during the Katrina response. Hurri accompanies Scarlett to the veterinary clinic at the San Francisco SPCA and on RAVS trips to the Indian reservations of the West. But on Scarlett’s most recent mission, Hurri stayed home.
A Mission to Save Lives
The project in Armenia was the result of years of planning by Companion Animal Network (CAN) and RAVS to help improve surgical sterilization of dogs in Yerevan. A former Soviet state, Armenia is wedged between Turkey, Iran, and the Caucasus mountains.
It is an impoverished part of the world. Animal protection is not a priority in the capital of Yerevan, where each year the city shoots thousands of dogs to control the stray dog population.
Through pressure from CAN and a local humane group, Save the Animals, the mayor of Yerevan agreed to try a sterilization program. RAVS was asked to help teach surgical sterilization techniques and identify veterinarians who would be able to provide services at the Save the Animals shelter.
Despite years of experience in the field, Scarlett, another RAVS veterinarian, and a registered veterinary technician found Yerevan a challenge.
The only anesthetic available at the Save the Animals clinic was xylazine—a drug that will sedate dogs and cats for short periods but would never be regarded as adequate anesthesia in the United States or even Central America. The RAVS team was able to secure other anesthetics, but only through a physician.
It would be difficult—if not impossible—for Armenian veterinarians to secure a consistent supply in this way. When asked about inhalant anesthesia, Scarlett learned that the Armenians used chloroform or ether, both antique anesthetics considered obsolete in most of the world. Surgical techniques were not much more modern. Veterinarians in Yerevan, RAVS staffers learned, castrate adult dogs without suturing the skin closed, which results in swelling and post-surgical pain (unacceptable by our standards).
Modernizing Medicine for Animals
Clearly, the first task was to improve the level of surgical skill and modernize the anesthetic protocols, so the RAVS team hosted teaching clinics at the Yerevan shelter.
Local veterinarians and students eagerly came to learn the improved techniques. During the clinic, the RAVS team gave seminars on anesthesia and analgesia—stressing the need for analgesia during surgery—as well as basic anesthetic monitoring.
Scarlett and the team also set up teaching stations to practice surgical knots—essential skills that the veterinarians and fourth-year veterinary students were lacking. Soon the veterinarian who had contracted to perform surgery at the shelter was using a standard technique for castrations. The skills of the students and veterinarians began to improve, but there was still a long way to go.
Initiating Community-Wide Change
During the clinic, Scarlett met with Yerevan's mayor—who is under pressure from residents to decrease the number of stray dogs in the city—to discuss the program and dog overpopulation crisis. Given the harsh weather and living conditions, the relative indifference toward the fate of dogs, and the current state of veterinary medicine, Scarlett knew that carrying out the program in a humane fashion was going to be difficult.
However, the mayor expressed his support for continuing the program and employing non-lethal techniques for stray dog control.
While Scarlett and the RAVS team did not solve Armenia’s stray dog or veterinary problems in the two weeks spanning the clinic, they were able to successfully train three Armenian veterinarians and introduce another 15 to improved techniques. They also gave the dispirited Save the Animals volunteers hope that things could be improved.
It was a good start.
Eric Davis is RAVS director.
RAVS is a program of The Fund for Animals and The Humane Society of the United States.
