Animal Action Greece (GAWF)

A permanent vet surgery for Paxos Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) on Paxos.

 

By Lindsay Geddes

Whilst holidaying in Paxos in 2005, I was saddened to see so many stray cats and no veterinary services on the island to take care of the situation. To my surprise, the mayor agreed to my ideas to help improve animal welfare and PAWS was created.

Lindsay and PAWS volunteers with the Mayor of Paxos

In the beginning our main concern was to offer regular veterinary services together with a sterilisation programme. Starting from scratch, we took advice from UK vets about what basic drugs and equipment to buy. We compiled a much longer list than anticipated and shipped out boxes of supplies by courier or carried excess baggage whenever we travelled.

 

We advertised on the WVS website for vets and nurses and fortunately received a very positive response. Many of our volunteers have made return visits and two of our current vet teams have been volunteering for PAWS for 5 years.

During a recent neutering trip with GAWF/Animal Action

Although we have the use of a garden flat in Gaios which we set up as a temporary surgery, PAWS has been striving to obtain a suitable building that we can convert to a permanent clinic. We were therefore delighted in 2012 when the mayor and municipality agreed to give us a building in Magazia as permanent premises. During the winter of 2012/13, these premises have been cleared and renovation work started.

Residents of Paxos have come together to work on this project and the imagination and innovation of some of the volunteers has been amazing. To find a rusty old BBQ and convert this into a surgery trolley beggared belief but the pictures don't lie!

Above: the rusty BBQ before
Below: transformed into a surgery trolley

Once the work has been completed in the next month, new anaesthetic equipment and surgical supplies will be ordered so that PAWS can expand its services to operate safely on dogs. This will be a great step forward for animal welfare on Paxos as currently travelling to Corfu by boat to seek veterinary care is far from ideal.

 As part of our fund raising activities, Lucy Davis (whose parents live on Paxos), Lindsay (the director of PAWS) and Graham (a PAWS volunteer) are taking part in Action Challenge events at the end of May and June respectively. We hope to raise as much money as possible so as to be able to satisfactorily fund the new surgery. Donations can be made via Just Giving.

For more information and photos on all of the above please see our website at www.pawspaxos.com 

 

And of course please come and visit us when on holiday in Paxos!

 

PAWS is one of the animal welfare societies in Greece supported by GAWF/Animal Action Greece.