As part of my involvement with the Amazon CARES
organisation, I was invited to go along on a boat trip to visit a jungle
village 4 hours up river from Iquitos.
The intention was to set up a mobile vetinary clinic and hopefully treat and
help some of the dogs who live there. Volunteer
vets Bridget and Russell from Australia
came along, as did the resident vets and assistants from Amazon CARES, and of
course the director of Amazon Cares, Molly.
We set off on Friday morning with a fully laden boat,
mainly food judging by the number of meals we were served over the two
days! The trip itself was brilliant, I spent most of it swinging in a hammock on the deck looking out at the never-ending jungle on each side of massive brown river and waving at the locals out fishing in their canoes. About four hours later we arrived
at Tamishiyacu and went onshore to check the place out. It was much bigger than I was
expecting, not really a remote jungle village but more of a small town. The town
square was quaint and quite deserted at that time, so we set off to look for residents (and
potential patients) with a bundle of flyers announcing the clinic which would
be held the next day. We found the perfect location right in the square in a
large structure which was open at the front and the back but had good natural
light, plenty of seats for the inevitable audience and a large roof.
Having handed out the leaflets and mentally noted a
few of the stray dogs hanging around, a few of us set off for a walk into the
rainforest before dinner. We met some locals on the way who donated some of the
fruits they had picked, saw some interesting insects and apparently a snake,
though fortunately I was at the back of the line and the snake had been moved
on by the time I crossed the path. Phew.
After a good dinner on the boat, we headed back into
town for the Friday night bingo. Little did we know that this was an affair for the whole
town, and the entire square was full with people hopefully clutching their
bingo cards and listening for their numbers to be broadcast over the loudspeakers.
Several lucky residents won a variety of prizes, including an electric blender
and a large plastic water butt! This was obviously an event for the whole
family and there were cute kids everywhere, some playing along with the bingo,
some chasing each other in and out of the crowds, and for others the excitement
was just too much and they took the opportunity for a quick sleep.
As soon as the bingo came to an end, the lightning
which had been lighting up the sky all night finally brought rain and the
locals scattered. Luckily the huge rainstorm that I had predicted didn´t
happen, and so we stopped on the way back to the boat for a few drinks and some
salsa dancing at a local bar. The bar had been completely quiet and empty until we arrived, but the owner soon had all the neon lights on and started playing the ever popular ´reggaeton´ music very loudly. I´m sure the neighbours loved it too.
Early next morning, after another big breakfast, we
carried the equipment onshore and began to set up the clinic. Two operating tables
were strategically placed for the best natural light, 5 big dog cages were
set up and all the necessary equipment, surgery apparatus and sterile kits were organised. Right from the start there were dogs aplenty, with one kindly old
man bringing in a German Shepherd and a cat for neutering, a lady brought in two very young
kittens in a plastic shopping basket, and about 5 children turned up with the
same number of very cute puppies for vaccinations. Whilst Esther managed the
vaccinations and treatment clinic, Russell and Bridget set about their first
neutering patients… and the clinic had begun.
In the meantime, Harry and some helpers went out to
scout for stray dogs needing treatment. Pretty soon the cages were full. One
terribly sad sight was a small dog who was suffering from a severe case of
mange; every part of his pitifully thin body was covered in open weeping sores,
his claws were so overgrown that he couldn´t stand, and his body was so wrecked
that he couldn´t lie down without crying out in pain. I decided to stick by him
and keep him company as I couldn´t bear the thought of him being in such
misery, with the added stress of being locked in a cage with groups of children
staring at him.
Speaking of the children, they loved the whole affair.
I expected them to be phased by the gore of the operations (as I was!) but they
didn´t bat an eyelid, staring in
fascination as bits of male dog anatomy were removed and dropped casually
into a bin liner! They generally sat as good as gold on the audience seating we had provided, but over time they began to sneak in closer and closer until
one of the vets realised there were 10 pairs of grubby hands leaning on his
operating table. A quick word was all it took to send them back to their seats; although not long before they started creeping in again.
At about lunchtime the heavens opened and rain poured down on the clinic just as Russell was in the middle of a difficult operation on a bitch. That was when we realised a building with four sides would´ve been useful; the rain was so heavy that the ground flooded in minutes and all the equipment and the dog being operated on started to get wet. Like true professionals, Russell and Bridget just carried on with their operations, while the rest of us tried to move the dogs out of the mud and keep things dry as best we could.
By the middle of the afternoon, something like 8 or 9 dogs and cats had been neutered and they were all in various states of recovery in the cages. Only one poor soul remained - the dog with the really severe skin condition and overgrown claws. The vets had taken a look at him and agreed that his state was so bad that he had no quality of life, and to treat him back to health would take more time, commitment and medication than could reasonably be expected from the remote village community. Bringing him back to the shelter was a possibility, but Russell explained that his condition indicated an underlying immune system problem which would mean him spending the rest of his life on drugs even if he were to recover from his terrible sores and starvation. The best thing, it was agreed, was to euthanase him. I was really upset by that, even though I could see it was the best thing, just because the poor dog had had such a miserable life already and it seems such a terrible waste for a dog who could have had a chance at a good life in a different place or different circumstances.
I spent an hour or so gently stroking his back through the bars and talking quietly to him. At first he stood in the cage wretchedly, his claws getting caught in the bars every time he moved. Finally he managed to lie down and started to relax as for the first time in a long time, he had kind human words and touch. Then he actually went to sleep, taking a few big deep breaths which to me felt like he was just a tiny bit happy and contented for once in his short life so far. When the dreaded moment came, I stayed with him and stroked his little head and talked to him all the time to tell him that someone loved him and to say sorry for the awful way he´d been treated. It was so sad, but I´m so glad that I was with him at the end, a real chance to do something good and hopefully make a difference, even for a few minutes, to a dogs life.
Despite the sad end, there was a lot of positive things about the day and all the dogs which were treated and neutered would have a better quality of life now. We went back a couple of hours later after lunch on the boat to open the cages and let the still-groggy dog out. Some were stray and would just go back to living on the streets, but the kind old man who had brought in his Alsation agreed to adopt one cantankerous little ginger dog, which was a nice end to that story.
We finally arrived back in Iquitos at about 8pm that night, exhausted but wth just enough energy for a few beers at the Yellow Rose to talk through the experience of the last two days. Then it was time for bed!
