Two local vet technicians who were scheduled to head to Peru to help animals injured or stranded by the country's recent devastating earthquake will now have wait to see whether or not their mission is a go.
Robyn Luscombe, 23, and Aleisha Timms, 24, both of Squamish, were ready and willing to head to South America but a lack of funding has kept them from helping out with animal rescue efforts going on in Peru.
"I was pretty disappointed," said Luscombe, a veterinary technologist at the Eagleview Veterinary Clinic, who, in 2005, went on a similar mission to New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina.
"It would have been nice to help out."
"There wasn't a lot of media coverage about the earthquake [so] a lot of people didn't know about it," added Timms. "And I think that's why CAAT didn't get the donations they were hoping for."
The Canadian Animal Assistance Team (CAAT) is a group of veterinary technologists and veterinarians dedicated to providing medicine and humane education for needy animals worldwide.
Founded after Hurricane Katrina by Vancouver registered animal health technologist Donna Lasser, CAAT sent 82 vets and techs to Louisiana in September and October of 2005.
One of those techs was Luscombe, who signed up after receiving an email from CAAT asking for volunteers.
In New Orleans she was responsible for cleaning, feeding and walking dogs, as well as performing minor surgery on some of the injured animals. Other days she would go out into the city to rescue stranded animals.
Due to the success of spay and neuter programs, Timms said more Northern communities have invited CAAT to help with their animal overpopulation.
Unfortunately the skills of these two techs will not be available to the injured and lost animals of Peru, unless a serious injection of cash occurs.
Both women got the required time off from their respective clinics. Timms said she was to leave for Peru on Monday (Aug. 27) with Luscombe joining her a week later. But the cost of going would have been too much to handle on their own.
In the meantime Luscombe and Timms will be on call waiting to hear from CAAT and hoping the needed funds arrive.
"Who knows," said Luscombe. "Maybe something will happen magically and a bunch of donations will flood in."
Despite not being able to help stranded pets in Peru, Timms, who works at Garibaldi Veterinary Hospital, said there is still plenty of work to be done in Squamish, especially with the Squamish Needy Animal Foundation Fall Fair coming up. For more information or to make a donation, visit www.caat-canada.org.
