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Surgery equipment for Pilouhospital
for animals, Buthan
Marianne Guillet is a French ex-architect
of 36, who turned to veterinary care and nursing and later surgery
and medicine as a result of her experiences during her extensive travels
in Asia and Africa.
She wrote to Moments of Joy
she was so moved by the "unacceptable suffering and exploitation of
animal (and people in many cases) I confronted that I realised that
no research nor title would ever mean anything to me, when I could
use my time, skills and determination to care and save lives, raise
awareness and fight for the respect due to all".
She started taking care of wounded and negelected animals in Egypt
where her husband was sent to by his company. "Moving to Bhutan in
1997, after 5 years in Egypt, I have found again what I thought was
not possible in a Buddhist country: misery, starvation and abuse of
animals in general and dogs in particular, " she wrote.
Based in a remote area at first, she went on rescuing and treating
dogs and cats in need and very often brought back home dogs from others
parts of the country, found in the gutter or dying on the side of
the road. Each of them was given the proper treatment, vaccinations
and deworming.
Sterilisation was the next step before being ready for adoption(extremely
difficult given the number of dogs around) or going back to their
original surroundings when this was appropriate, i.e., safe, welcoming
and offering subsistence means (restaurants, canteens, markets areas).
" I transformed the house in a hospital.
As small and full as it was, lack of space was never a reason to leave
a needy dog behind. Even after moving to the capital and a bigger
house, there is never enough space for all the patients. The healthy
dogs - sometimes up to 25 - are in the rearranged garage, sick dogs
and cats in the kitchen, extremely sick animals in the 24-hour intensive
care in the bedroom and monkeys in a house in the garden. The last
guests of the garden house are three are macaques from the south,
where they were captured young and kept chained to a pole, often beaten,
trained to perform insane tricks. "They are learning to behave like
monkeys again, which can be a bit of a problem if they come inside
which they have to do in winter when the nights are to cold for them
to stay outside. "
In addition to providing
hospital and shelter, Marianne is trying to sterilise as many dog
as possible. The main problem is surgery equipment and post-surgery
care. "Indeed, female dogs have to be put on antibiotics for 5 days
and need a place to recover safely from anaesthetic and surgery
trauma. They often try to remove their stitches and, if left in
the street, are often found agonising with their intestines out.
Marinanne tried to get the local and national authorities interested:
"Because rescuing starving dogs, caring and curing their ailments
and wounds, reducing their misery by an efficient family planning
action is for me the only decent way to grasp a little of this serenity
the country claims. But my efforts to raise concern for the dogšs
problems (from the dogs point of view) and to create an association
in Bhutan and a shelter in Thimphu have been blocked for reasons
unknown to me."
Understanding and moral support is surprisingly rare. Up till now
Marianne's husband has been paying for the private hospital his
wife started. Private practice of veterinary medicine is illegal
in Bhutan, therefore both the "hospital" and her "private house
calls" for pets are free of charge. Pilou animal hospital obviously
needs a lot of money to improve its care. Moments of Joy paid for
surgery equipment.
More
realized projects
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