Nassau, Bahamas – Operation Potcake is a definite go! Between January 10th, 2013 and January 21st, 2013, 2,000 animals will be spayed and neutered at five different MASH (Mobile Animal Sterilization Hospital) units across New Providence. We are going to need a lot of help! Please consider if you would be able to assist and where you would best be able to do so. Volunteer forms are attached here.

Animal Balance will be bringing in from 25 to 30 people. We will need to provide the rest of the volunteers. Each of the five proposed MASH units will need ten staff members, five of whom will be Animal Balance people. This means the other five for each unit will be our people, for a total of twenty-five. Local volunteers will be serving as clinic receptionists, instrument sterilizers, and recovery area staff. This number may be higher if we have volunteers who can only do one of the two five-day blocks. Training will be provided for all volunteers! Housing and transportation will be needed for the Animal Balance volunteers so keep that in mind as well as a way to help.

There will be five MASH (Mobile Animal Sterilization Hospital) units. Proposed locations are Fox Hill Road, Kemp Road, East Street, Carmichael Road, and a Western unit that will cover Delaporte, Gambier, Mt. Pleasant and Adelaide. MASH units are easily transportable so if we find we have saturated one area we can pick up tent and move further down the road. The BHS will act as headquarters, providing supplies each day.

All units will be spaying and neutering for five days – Thursday, January 10th to Monday January 14th, 2013 – then resting for two days – Tuesday, January 15th and Wednesday, January 16th – then spaying and neutering again for five more days – Thursday, January 17th to Monday, January 21st. The ideal is if all volunteers can do both five day blocks but if need be we can use one person for five days and another for the next five days. There will be an orientation session at the start of each five day block. Out-of-town volunteers should plan to arrive Wednesday, January 9th and leave Wednesday, January 23rd.

Applications for local volunteers can be sent either to potcake2013@gmail.com or brought into the BHS Shelter to Linda Gill-Aranha.

Applications for international volunteers, coming through Animal Balance, should be sent to Emma Clifford – info@animalbalance.org. More information about Animal Balance can be found at the Animal Balance website – http://www.animalbalance. net/ . They are currently recruiting for September’s Dominican Republic campaign. If you’re able to also volunteer for that campaign, it would be a great way to see firsthand what we’ll be doing here.

If you have ideas, suggestions, proposals, for things we can do to raise awareness, raise money, get the word out, please email potcake2013@gmail.com, and I’ll see that it is passed on to the people in charge of those areas. Don’t be afraid to suggest things you think may have already been suggested. It’s better the hear things twice than miss the possibility entirely!

Together, we are going to make this campaign a success! The five MASH units will spay and neuter 2,000 animals on this island, and then the Veterinary Association’s Five Year Spay and Neuter Initiative will take over.

There’s a Facebook page now: http://www.facebook.com/ pages/Operation-Potcake-and- The-Bahamas-5-Year-Spay- Neuter-Initiative/ 143865712401934

I’m sure I’ve left out a lot! Please take the time to read over the attachments, ask questions if you have any, think about where you can best assist. We need firm commitments, donations, money, as soon as possible. Please direct questions, concerns, applications to potcake2013@gmail.com, not as a reply to this email. The next Operation Potcake meeting will be held at the Shelter on Thursday, March 22nd at 6 p.m. if you’d like to come along and find out more.

What is Operation Potcake?

‘Operation Potcake’ is a 10 day high volume, high standard cat and dog sterilization campaign, often called a MASH clinic (Mobile Animal Sterilization Hospital) targeting up to 2,000 of the un-owned and loosely owned cat and dog populations of New Providence.

The cats and dogs will be sterilized in large numbers so that the populations are unable to reproduce and start to decline naturally. The animals will be treated for internal and external parasites and vaccinated against disease. The goal is a healthy population of cats and dogs who cannot reproduce.

EVERY animal protection organization on New Providence has joined forces to form a coalition to organize this campaign, in conjunction with Animal Balance, an international NGO who assists islands with humane animal management strategy. The local organizations are; The Bahamas Humane Society, The Bahamas Veterinary Association, The Bahamas Ministry of Agriculture, BAARK!, Stray Busters, ARK, Proud Paws and Pink Potcakes.

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With Jack Foley Tenor and Franz Hepburn Bass. An evening of
Light Opera and songs from memorable musicals.
Donation $125 in aid of The BHS includes dinner & wine.
Ph: 322-2275 or 359-7977

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