38 - Sunday, February 7, 1999 ~ North Shore News Amil north shore news for the South Pacific Megan Verchere Contributing Writer In what could be called “Vets Without Borders,” a West Vancouver veterinarian is heading to Raratonga in the Cook Islands this month to voluntarily care for the island’s innumerable domestic animals. Dr. Dudley Richmond, a retired vet with almost 40 years of professional veterinary experience, will be spending this February on the tiny island as part of the unique missionary efforts of the Esther Honey Foundation. Dr. Richmond left on January 28th for four weeks in the South Pacific, where he’tl no deubt be faced with a very different working environment than at the Ambleside Animal Hospital he owned and oper- ated for 17 years. Retired for just over two and a half years, Richmond has been keeping busy with the occasional locum around the province, but he had long desired to give something back to the profession that he says, gave so much to him in his 37 years of business. : He was intrigued by a brochure he'd received from a client several years age adver- tising the Esther Honey Foundation veterinary clinic on Raratonga, which needed vets to serve as “animal mis- sionaries” on a tropical island overrun by domestic animals. “This profession has been good to me,” said Richmond, Armed with western vererinary medicines and equipment donated fron: many of his North Shore cotleagues, Richmond is set to become the firse Canadian veterinarian in the Foundation’s three-year history. The Esther Honey Foundation was founded in September 1995 by Cathy Sue Amunsen, an Oregon woman who had discovered on a 1993 vacation to Raratonga that much to her horror, the island police had a legislated mandate to shoot on sight all unregistered dogs and cats. Dogs and cats literally had taken over the island, outnum- bering the residents 14,000 to 10,000. With no veterinarian to spay and neuter the ani- mals, the growth was becom- ing uncontrollable. Killing the animals seemed to be the only viable solution, especially after a collision between a car and one of the island’s stray dogs fatally injured a tourist. The implicaions that would have on to the tourism- based island was implicit. The island’s SPCA estimated that at least 1,000 dogs were killed, and pleaded with the government to stop the shoot- ing. Amunsen, a longtime ani- mal-lover and vegetarian, was appalied by the grave situation facing the island’s dogs and cats, and returned to the United States determined to better the health conditions of domestic animals in the Cook Islands. “I wanted to make life a little less cruel,” she said. She founded the Esther Honey Foundation —Esther for her grandmother and her vacation. Working in on junction with dhe island's SPCA, the Foundation’s pra- grams inchide providing spay, Neuter and immunization ser vices, introducing. a compre: hensive animal health educa: tien program, and establishing and equipping a non-profit veterinary chnic. Which is where Dr. Richmond comes in. He and his wife Anne have paid their own ways to the Islands, and will be set up in the elinic’s simple accommodations. As there is no veterinarian’s assis rant to speak of, Anne will help out her husband and his new patients, which will com- prise mostly of dogs and cats, but have in the past included pigs, horses, goats, birds and one fruit bat. Since its inception, the clinic has treated more than 3,000 animals. Richmond will see an average of six animal patients a day, mostly spay and neuter cases, but also emer- gency care. All of which suits him just fine. “There is too much knowl- edge involved in veterinary medicine to give it up,” says Richmond. “If I can do some- thing with that, well, so much the better.” #72 TRAVEL Lee a eside vet heads NEWS photo Mike Wataficid RETIRED West Van veterinarian Dr. Dudisy Richmond prepares for his trip to the Cook Islands. + SINGAPORE — 15 nights from $§,399 p.p. sharing + Hong Kong — 17 nights Valentine’s Day ; treat yourself and a loved one to one of these great deals ; IRERAS 3 night Velentine’s pko. from *37 en. | CLUB ARED Willd Card Food for all pudgets Frapm pane IT Rocks for Inalian, Great pizza. B Cnkai Japanese restau- nintar ANA Hotel Svdnev. Epic harbour views from the 36th floor. As tor hotels, if vou're strapped for cash the Central YHA is one of the best. Ifvou’re nor, the Ritz- Carlton at Double Bay will impress, as it did Princess Diana when she came to Sydney. 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S JOHANNESBURG or CAPE TOWN or DURBAN grad Eric Rosenberg will give Rosenberg will show via LONDON or AMSTERDAM........0-csese00$ 1595 a free slide show presentation _ slides, talk about his experi- : 2 N OR D at the Parkgate branch of the ences and introduce some a — = “5 1716 Marine Drive = ; ‘West Vancouver, BC © North Vancouver District Thai music. EX PERT s 926°8511 | Honey for a golden haired dog she had befriended during Avail. of fares like these . MANCHESTER from °649n0.' 1305 donsdule Ava., Park Reyal Nerth, Horth Vancouver West Vancouver 956-5855 913-1640 Cee on ee a ee ety Opply . Library on Wednesday, Feb. For more information rs ees about the event contact the 10 at 7:30 p.m. library at 929-3727. -Rosenberg spent six months in 1997 participating in.a Canada World Youth Exchange program. The exchange. involved a diverse group of students, ten from Thailand and ten from Canada. 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