The University of the South Pacific (USP) Lautoka Campus is helping raise awareness of animal welfare in the country. In partnership with the Pacific Animal Shelter and Hospital (PASH) and sponsored by Viti Rottweilers, the campus held an event in August to help raise funds to assist PASH in their efforts to improve animal welfare in the country.
Lautoka Campus Director, Dr Pramila Devi said apart from providing tertiary education, USP is keen to engage in various Continuing and Community Education programmes to help uplift the standards of living in local communities. The PASH fundraiser is one such project.
PASH was founded in April 2019 in Legalega, Nadi to improve animal welfare in Fiji. Founder and Trustee, Marie Peyman said they first looked into what the needs in Fiji were. There were many, so they decided to focus primarily on the problem of over-population of dogs and cats through proper community education.
Delayed by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, PASH hope to start in-house community programmes from the first quarter of 2021, providing education, especially for children, in animal welfare.
Peyman said another issue that was dear to the hearts of animal owners was the lack of advanced medical care in the country. “With the receipt of a substantial donation, we have been blessed in being able to provide a treatment facility in Fiji that has state of the art equipment such as full body digital X ray and full dentistry machines never seen in Fiji before”, she said.
She added that they have adopted around 420 animals at their shelter who are provided the best medical care.
PASH has also provided Fiji with its first boarding facility for cats and dogs. The dogs have indoor and outdoor facilities with large play areas during the day and are securely locked in at night. “The cats have a really, really nice indoor facility. Everything is air conditioned and we are able to provide very close to world class animal care”, she said.
