Seychelles tourists see paradise, but dogs there live in hell.

Puppies are routinely thrown away in rubbish bins or born in the dirt, where rats eat their tails. The Seychelles government does not care.

But animal lovers care, and so does our Seychelles partner, the Seychelles Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (SSPCA).

The SSPCA is one of the only organizations helping street animals in Seychelles, but the dogs they care for are facing a crisis and URGENTLY need our help today. Read on…

The Seychelles is a Garden of Eden. Everything flourishes there, including bugs. A massive parasite infestation threatens to overwhelm street dogs. They need YOUR help.

A little while ago, the SSPCA reached out to us because it is struggling to tend to the ever-growing numbers of animals in their care, now an outbreak of a plague of ticks has pushed the shelter to the edge of disaster. We visited the shelter to see how we could help and saw immediately the need is enormous.

The first thing we saw was a volunteer feeding five filthy, wailing newborn puppies. They had been found in a rubbish bin – a common occurrence, she told us – and were crying in hunger and fear, their tiny, writhing bodies infested with ticks. Ripped away from their mother and being eaten alive by parasites, they were on the verge of death.

Next, we met Cooper, and that is when we knew we had to reach out to you right away. Cooper had been rescued only days before and was terrified of humans. Who knows what he had endured on the streets of Mahé, the island on which the SSPCA is located and the largest in the Seychelles. Equally distressing was the state of his face and body – riddled with hundreds of blood-sucking ticks, fat and engorged with Cooper’s blood, and leeching the very life out of him. Despite not allowing us too close, we could see the life-draining bugs even from a distance.

Parasite infestations cause extreme discomfort in dogs and cats and put animals at risk of fatal diseases like tick-bite fever, Lyme disease and anemia. The animals need your help to end this, it is that simple.

Right now, there are 190 shelter dogs and 60 cats in a desperate situation, as well as countless street animals who rely on our partner for food, care and medical treatment.

The government used to give SSPCA a critically needed grant but withdrew funding because of budget cuts. This, combined with the lingering financial repercussions of Covid-19 and the country’s worsening economic state, means animal lovers like you are the only hope for dogs. Cooper and many other tick-riddled dogs and cats at the shelter need urgent treatment and medication for their parasites and frequent dipping at least three times a week.

Keeping bellies full and critical injuries under control eats up the shelter’s entire monthly budget. So, when an animal arrives with a parasite infestation, like Cooper, the shelter has neither the funds nor the manpower to tackle the problem. The ticks then spread to the other animals at the shelter, and a vicious cycle continues.

If we can raise $14,360 (roughly £11,116), we will purchase the medicines they need to treat the animals and pay for a kennel hand for an entire year. This person will be responsible for keeping all new rescues and the SSPCA’s existing dogs and cats clean, parasite-free and healthy, ensuring they live in comfort at the shelter – likely to be the only home they will ever have. The animals need this BADLY, but they can only get relief with your help today. So please, donate right away.

For the animals,

Gloria Davies (and Max and Flora!)
Founder and CEO
Network for Animals

P.S. Can you begin to imagine Cooper’s distress and discomfort as he lives with hundreds of ticks clinging to his body and face, full of his blood, slowly sucking the life out of him? The SSPCA needs our help right now to treat Cooper and others just like him at the shelter; the solution is simple. But we need YOUR help NOW – so please donate as much as you possibly can right away.

Banner credit: NFA/Byron Seale