COLORADO-BASED FOUNDATION ATTRACTS TOP TALENT FOR BOARD APPOINTMENTS

Fort Collins, CO — January 31, 2023. Vet Treks Foundation will mark their 8th anniversary in 2023 by setting new goals! Vet Treks provides spay and neuter clinics in underserved countries while training local vets in carrying on after they leave.

The Foundation focused on building a working Board of Directors in 2022 by attracting several new members with skill sets and experiences that will guide the work of the Foundation for many years to come.

Dr. Pauline Gitonga is a veterinarian with over 18 years of service to the care of small and large domestic animals in Kenya. Her doctoral training in dryland resource management has allowed her to impact the spread of endemic and zoonotic diseases. Her life mantra, ‘Knowledge for Development’, embodies her passion and commitment to work as an extension service provider. Pauline is excited to be part of the amazing team committed to improving animal welfare and public health globally as she acts as liaison between the USA and Kenya for Vet Treks.

Dr. Scott Zaari – Graduating with an emphasis in ecosystem and public health, Scott’s veterinary career has long been rooted in a holistic and ‘One Health’/systems-level understanding of animal health and agricultural systems. He was responsible for operationalizing a country wide OIE Rabies and Foot and Mouth Disease Control Program in Myanmar. The Rabies campaign focused on the training local community animal health workers in appropriate capture and vaccination of community dogs across Myanmar. He also guided the development and implementation of a National FMD vaccination campaign involving over 300,000 large ruminants and 50,000 small scale producers in Central Myanmar. Now at home in Manitoba in his role as Chief Veterinary Officer, he leads the efforts in animal care and promotes the connections between animal and human care making him a great fit for the Vet Treks Board of Directors.

Don Holly became a new member of the Vet Treks Board after spending half a decade in international development. He is a graduate of both Northwestern Oklahoma State ’17 and Oklahoma State ’21 where he studied International Agriculture and Development. After graduation Don joined the Peace Corps where he served as a Sustainable Agriculture Facilitator in the island nation of Jamaica for a number of years. Once he completed his Peace Corps service Don continued his efforts with the government doing foreign aid to this very day. Don applies his skills and expertise in social media to the Vet Treks Organization.

OneHealth and Why It Matters

In agri-based communities such as those throughout the rural developing world, people rely on animals for food, work and income. When these communities lack adequate veterinary care, the animals may become too sick to offer those benefits or, even worse, can put people directly in harm’s way. For example, roughly 2,000 people die of rabies in Kenya each year, primarily as a result of bites from domestic animals. Fortunately, rabies is preventable by vaccination of susceptible animals; public education on bite avoidance and proper post-bite medical treatment; and reduction of the population of stray and unwanted cats and dogs by means of humane spay/neuter services

About Vet Treks

Vet Treks combats this OneHealth crisis by providing local veterinarians the training and equipment to develop and sustain community-wide spay/neuter services, and by conducting mass rabies vaccine clinics. Their current focus of their work is in Kenya. Beginning in the fall of 2023, Vet Treks will begin a three-year project in the Lake Turkana region of Northern Kenya where rabies and other zoonotic diseases are very serious threats. They are working with local public health officials to educate the community on rabies prevention and other important animal health and welfare issues, as well as providing local veterinarians with the tools needed to sustain those efforts year around. 

Over the past seven years, Vet Treks Foundation has provided rabies vaccine campaigns that have protected over 6000 dogs, cats and donkeys, and thus the people in close contact with these animals, from the threat of rabies. They have also conducted humane sterilization campaigns that have spayed/neutered over 600 cats and dogs. Volunteers who share an interest in these goals can join future trips to Kenya to provide these veterinary services followed by a spectacular African Safari!

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Images are available on request.