In this short film, Discover Animals’ Geoff Moore meets Dorset-based Alena Warburton, who has just headed off on an animal care charity project in Sri Lanka.
Her team from ‘Lucas Helps Dogs’ will be neutering and spaying animals living on the streets or owned by poor families. There are millions of cats and dogs living in this way in Sri Lanka and the charity is slowly making inroads into these numbers by helping the mainly stray animals they find.
The team treats the animals with either anti-rabies injections or prevents the animals from having even more kittens and puppies that would add to the stray problem.
Alena is a full time accountant working from home in Sturminster Newton and also in Bournemouth but tries to give as much time to the island as possible over the six years she has been visiting. Since 2019, she has travelled to Sri Lanka to treat as many animals as she can with the medicines that her charity can finance.
‘Lucas Helps Dogs’ is named after the street dog she adopted from an earlier trip to Sri Lanka. Sadly he has since died and has been replaced by another street stray, this time from Thailand. Called ‘Brownie’, he joins the Warburton family of three cats.
An important part of Alena’s work is helping to educate the next generations in animal welfare. She teaches youngsters in local schools to be more compassionate and to learn how best to help those street animals found all around the island.
Her important work in the rabies sector has been recognised by the health authorities in Sri Lanka. They have granted the charity a special award. It acknowledges the charity’s detailed medical record keeping, which is necessary to help trace possibly infected animals and monitor the spread or decline of the disease.
When back in Dorset, she and her husband Michael spend most weekends selling hand-made products on market stalls around the country raising yet more money for the charity, which sends 100% of the donations to the care of stray street dogs and cats around Sri Lanka.
Alena is supported by a whole host of volunteers and vets on the island who are working all the time to save lives and just make the animals healthier. Keeping the island’s animals healthy also helps to keep the population itself healthy too.
Lonely Planet Sri Lanka Travel Guide
£13.95
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