Wildlife vets act to help save Africa's painted dogs

12th Aug 2011

Wildlife Vets International (WVI) has teamed up with its patron TV vet Steve Leonard and Painted Dog Conservation in an international rescue effort to help save Africa’s most endangered large carnivore, the painted dog, from extinction.

A fund-raising campaign, launched yesterday beside Yorkshire Wildlife Park’s painted dog enclosure, will enable vets to visit Zimbabwe next year to man community clinics for domestic dogs around Hwange national park, vaccinating them against rabies and distemper to stop disease transmission into the painted dog (wild dog) population already decimated by human persecution.

The £12k project will also buy veterinary supplies and equipment for PDC’s new in-house clinic, provide first aid training for field staff and advice on clinic set up. Species numbers have plummeted across Africa to between 3,000-5,000, with Zimbabwe one of its last strongholds.

“Only domestic dogs will be vaccinated as the effects on wild dogs are unknown, but vets will expect to treat some painted dogs”, explained WVI project leader Brigadier Tom Ogilvie Graham, Queens Honorary Veterinary Surgeon and head of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps. A similar trip last year left him with an abiding memory of saving the life of a painted dog pack leader, critical to pack survival.

“We tracked the dog from his radio collar, anaesthetised him and found a serious maggot-ridden infection above his elbow. We treated that and allowed the dog to join his waiting pack, with reports confirming that he was recovering well. These are amazing creatures under increasing threat and deserve all the help we can provide.”

Yorkshire Wildlife Park is already home to three female painted dogs as part of the European breeding programme.

Steve Leonard, who presents Vets in the Wild, Steve Leonard’s Extreme Animals, Animal Camera and Journey of Life, said: “I am delighted that two of the charities of which I am patron have joined Yorkshire Wildlife Park to raise money for a cause close to my heart.”

"I first introduced Wildlife Vets International to Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe so that one could help the other to conserve this iconic creature.”

Wildlife Vets International is now in a unique position to provide independent specialist veterinary support to any project, anywhere in the world, including education and training of people who live and work in the animals' natural range. Other projects help with conflict tigers in Bangladesh, an Amur leopard release programme, and primate rehabilitation in Nigeria.

Project manager of Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe, Peter Blinston, added: "PDC is very “hands on” in its approach. We’ve developed collars, we’ve got anti-poaching units in the field and now we have the essential support of Wildlife Vets International, sponsored by Yorkshire Wildlife Park. The project cannot work in isolation from the surrounding communities who are very grateful for veterinary care for their domestic dogs, brought about by their support for PDC and the conservation of the painted dogs."

Director of YWP, Cheryl Williams, explains the painted dog allure: “They are famed as relentless and successful hunters, but they are one of the only animals that will care for the injured, the old and young, bringing back food and tending their wounds. Persecuted by man, they now face a silent danger from disease passed on by domestic dogs.”

For more information on this WVI project see the painted dog project page.