The pet owners in the Maldives strongly condemn the decision taken by the government to close the government-subsidised Veterinary Clinic in Villimale’, for the following reasons:

· While there is a private vet facility, the majority of the population is unable to afford consultation and treatment there.

· The private vet clinic that has recently opened is not performing surgeries yet, and this creates a gap that can only be filled by the government vet clinic that is licensed to use anesthesia and perform surgeries. Even once surgeries will be performed, one clinic will not be able to handle the load for owned cats & street cat surgeries.

· The issue of stray cats is one of great significance, and one that continues to grow every day. A nation-wide TNR (trap-neuter-release) programme is necessary to combat the street cat population, which is not affordable at a private vet clinic. Street cats have a high parasitic load, diseases are spreading among street cats, and zoonotic diseases can be transmitted to humans as well.
 
For the aforementioned reasons and more, I urge the concerned parties to overturn the decision to shut down the government-subsidised vet clinic and continue services for the public with an adaequate number of personnel and the necessary machineries, medicine and consumables for the veterinarians to work with.

[This is NOT a call for donations! We have a separate Maldives Street Cat donation fund. Please do not donate into this website]