Kaitaia vet nurse Donna Badorek will be having a week off in October, but while she'll be bound for the tropics she won't be lying on a beach drinking pina coladas.
Rather she will be part of a South Pacific Animal Welfare (SPAW) volunteer team, which will spend October 18-25, working from 5am until the queue runs out, probably long after dark, spaying and treating cats and dogs.
Donna, who joined Kaitaia practice TopVets after graduating in April last year, said she had been told on Tuesday that she had been accepted. She would now begin fundraising in earnest, with raffles at the TopVet clinics in Kaitaia and Cooper's Beach, and anything else she could think of to bring in a few bob. Joining the team will cost her $350, which will pay for a set of scrubs and some of her accommodation costs, but she will have to cover her own air fares and other expenses.
Spaying and parasite control were the big cat and dog health issues in Tonga, she said, not only among stray populations but pets too.
Expert veterinary care was generally not available, and if it was it was horrendously expensive in local terms, she said.
