Dog rescuer Narelle Pamuk's struggle with illness, injury and bills totalling hundreds of thousands

^{Narelle and furry friend}

What operators of dog shelters go through is damn near unbelievable. Narelle Pamuk of Sai Kung Stray Friends Foundation has to find, somehow, $350,000 a month plus vet bills in the hundreds of thousands.

Narelle says, “I would say I am physically strong, tough to endure years of stressful situations and people’s ignorance and human irresponsibility to animals, financial hardship, but to experience innocent dogs to die with distemper has really shaken me so much emotionally.”

Here’s what Narelle, one of Sai Kung’s finest animal welfare activists, struggles to cope with every day:

Feeding and care of 200 dogs in her main shelter at Tai Lam Wu, above Ho Chung (badly damaged by Wipha)
21 dogs and four puppies, homeless street animals, who she feeds and cares for with Meals on Wheels
40 fish farm dogs up on the border

Narelle requires a truckload of money every month. She uses the Concordia 24-Hour Clinic at Happy Valley for dogs needing hospitalisation, x-rays, surgery, desexing, wound care, vaccination and varied cases needing investigation. Her bill at Concordia runs into the hundreds of thousands. Narelle also uses Village Vets for similar matters and her bill in May was $50,891 and in June $65,994.

“We are in troubled waters trying to pay such high medical expenses. It’s never been Easy Street, but if ever we have needed help financially . . . it’s now.”

^{Typhoon Wipha caused a lot of damage at the dog shelter near Ho Chung}

Sai Kung Stray Friends shelter was badly damaged by Typhoon Wipha. Roofing was blown away, but Narelle said the dogs also have kennels for shelter. SAI KUNG BUZZ spoke to John Wilkinson of RenovateHK and he said he will help Narelle fix the physical damage to her shelter. “I know her and am already on it.”

For all dogs Narelles provides “The Package”: Desex, rabies, dhppi, Lepto 4, 4dx heartworm test, if negative they are given 12 months Proheart and 12 months Bravecto or young pups Nextguard or 3 months Bravecto Spot On and worming.

^{Vets bills run into hundreds of thousands of dollars}

All shelter residents and other dogs under her management receive annual vacs and as well as being monitored.

“Recently two female dogs were brought into our shelter by people saying they rescued them and asked us to help. They were two very gentle female dogs.

We made clinic appointments for their desex and vacs. One female the vet rejected to desex as she had diarrhea in the clinic so we rescheduled. Both were desexed and vaccinated but both soon became unwell and were hospitalised.

One was euthanised in the clinic and the other at our shelter.

“Chocco from HK China Border who had been mauled with horrific wounds and hospitalised for 58 days was so stoic with his will to live and such a good patient also lost his life unrelated to his wounds to distemper.

^Chocco

“To see a dog suffer in this way was so disturbing to witness, facial twitching, jaw spasms, lifting its head in whelping cries from the neuro pain. It brings the frustrating feeling of knowing preventative care, simple vaccinations, would have prevented this pathetic suffering.

“I now just want to stress to dog owners please protect your dog with preventative care (desexing, multi-vaccinations). If you can’t afford it DON’T HAVE A DOG.

“I am aging like the dogs, feeling tired almost every day, it’s relentless, arthritis in my hands, finding lifting cages getting harder, losing balance easily but it’s what I choose to do. . . it’s my love and passion and determination to help dogs to have a better life! I’m not a Tai Tai woman.”