Who we are

Vets Beyond Borders (previously known as Vetcharity) is an Australian-based, not-for-profit, incorporated organisation established by veterinary volunteers in 2003. Vets Beyond Borders co-ordinates and runs veterinary based animal welfare and public health programs in developing communities of the Asia and Pacific region.

An important part of our projects is the training of local veterinary and para-veterinary staff to ensure that the work can continue and that the benefits for the animals and communities are ongoing. VBB relys on the hard work of volunteers and promotes volunteer work amongst the veterinary community.

Through our current programs we aim to address one of the world’s most challenging animal welfare issues which also has serious implications for human health - the overpopulation of street dogs.The World Health Organisation estimates there are over 400 million stray dogs in the world today. Dog bites are the most common cause of rabies infection in humans. WHO estimates that 30 000 people a year die from rabies in India alone.

Through street dog desexing and rabies vaccination we create a smaller, more stable, rabies immune dog population in the targetted areas. This has been shown to be an effective way of reducing human rabies cases. Desexed healthy dogs pose less of a threat to the local people through agression or disease thus improving the conditions for the whole community.

Without this intervention

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Local authorities who have no alternative will often resort to culling when street dog populations become too large.This is traumatic and violent for the whole community and often needs to be repeated every couple of years. The dogs are at risk of death by shooting, drowning, electrocution or poisoning.

Dogs that do escape and survive will go on to breed and the cycle will start again. We aim to break this cycle through the establishment of neutering and rabies vaccination programs and the training of local veternarians with the skills required to run them. This will eliminate the need for culling in the future.

Where we work

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We are currently running two projects in India;

1. The Sikkim Anti-Rabies and Animal Health (SARAH) Program in partnership with the Government of Sikkim

2. Ladakh street dog project in partnership with the Ladakh Animal Care Society.

We are one of many organisations working for the benefit of animals and communities worldwide.On this website you can find a directory of other organisations who are working in the Asia and Pacific region. Many of these are also seeking volunteers.

Most communties in developing nations depend heavily on their animals for their own survival.
As VBB grows we aim to provide veterinary services to a wider range of animals and communities in need. We are currently looking to develop programs addressing health issues in working and production animals.