The ambulance bay at Nome Police Department's Public Safety Building was filled with animals last week for a veterinary clinic. The effort was led by several organizations and brought in animals from the Bering Strait, North Slope and Northwest Arctic Borough regions.
Emily Stotts is the president of PAWS of Nome. She said the local nonprofit has held similar clinics in the past going back almost a decade.
“So we might be up to like, 10 clinics, not all with ARVO, but with similar traveling teams,” Stotts said.
The Alaska Rural Veterinary Outreach (ARVO), is a partner nonprofit. Stotts said it has been implementing a hub and spoke model, where dogs from the village receive care in Nome. The clinic lasted three days, starting on Nov. 7. She said the team was able to bring the dogs to Nome on a chartered flight.
The dogs were flown in free of cost if they were already spayed or neutered or were going to be. Dogs also received vaccines, dewormers, medications and exams. They were also treated for injuries.
Stotts said there’s a real need for the clinic for villages in the surrounding area. Sometimes that outsized need means people look for other options – like rehoming or surrendering animals – because they couldn’t get their pets veterinary care.
“Well, how about instead of medically surrendering this pet that you obviously love very much, you make him participate in the clinic,” Stotts said.
Stotts said similar clinics have been propped up at the Public Safety Building before. But she said this year the group set up at Nome's Our Savior's Lutheran Church for some procedures because the garage at the Public Safety Building was too cold.
“The PD space was something that we were used to using, and the coldness wasn't something we were expecting. It was definitely a curve ball,” Stotts said.
Stotts said ARVO’s staff was already staying at the church, which made shifting the operation easier. By the time the clinic was moved to the church, they had already seen 17 dogs. By the last day on Nov. 10, Stotts said they had served over 50 dogs and four cats.
Stotts said 21 dogs were from villages across Alaska and the rest were from Nome. She said the various nonprofits involved flew up staff from across the country.
“The team from BluePearl Cares, two of the techs were from Washington. One of the doctors was from Dallas,” Stotts said.
Stotts said along with ARVO, they received support from BluePearl Cares, Banfield Foundation, Resolve Aviation, Gogo Meds and Petco Love Foundation.
Students from Nome’s ANSEP Acceleration Academy also helped set up the clinic before the veterinarians arrived. Lay vaccinators with Norton Sound Health Corporation’s Office of Environmental Health also volunteered.
Stotts anticipates there being another community clinic in March if PAWS' holiday fundraising goes well. She said it takes a village to raise a child, or a puppy in this case.
