Every year on the eve of Eid-ul-Adha, a huge number of animals are transported to the provincial capital from far away areas of the Punjab. This long distance transportation does not occur under any regulation and hence badly disobeys animal rights. Animals are overloaded on the vehicles and non stop transportation is practiced usually without feeding and watering during traveling. The worst situation is seen when these animals are loaded and unloaded from the vehicles. The long distance transportation puts extreme stress to these animals. After reaching to their destination, these animals are not provided with proper care and management usually due to the lack of proper facilities and unawareness. Stress of transportation and extreme weather conditions causes many diseases in the animals. One of the major problems that appear in these animals is lameness. Most of the animals are suffering from lameness due to severe arthritis which is extremely painful conditions for these animals. Instead of removing the cause of arthritis with proper veterinary treatment, people tend to use local anesthetic agents for de-sensitizing the animals for sometime in order to sell them. They don’t realize that the animals will again feel pain (after gaining the senses when the affect of anesthetics is finished), until they are treated properly. This is usually due to unawareness and financial problems. This is an alarming condition for the animal welfare NGO’s in Pakistan.
Taking notice of these circumstances, Vets Care Organization Pakistan (VCO) has been arranging free veterinary treatment camps at different localities of Lahore on the eve of Eid-ul-Adha regularly every year since 2001. Likewise previous years, Vets Care Organization Pakistan and Vets Care Club of University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences Lahore organized a four days Free Veterinary Treatment Camp at Bakkar Mandi Lahore on December 03-06, 2008. About 42 veterinary doctors and veterinary students provided their technical services to the animals from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily during this camp. According to the official records, 689 animals were clinically approached and provided with the free technical services and medicines in Bakkar Mandi Lahore.
The camp was visited by Prof. Dr. Muhammad Nawaz (Vice Chancellor UVAS), Prof. Dr. Talat Naseer Pasha (Patron, Vets Care Club UVAS; Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences Business Management UVAS), Dr. Syed Sajjad Haider (Patron-in-Chief, Vets Care Organization; Managing Director, Symans Pharmaceuticals), Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ashraf (Dean, Faculty of Bio-Sciences UVAS), Dr. Ovais Omer (Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology UVAS), Dr. Muhammad Abdul Ahad (Associate Professor, Chattagong Veterinary & Animal Sciences University Chattagong, Bangladesh) and Dr. Muhammad Asad Ali (Senior Executive, Vets Care Club UVAS) on various days during the four days camp. The visitors were briefed about the aims and objectives of the camp. They observed the work and appreciated the volunteers, working for this noble cause.
This animal welfare activity was provided with the media coverage by PTV News, Sama TV, Aaj TV, FM 103, Radio Pakistan, Daily Jinnah and Daily The News.
VCO is thankful to Star Laboratories (Pvt) Ltd, Symans Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd, Selmore Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd, Sana Laboratories (Pvt) Ltd, Marush (Pvt) Ltd, Zaidi’s International, Medi-Vet (Pvt) Ltd, Prix Pharmaceuticals, Eterna International (Pvt) Ltd, PDH Pharmaceuticals, and Pakistan Medicos for providing medicines for this free veterinary treatment camp. VCO is also thankful to the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Lahore for providing transport facility to the camp participants. We are also thankful to the visitors for encouraging the volunteers. Special thanks to the whole team of our Medicine Bank, who worked day and night to make this camp possible. Last but not the least, VCO extends its heartiest gratitude to all those volunteers who participated in the camp and provided their technicalities for this noble cause.

In connection to the World Animal Day, Vets Care Organization, Pakistan (VCO) organized a Free Animal Treatment & De-worming Camp in village “Bama Bala” Tehsil Renala Khurd District Okara on Sunday 9th of November 2008. About 85 volunteer veterinarians and veterinary students including 8 females participated in the camp in the supervision of Dr. Ejaz Ahmad Rao (Advisor, Vets Care Club; Veterinary Officer, Ravi Campus). Participants attended a welcome briefing session at Bama Bala Village, where they were briefed about the aims and objectives of the camp. Large number of farmers and villagers were also present on the occasion. Vets Care Club’s President Waseem Shaukat highlighted the importance of the World Animal Day and urged the public to take care of their animals and treat them as live beings. He emphasized to protect the animals and respect nature.
Afterwards, the volunteers were divided into four teams, and sent to the nearby villages. Each team in their respective villages approached large number of animals. Parasites are major problem in Pakistan that causes stress to animals and make them prone to various diseases easily. Therefore, all animals were de-wormed and the sick animals were treated and provided with the necessary medicines. According to the official records, 934 animals including cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goat, donkeys, horses, mules and dogs were approached. There were many animals having serious cases (like mastitis, Johnes disease, arthritis, coccidiosis, hypocalcemia, babesiosis, tick fever etc…) which were examined and treated with necessary medicines free of cost.

Vets Care Organization Pakistan organized free veterinary treatment camps in three villages of Kamonki Tehsil of Gujranwala District on Sunday March 30, 2008. About 36 veterinary students; members of Vets Care Club from the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences Lahore along-with veterinary doctors participated in the camp in the supervision of Dr. Zia-ur-Rehman (Advisor, Vets Care Club). A briefing session was held at the Civil Veterinary Hospital Wahndo. Past President of VCO and Veterinary Officer CVH Wahndo Dr. Qamar Majeed told about the status of animal health in the area, major diseases, their effects and prevention moves against those diseases. He told that Liver fluke is a major problem in the area which affects the health of animals and animals go through extreme stress which also decreases their production. “To save the animals from parasites, de-worming is very necessary after every three months” he told; adding, “Due to financial problems and lack of knowledge, farmers don’t care their animals”.

Afterwards, the students were divided into three teams. Team 1 headed by Dr. Zia-ur-Rehman visited village “Khotray”. Team 2 headed by Dr. Abdul Basit and Dr. Haq Aman Ullah visited village “Saaeb” while team 3 visited village “Wahndo” in the supervision of Dr. Qamar Majeed. All the teams in their respective villages approached large number of animals. All animals were freely de-wormed against parasites (Parasites are the major cause of disturbance and make the animals uncomfortable with poor health status and low production). Large number of sick animals were checked, treated and provided with the medicines accordingly. This camp not only enhanced the professional skills of the students but also made the lives of animals comfortable. It also helped the poor farmers to get their animals freely treated because they are unable to get their animals treated due to financial problems usually. According to official records 521 animals were approached including donkeys, mules, horses, sheep, goat, cattle and buffaloes in all the three villages.

VCO is thankful to Zaidi’s International, ICI Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, Symans Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd, Trust Pharma, Leads Pharma, Star Laboratories, Prix Pharma and Medi-Vet (Pvt) Ltd. for providing medicines for these free veterinary treatment camps. We are also thankful to the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Lahore for providing the transport facility; without which the camp was never possible. We are equally thankful to Dr. Qamar Majeed and staff of Civil Veterinary Hospital Wando including Mushtaq Ahmad, Muhammad Jamil, Ilyas Dogar and Muhammad Shahid for their efforts in arranging this camp. We could not forget the cooperation of our hosts Rana Khalid (Nazim Wahndo), Muhammad Khalil (Patwari, Saaeb) and Chaudhary Saleem (Khotray). Last but not the least; we would like to pay special thanks to all the camp participants for sparing their whole day voluntarily for this noble work; especially Dr. Zia-ur-Rehman, Dr. Abdul Basit and Dr. Haq Aman Ullah for supervising this camp.