{"id":395995,"date":"2023-07-14T06:06:34","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T20:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=395995"},"modified":"2023-07-14T06:06:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T20:06:34","slug":"a-total-of-42-petsfirst-day-of-vet-irt-benefits-42-pets-in-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/a-total-of-42-petsfirst-day-of-vet-irt-benefits-42-pets-in-all\/","title":{"rendered":"First day of vet IRT benefits 42 pets in all"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kicking off a weeklong military training program that offers free medical and veterinary services in the CNMI, Monday marked a great start for veterinarians and community members who participated in what is being dubbed \u201cIRT CNMI Wellness Mission,\u201d with a total of 42 pets benefiting from the outreach.<\/p>\n

The veterinarian services took place at the Office of the Mayor\u2019s Dog Control Center and Saipan Cares for Animals, with military veterinarians and their vet techs servicing pets from 8am until 5pm.<\/p>\n

Dog Control program manager Martin Pangelinan said the Mayor\u2019s Dog Control Office is focusing on spay-and-neuter operations and would entertain six animals a day, mainly dogs and cats, at one pet per owner. The four other veterinarians and their vet techs at SCA would be handling not only spay and neuter operations, but will also be taking in walk-in emergencies, and offering medical check-ups for pets.<\/p>\n

With a cap of six pets per day at the Dog Control Center and no appointments being made, services were on a first-come, first-serve basis.<\/p>\n

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A truck parked outside the Office of the Mayor Dog Control Center in Afetna. (CHRYSTAL MARIMO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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When asked why only six pets per day, Pangelinan said the Innovative Readiness Training is technically a training program for military veterinarians to train their vet techs, so there is more focus on the training aspect rather than the number of dogs and cats serviced.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Although it would be nice to kind of top the numbers to 20-plus, but\u2026we understand where they\u2019re coming from, and we\u2019re just very fortunate that they are here to provide the services to the CNMI,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Separately, Master Sgt. Jennifer Bunch, who is the noncommissioned officer in charge of the Veterinary Services for IRT Operation CNMI Wellness, said that, combined with the pets served at the SCA site, they held about 30 exams and 12 spay and neuters on their first day alone.<\/p>\n

Pangelinan did say that having veterinarians come to Saipan has to continue consistently \u201cif we want to see changes\u201d in the overpopulation of strays on island.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing it already for the past few months. We\u2019ve been bringing in vets, we\u2019ve been working with our partners at the Saipan Humane Society\u2026so we\u2019ve been coordinating with veterinarians from off island to come and implement the spay and neuter clinic, because it\u2019s a great way to control the animal population.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Brian Collins, the main military veterinarian at the Office of the Mayor\u2019s Dog Control Center, said the first day is \u201cgoing well\u201d and that they serviced five dogs and one cat that day.<\/p>\n

He also noted that he had been on Saipan last year during the military\u2019s two weeklong spay-and-neuter clinic, and that he loved the island. \u201c\u2026We\u2019re appreciative\u2026that we have the opportunity to do this. It\u2019s a great training for our soldiers to get to do this real-world stuff\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Pangelinan encourages the community to visit one of their locations and avail of these free services. \u201cThe opportunity is here. It\u2019s a great opportunity at no cost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pangelinan also encouraged community members to keep the dog ownership requirements such as all dogs must be registered, and confined within one\u2019s property, and to leash a dog in any public place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to work together to take care of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kicking off a weeklong military training program that offers free medical and veterinary services in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":395998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22347],"class_list":["post-395995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-irt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}