Trap Neuter Vaccinate and Return in Tanzania

For Tanzania Small Animal Veterinary Organization's 2nd AKI grant project, TASAVO targeted "problem" areas, where, for 6 months, they planned to trap, neuter, vaccinate, and return (TNVR) community cats and dogs.

During a TNVR discussion at Tegeta, the group met at a restaurant, one of the locations where TASAVO had received complaints about free-roaming cats

TASAVO's Dr Mroso sterilizing cats trapped from Madale abattoir, one of the "problem" areas that TASAVO identified

TASAVO's grant project involved more than TNVR: TASAVO planned to de-worm and provide other vet care for free-roaming cats and dogs, as needed; find homes for community animals who were in unsafe locations; and provide community animal welfare education at markets, universities, colleges, local restaurants, and apartments, from where they would be collecting the free-roaming animals. Normally when TASAVO traps community animals, many people witness the activity and TASAVO always uses that opportunity to deliver animal welfare education.

This cat was found with burned paws. TASAVO rescued her in Sinza, one of their focus areas where many free-roaming cats reside because of the availability of food from ‘Mama Ntilie’ (meaning the poor mothers who cook and sell food in the streets). Cats attempt to steal food from hot pots as this kitty did, and they sometimes get burned. TASAVO brought the kitty back to their vet clinic, nursed her back to health, spayed and vaccinated her, and found a forever home.

And there was even more to the TASAVO grant project: They planned to establish an Animal Welfare Club at the University of Dar es Salaam and at Sokoine University of Agriculture.

Another big plus for TASAVO's proposal to AKI is that they are a group of young vets and other related professionals, about 45 members, all of whom volunteer with TASAVO and receive no pay; they do this work because they love what they do, they know how important their work is, and they want to help their local communities-the people and the pets.

No wonder our AKI grant review panel loved TASAVO's proposal and awarded them a 2nd Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Project (their 1st was our previous grant- year, 2023 to 2024)!

TASAVO posted about their AKI grant project

Just a few of TASAVO's results can be seen in these photos and stories--but there are so many more!----->

TASAVO had rescued this cat, treated her for parasites, vaccinated and spayed her, and when she was fit and ready to be adopted, this lovely lady offered the kitty a forever home.

TASAVO found this stray dog trying to survive on the streets, and not doing well. They brought him to their clinic, where they neutered and vaccinated him, and then he was adopted by this loving family.

TASAVO volunteers, Dr Mroso and Dr Zilaje, with school kids who rescued these pups along the Mabwepande river, where they had been "thrown away," left there to drown. This is a common practice for getting rid of unwanted pups--and a reason why TASAVO's work, providing humane population management through TNVR, is so critical .

The 3 puppies who were "thrown away" on the banks of the Mabwepande river, with the young boy who, along with his family, love dogs, and adopted them. Yes! When adopted, TASAVO gave them better leads and collars meant for puppies.

This young lady rescued these kittens from the street, where they were unlikely to survive to adulthood, and brought them to TASAVO. TASAVO gave them a health check up, brought them to their clinic, and kept them there until they found a forever home for them.

A true cat lover from Mbezi Beach adopted this cat who had been brought to TASAVO to be euthanized just because the cat owner no longer wanted the cat! TASAVO spayed the cat and vaccinated her. This picture was taken on the day this kitty went home to her new, loving family.

One of TASAVO's target areas for TNVR is the University of Dar es Salaam campus. The campus is about 15 kilometers from the TASAVO clinic, and the location was selected because of the high number of free-roaming dogs and cats who mainly hang around the cafeterias and the residence buildings looking for food. TASAVO had previously sterilized and vaccinated about 40 cats from the campus and wished to continue focusing there because of the many unsterilized, free-roaming cats and dogs still remaining there.

During AKI's previous grant to TASAVO, they had begun establishing an Animal Welfare Club on campus to help TASAVO raise awareness about animal welfare and the stray animals who found their safe haven on campus. TASAVO was continuing that effort, as well and the launch of the Club was scheduled for March.

Once our 2024 grant program was well-underway, the AKI Board decided that we would reward a top performing grantee, one that could use additional funds to continue their grant project and continue creating positive impacts. TASAVO was the winner! 

We--TASAVO and AKI--hadn't realized how important our additional top-up grant reward would be for TASAVO until in February, when we received this news from Dr. Thomas:

"We had a big challenge this month. An announcement was given out on the university campus about their plans to shoot all roaming dogs and cats. This raised a serious panic from students and staff and we got calls from one of the students, a founding member of the University Animal Welfare Club that is set to be launched in March. We received other calls from staff members requesting our intervention. 

After several meetings and discussions with the head of police, the plans for shooting were discontinued, but this wasn't until the second day of the exercise (they had already killed a few cats and dogs). They stopped it on the condition that TASAVO will be responsible to humanely control the increasing population of stray dogs and cats around all the university campuses and surrounding areas.

This nightmare came at the end of the use of grant funds from AKI and we now rely on the additional funds you rewarded us which we will use to fix the big problem we promised to do to stop the shooting.

During this time we conducted several welfare educations at the office of Vice Chancellor to try to get them to accept the humane sustainable method of dealing with this stray problem at the university."

The announcement of the university's plans for population control of free-roaming cats and dogs on campus

The notices says: "THE UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM AUXILIARY POLICE DEPARTMENT IN COLLABORATION WITH THE MUNICIPALITY OF UBONGO ANNOUNCES TO ALL COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND RESIDENTS OF THE MWL. J.K. NYERERE CAMPUS, MLIMANI THAT THERE WILL BE A CUTTING-OFF EXERCISE FOR ROAMING DOGS AND CATS WHICH WILL BE CARRIED OUT ON 22/02/2025 SATURDAY AND 23/02/2025 SUNDAY. ISSUED BY AP.ASP.ANTHONY S. MSAGHAA ACTING COMMANDER OF AUXILIARY POLICE."

We'll report in our newsletters and future AKI Blog posts on TASAVO's work and their progress implementing humane population management on the Dar es Salaam campus.