Vet Jade Statt talks about her mission to help London’s street dogs
Jade Statt talks to Alex Corlett about her mission to help the dogs of London’s homeless.
AS a nation that loves its pets, we all want the best for them. For some of us, though, our situations make it hard to afford those vet bills – and for those without a home, it’s almost impossible to get access to good canine healthcare.
Vet Jade Statt recognised this problem and decided to do something about it.
“I’ve always wanted to volunteer as a street vet. It’s quite an easy thing to do abroad – you can go to Greece, Fiji and all over to do it, but I couldn’t find a place to do it here in the UK.
“Then someone told me about a guy called Joshua Coombes – a hairdresser who was going out and giving haircuts to the homeless with his ‘Do Something For Nothing’ campaign.
“I saw a dog on the street one night when I was out and I stopped and chatted to the guy and felt really frustrated that I couldn’t do anything.
“I e-mailed Josh and met with him for a coffee and he said, let’s get you out there. I had a few more hurdles to jump through, for insurance and things, so it took a couple of months.
“October 2016 was when I first went out with Josh. I was then told about Michelle Clark. She has worked on the streets with the homeless and their dogs for five years so she knew all the dogs I’d be treating, and we decided between us we wanted to make something a bit more structured for them. So Dogs On The Street was created.”
Now they have a more structured set-up, Jade and Michelle have been able to increase their reach.
“I could walk all day and only see two dogs so that was why we felt that creating a static station on the Strand was a more efficient way of seeing the dogs.
“We also now do outreach weekly and have begun visiting hostels.
“On the Strand, every Sunday, there is a vet and all the dog essentials, and one day a month we have a pet grooming van that comes to give them all a bath.
“We have a dog trainer, as well.
“What we are trying to now do is get them all tagged. They get microchipped, but they also get a little tag on their collar with a unique number and a phone number so if the owner has any concerns they can call us and we can come out on outreach.”
Jade began her work with support from the Blue Cross, just by herself, but now she’s looking to possibly recruit another five
or six street vets.
Companies like Barking Heads and Huxley Hound have come on board to help with food supplies, too, with Butternut Box and Nature Diet also helping out.
Which is handy, as one of the main issues facing street dogs is a surprising one.
“This will probably shock people, but a lot of them are overweight. It’s because they have a terrible diet, being fed whatever they find. They also for the same reason have bad stomachs.
“We do see quite a lot of bites and that’s because these dogs are lovely with people, as you can imagine, but they have no socialisation with other dogs and there’s usually a lot of protectiveness.
“When they come to the station it’s one dog in, one dog out. We try to keep them separate.”
In Jade’s experience, there’s no doubt these dogs are loved.
“These people are just so bonded with their animals. The dogs have got company pretty much twenty-four hours of the day. I don’t think many people can say that about their animals, and a lot will feed their dogs before they feed themselves.
“Many are on the streets because they cannot get into a hostel with the dogs, so they will just stay on the street for that reason – they won’t give up their dogs.
“It’s hard. I operated on a dog last Tuesday, and the owner struggled having his dog away from him even for just a day. You know, he was sobbing when he came to get her after I did the procedure.
“We were able to put them up in a little Travelodge – the public have been amazing. They’ve helped us to fundraise to make sure that she’s off the street for a bit after the op.”
It’s not easy for the owners to first approach Jade, she’s found.
“It takes a wee while. They do get worried that they are going to get asked for a donation. Maybe they don’t have the money.
“Many are concerned the dog will be taken away from them. You need to build up a trust, but once they trust you, we have a great laugh. I’ve met some real characters.” n
Follow Jade and the DOTS team online at www. dotslondon.co.uk