The coronavirus pandemic is truly a global issue and it has sadly had an effect on our work around the world as well as in the UK. We caught up with our team in Georgia to find out how they have been adapting and coping during these difficult times.

At the start of 2020, Mayhew Georgia was making great progress, with four partner vet clinics on board and preparations well underway to trial a spay and neuter project in Anaklia, a town on the Black Sea coast. Between January and the end of march this year, our team in Georgia neutered 190 dogs and vaccinated 160 dogs against rabies.

Unfortunately, this work was put on pause in March as Georgia went into lockdown. We caught up with Dr Ana Metskhvarishvili, Veterinary Surgeon for Mayhew Georgia, to find out how the teams there have been doing.

How has your work changed since lockdown began?

Dr Ana: When the lockdown started, our lives changed drastically. We needed to begin working under the rule of only having three people on-site, which means that everything apart from emergency care has had to be postponed. Surgeries are impossible to perform, so we had to suspend the neutering programme. Now [early May], restrictions are slowly lifting and in Tbilisi we are trialling restarting our clinics for TVNR, with social distancing being strictly observed, of course.

Have you noticed any change in attitudes towards stray animals?

Dr Ana: It’s been very heartwarming to see that local people have been working together to take turns feeding the stray dogs in their areas, and I have also heard of people walking long distances with 10kg of food, just so they can ensure the stray animals are well fed.

What would Tbilisi be like without Mayhew Georgia’s support?

Dr Ana: I believe that the government would eventually come to an agreement that Georgia needs animal population management; however, I worry about what methods they would use to achieve this. Mayhew Georgia is currently demonstrating a humane and effective way of managing the population and I hope in the future that our work can expand further across the country.