AFTER decades looking out for Canberra's animals, Sue Gage has taken her passion to East Timor with an ambitious plan to shift attitudes.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The former RSPCA ACT president has returned from a five-day trip with a better insight into the need for animal welfare reform and plans for an education program for children which has ministerial backing.
Ms Gage said in Dili baby monkeys were sold as pets, while chickens, pigs and dogs were commonly mistreated, as evidenced by a photo of a distress dog from a local vet.
"To see a dog like that in the photograph is not uncommon, and the reason a dog's legs will become gangrenous is because dogs [are] eaten … they're tied up by their back legs very, very tightly, so that they can't run away," Ms Gage said. "It does not allow circulation."
The seed of the retired real estate agent's self-funded trip came from a 2003 dinner with then Timor-Leste ambassador to Australia, Jorge da Conceicao Teme.
"He said 'you should come to my country, the condition of animals in my country is very bad'."
She said that at a meeting last week the former ambassador, now Minister of State Administration, supported her calls for a government-provided education program, dog de-sexing and improvement of animal health.
"He said, 'you've come at the right time', because there is starting to be at the top levels at least an awareness of humane treatment, proper treatment of animals, and empathy with them."
Ms Gage has previous overseas experience, supporting the founding of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Bangladesh in 2004.
The Deakin resident, who is acting in a private capacity, said she would be returning to Dili for a longer visit in June, and before then would provide a range of RSPCA and veterinary association material to assist the government with details for the reforms.
The vegetarian said encouraging locals and expatriates to set up a Timor-Leste SPCA was a separate goal. Ms Gage said while there were thousands of foreign NGO staff in the country, an Australian embassy official had told her she was the first to come over for animal welfare.
''What I'm talking about will take at least one generation [to achieve], probably two.'' she said.
