Local Face: Lisa Angus
Lisa grew up with her three brothers in Harpenden, Hertfordshire where she attended Sir John Lawes secondary school and could never remember not wanting to be a vet. After completing the 5 year degree course at Bristol University, Lisa graduated with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science in 2004 and became a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Lisa began her career at The Woolpack Veterinary Surgery, a small mixed practice in Hertfordshire, then spent two years at The Shrubbery Veterinary Centre, a busy small animal practice in Kent. Lisa moved to Wendover in November 2007, to take up her current position at Wendover Heights Veterinary Centre, as one of the 10-vet small animal team.
Over the last 6 years, Wendover Heights Veterinary Centre has provided Lisa with the opportunity, extensive facilities and excellent support to develop her career and gain a wide range of experience in all areas of small animal practice. In particular, Lisa pursued her special interest in small animal medicine and completed her post-graduate General Practitioner Certificate in Small Animal Medicine in 2010. Wendover Heights continues to be an enjoyable place for Lisa to work, clinical freedom allows her to treat every pet individually and the wide variety of patients that come through the surgery door mean no two days are the same.
When not at work, Lisa spends time with her family and friends and enjoys walking her energetic two year old Labrador Cross, Ellie, who she re-homed from Chiltern Dog Rescue last year. Lisa’s holiday time is often spent walking, too, and she has visited many places in the UK, Europe and further afield.
In September this year, Lisa took the amazing opportunity to swap treating the pets of Wendover for the street dogs of India, volunteering with Mission Rabies (www.missionrabies.com), a project developed by the charity Worldwide Veterinary Service and sponsored by among others, Dogs Trust. The aim of the project was to vaccinate 50,000 dogs against rabies in just 30 days, before World Rabies Day on 29 September. India is a rabies hotspot where every hour a person, often a child, dies from the terrible and totally preventable disease, nearly always after being bitten by an infected dog. Fear of rabies in India results in hundreds of thousands of healthy dogs being inhumanely destroyed every year. Lisa spent 2 weeks at each of the checkpoints in Chennai and Kolkata, working with a team of Indian and international vets, vet nurses and volunteers. Each day started early and was spent walking the streets, slums, beaches and tsunami rehabilitation areas of the cities, vaccinating, marking and recording the dogs caught by trained animal handlers in large nets. The project was an overwhelming success, with a massive 60,310 dogs being vaccinated against rabies in 30 days. Since September, the Mission Rabies all-terrain mobile veterinary hospital truck has been travelling India to continue to vaccinate and neuter dogs, train local vets to manage rabies control, educate the local population about rabies and develop a National Rabies Network.
Lisa has returned to Wendover having had an incredible experience with Mission Rabies and is proud to have been part of such a worthwhile project that really will make a difference and save the lives of humans and dogs in India. Lisa plans to continue supporting the project however she can in future.