A BRITISH animal lover has spent much of the past year in Sri Lanka helping animals in the wake of the devastating tsunami.

Animal welfare worker Dawn Peacock, 26, from Hull, East Yorkshire flew out to see what help could be given to animals whose owners had died.

The result was a new charity, the Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust (TMAWT) which has sterilized 6,000 dogs and vaccinated 8,000 against rabies.

The government agreed to shelve plans for the mass killing of dogs after TMAWT offered to attend to them.

The trust's goal is to sterilize over 75% of animals in an area. Males and females are sterilized both for population control and to reduce aggression that can increase dog bites to people.
Volunteers from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Germany throughout last year have joined a core team of four Sri Lankan vets.

Sherry Grant, TMAWT director, said: "Without Dawn's drive, support and experience this project would never have got off the ground."