Journal Staff
The island’s veterinary sector is small but vital.
About eight clinics serve Guam’s pet population, a market that continues to grow alongside increasing pet ownership and changes in cultural perceptions.
Bringing pets to Guam, especially for military personnel, is a challenge. Guam is one of several locations around the world that are rabies free, and the Guam Department of Agriculture requires the imports of cats, dogs, and other carnivores to submit to a 120-day quarantine “in an approved commercial quarantine facility.” Quarantines can be shortened from zero to five days according to Public Law 27-84, if the animal has met specific requirements prior to arriving on island.
Seve Susuico, owner of Harper Valley Kennels, Harper Valley Clinic, and Pet Shippers Guam, alongside his wife, Jessica Nuñez, executive director at the business, looked to help incoming and outgoing pet owners with the daunting process.
Susuico said that roughly 80% to 98% of his clients are cats and dogs. One of the cultural shifts he noticed amongst pet owners on Guam is that they are more cognizant of their pet's health.
"The culture now ... [pet owners] are getting into bring in their pet to the vet," Nuñez said. "It's gotten a lot better within the last five years, people's awareness of maintenance of pets as far as keeping up to date with [preventative care] and vaccinations," he added. "We see a lot less of flea and tick disease because more owners are responsible on giving preventions."
Susuico is the son of Velma Harper, who originally opened the clinic in 1982. He opened the pet shipping arm of the operation during the COVID-19 pandemic when issues with pet travel were most apparent.
Veterinarians on Guam also are noticing changes in perceptions of pets in the household. Firstly, there are more pet owners and many pet owners are considering their pets to be an extension to their immediate family, a shift of what pet ownership was like a few decades ago Susuico said.
He said Harper Valley Kennels is the only commercial quarantine facility for pets in the region. It handles both the import and export documents, as well as provides the necessary care and supplies needed to ship them out of Guam.
Susuico and Nuñez said that the business has shipped animals nearly everywhere in Asia and the United States and as far as Europe in one case. Additionally, pet owners in the Northern Mariana Islands use the service to get their pets to the U.S.
Beyond the pet shipping services, Susuico and Nuñez continue to run Harper Valley Clinic and Harper Valley Kennels which offer traditional vet services as well as daycare and boarding services.
Some of its clients include the Guam Police Department’s and Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency’s working dogs.
Another long-time veterinarian clinic in Guam is Wise Owl Animal Hospital, run by Dr. Joel Joseph, which opened in 2005.
Joseph has had a long career in vetcare. He started practicing in Detroit among several local zoos as well as the Detroit Zoo, one of the more well-known zoos in the U.S.
In 1987 he opened a mobile animal clinic in Detroit — also called Wise Owl — until moving to Guam in 2001.
Wise Owl offers a number of vet services which include laser therapy which the clinic says helps reduce pain, inflammation, and accelerate healing using a process called photobiomodulation. The clinic's services also extend beyond Guam however.
Joseph said that through grant funding, Wise Owl has been going out in Micronesia to provide vetcare to pets in the region.
“We’ve been out in Micronesia since 2001,” he said. Services were also very affordable, he said. For $20, pet owners can get “anything you want done with your animal.”
In 2002, Wise Owl established a veterinary clinic in Pohnpei and the Federated States of Micronesia, which evolved into the Pacific Island Veterinary Service which now brings service to the Marshall Islands, Chuuk, Kosrae, and Yap.
Locally, Wise Owl participates in community outreach events, career days, and hosts vaccine clinics. mbj
