Fiji needs to look at 'big picture' of animal welfare

There is a call for Fiji to look at the "big picture" when it comes to animal welfare after a dog was found with a large knife wound in its back.

The dog had to be put down after it was found with a 20-25cm-long cane knife wound that had cut through to its spine, a couple of days after it went missing from its owner's property.

Casey Quimby of Fiji Animals, the organisation that the owners took the dog to for treatment, said while these types of incidents aren't necessarily common, Fiji needed to improve standards of animal welfare.

"The two big issues that we have, particularly in Fiji, is one - population control. People can't control their animals or their pets multiplying. And two, we have a lack of vets. We have a very small number of practising veterinarians."

Casey Quimby said there was also a lot of ignorance around animal welfare in Fiji and more needed to be done to educate people on how to properly care for both pets and farm animals.