Save our Friends - the dogs of Kandy

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends of Man's Best Friend

 

Yesterday we met Dr.Jayasinghe, the Municipal Vet.Surgeon of Kandy in the

Governor's office, today in the Court. If the life of the Kandy dogs would

depend on the court case, thosand could have been killed by now because the KMC

knows how to drag the case and win time: still they have not filed the data on

rabies, which the Judge asked them to produce since August. For us it is not

surprising because we have already filed the data on rabies given by the

hospitals, and he will not be able to find any valid data, which would

contradict the fact, that - as stated by the directors of both Hospitals - the

demand for post exposure treatment has been decreasing by more than 50%

 

However the case helps to prevent the department from mass-killng, but

occassionly, mostly at night, dogs have been killed... yet, we will not give up.

 

The next date in Court is 22nd of March, but that too will not yet be the trial.

 

After yesterday's meeting with the Governor we decided to write an open letter,

which you can read below.

 

Please write to the Sri Lankan press in favour of Humane methods to stabilise

the dog-population and to eradicate rabies. Not only the public has to be

educated, even some professionals don't see yet, that killing does not help to

solve the problem. Just few days ago an article in a Sinhala paper suggested,

that all unregistered dogs should be eliminated. We have to speak for our

friends because they cannot explain the simple facts of ABC to these people, who

are used to the Dog-van since the time of the British and have come to think

that it is a must.

 

The addresses of the editors are: prabath

editor

editor

 

 

Open letter to the Health-Minister, the Governor of the Central Province and the

Mayor of Kandy and to the citizens of Kandy from SAVE OUR FRIENDS ASSOCIATION

(SOFA)

 

 

 

We very much appreciate, that the Governor of the Central Province invited us

today to have a meeting with the KMC-Commissioner and Dr.Jayasinghe, the KMC

Vet. Surgeon, at his office. We had much hope, that this meeting would help to

come to a settlement of the conflicts, which had developed between Dr.Jayasinghe

and SOFA during the last two years with regard to stray dog population control

in Kandy. We were very happy to learn, that the new Governor is just like late

Monty Gopalawa, a person, who feels, that animals have a right to live. We also

share his concern about the safety of the people of Kandy and agree, that the

present state of Kandy being rabies-free, must be maintained. We very much agree

with him, that the irresponsible attitude of Sri Lankan dog-owners has led to

the problem of stray-dogs and that it is high time to educate dog-owners about

their duties towards their dogs and towards the society.

 

 

 

However the much needed cooperation of animal welfare societies and government

officials in order to work towards a rabies-free Sri Lanka could not be achieved

for Kandy in today's meeting either and we have little hope, that the present

KMC-Vet. Surgeon will ever give up his attitude, that killing dogs is going to

reduce the stray-population and the danger of rabies spreading.

 

 

 

Even though it has been explained in the media many times why killing has never

anywhere eradicated rabies and 100 years of killing dogs in Sri Lanka has led

to the biggest stray-dog-population we ever had, we need to clarify today once

again what the World Health Organisation (WHO) has researched and recommended:

 

 

 

1.. Stray-animals exist because the breeding rate of cats and dogs is so high,

that the owners of female pets dump unwanted offspring at public places.

2.. Removal of those strays from the public places leads to immediate

replacement by other animals because wherever food-sources are available,

unwanted animals will find them and then establish themselves in the locality.

3.. In order to stabilise the population, mass-sterilization programmes have

to be conducted for strays as well as for domestic animals and vaccination of

all animals has to be carried out regularly.

4.. By the time the natural lifespan of the sterilized strays is over, the

domestic population should be also controlled, so that there will be no

replacement through unwanted offspring.

 

 

According to a Cabinet-decision Sri Lanka will soon establish a humane dog

population control-programme as recommended by the WHO and we hope this will be

passed by the Parliament before the KMC kills all the 6800 dogs and cats, which

have been vaccinated and sterilized by us during the past three and half years.

 

 

 

Our commitment to maintain the rabies-free state of Kandy remains unbroken, but

it will be difficult without the cooperation of the KMC. Today we were told by

Dr.Jayasinghe, that we cannot expect any cooperation from his department. We

therefore appeal to the higher authorities, the Mayor of Kandy, to the Governor

of the Central Province and to the Health-Ministry, to safeguard the Humane

Dog-Population-Control Programme carried out by SOFA.

 

 

 

We appreciate every call from the citizens of Kandy to inform us about strays in

their neighbourhoods, which need to be sterilized, we will follow up every call

and try to catch those dogs and get them neutered. We offer free sterilizations

at the Vet.Faculty of the University as well as in some private clinics, we

assist the low income group even with transportation of their pets to the

clinics, where they will be sterilized. We will arrange field clinics in any

neighbourhood, where a suitable site is made available. Please call any of the

following numbers: 060-2801736, 081- 4470681, 077-7426229

 

 

 

Once again we wish to thank the Health Minister for his commitment to a humane

approach and the Governor of the Central Province for his kind attitude towards

man's best friend, we also thank all the citizens of Kandy, who got their female

pets sterilized.