SRI LANKA: COURT CASE IN KANDY CONTINUES

[Guest guest]

On 22nd August we met our good old friend Dr:Jayasinghe again infront of the

Judge, who is obviously very concerned to bring about a settlement... may be

because he feels, that whatever he decides, the ABC-programme would be hampered

if it continues to be carried out against the resistance of the municipality. In

fact he is right, if that is the cause of his concern: it is very difficult to

work under the present circumstances and it is very frustrating to sterilize and

vaccinate and treat so many dogs and never being certain, whether they will be

safe after we return them to their places because we cannot be sure if

Dr.Jayasinghe still gets dogs killed on the sly. Also the domestic dogs, which

are being brought to be sterilized in our field-clinics and to the various

clinics working with us, are not safe as long as the Kandy Municipality Council

(KMC) takes the existing Rabies Ordinance as its authority, ignoring the

Presidential Order, which prohibits the killing of dogs. T

hat they

tdated ordinance, was made clear be their lawyer three days ago and he also

stated, that no settlement can take place unless we agree, to re-home all the

dogs we take off the street... which is neither possible, nor necessary, nor

would it clear the streets from dogs. Even though we said, that we would not

agree to such terms, the Judge asked both parties to have a meeting with the

Mayor and try to find a solution and he gave two months time for that. We very

much appreciate the good intention of the Judge, but we have no idea how to come

to a compromise. Of course we don't return sick and badly malnutritioned dogs to

the road... we already have adopted more than 150 of such dogs in our members'

homes and more than 50 are permanently living in our transit home because they

could not be returned, but to take more than that is not within our capacity

right now and it is also not necessary because most of the dogs in Kandy have

owners or at least feeders, and even if we were able to give new homes would be

mostly the same like their original homes: houses without proper fences and with

doors mostly open, which means the dogs are again free to move and they do. The

purpose of ABC at this point is not to clear the streets of dogs, but to

stabilise the population and to have the dogs all vaccinated. It's a miracle,

why this simple solution to the rabies threat is so difficult to grasp. Luckily

we had no rabies cases in Kandy within the last four years since the programme

is being carried out, we hope the Judge will appreciate this fact and we will be

able to continue the programme.