India reaffirms support of Animal Birth Control program, From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006

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>From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

 

 

India reaffirms support of Animal Birth Control program

 

NEW DELHI, ISTANBUL, BUCHAREST,

BELGRADE--The historic progress of compassionate

teachings about animals from east to west

appeared evident yet again in September 2006

rabies and street dog population control

developments.

India in September 2006 reaffirmed

neuter/return and vaccination as the official

national anti-rabies strategy.

Turkey was embarrassed by exposés of

inadequate supervision of a similar policy,

brought into effect by law in June 2005.

Several Romanian local governments,

including in the capital city of Bucharest,

appeared to be either ignoring or trying to roll

back animal control holding requirements, to

expedite killing.

In Belgrade, the Serbian capital,

municipal agencies allegedly actively discouraged

nonprofit animal welfare efforts, while

escalating killing dogs and cats.

" Rabies is prevalent throughout India

except on the islands of Lakshadweep and Andaman

and Nicobar, but has a low public health

priority, " the Indian Ministry of Environment &

Forests acknowledged in a September 20, 2006

statement of support for the Animal Birth Control

strategy that has been national policy since

December 1997. " Though exact statistical data is

not available, it is estimated that in India

approximately 20,000 people die of rabies every

year, " which also " causes a large number of

deaths in domestic and wild animals.

" Moreover, " the Ministry of Environment

& Forests continued, " there is a huge

expenditure incurred on post-exposure

vaccination. Therefore, there is an urgent need

eradicate this dreaded disease, as has been

achieved by Malaysia and Singapore.

" The main vector of rabies in India is

the dog. The twin strategies to control and

eradicate rabies in India will be to achieve at

least 80% prophylactic immunization of dog

population and to push forward the existing

ABC/Anti-Rabies program for stray and community

dogs.

" More than 70,000 stray or community dogs

are [already] being sterilized every year and

given anti-rabies vaccine, " the Ministry of

Environment & Forests summarized. " These dogs

are returned to their original habitat after

sterilization. This program, " carried out by

local charities with Animal Welfare Board of

India support, " has significantly reduced the

incidence of rabies in Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai,

Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Banglore, Kalimpong,

and Kolkata. "

The Ministry of Environment & Forests

admitted the difficulty of achieving " mass

immunization of stray or community dogs who are

not accessible for injectable rabies

vaccination, " but explained that " the problem

can now be addressed, " referring somewhat

obscurely to the introduction of oral rabies

vaccines for street dogs.

" The entire success of this project, " the

Ministry of Environment & Forests concluded,

trying to rally cooperation, " rests on local

municipal bodies, rural administrations, and

state government veterinary services, " which in

some parts of India have been slow to encourage

the ABC approach.

Killing street dogs, the Ministry

emphasized, " is inhumane and does not go well

with our cultural ethos of love and compassion

for animals. "

Elaborated Blue Cross of India chief

executive Chinny Krishna, who first demonstrated

the ABC approach in 1964, " There is an oral

rabies vaccine for street dogs, claimed to be

most effective, now available from Virbac of

France. With 26% import duty, it sells in India

for 120 rupees ($2.75 U.S.) per dose. Intervet

is on the verge of releasing an oral rabies

vaccine for street dogs, and competition may

bring the cost down. "

The Virbac vaccine, Krishna said, " can

be stored at four degrees Centigrade indefinitely

and used at temperatures up to 40 degrees

Centigrade and can even be kept at 40 degrees

Centigrade for several days. It is supposed to

be quite palatable, though it smells terrible.

Even if a dog receives up to 10 times the normal

dose, it is supposed to be okay.

" It is a live vaccine, " Krishna noted,

" so it must be given to the animals by someone

who will be responsible for picking up uneaten

baits before moving on.

" Dogs who eat the oral vaccine can be

vaccinated by the injectable even immediately

thereafter, so if an orally vaccinated dog is

later spayed and vaccinated conventionally, there

would be no adverse reaction. "

 

Turkey

 

In Turkey, explained Linda Taal of the

Dutch organization Stichting ActieZwerf-honden,

which works closely with several Turkish

organizations, " The June 2004 law stipulating

that neuter and release is the only permitted

method of solving the stray dog issue took effect

in July 2005.

" For part of Istanbul the work was

contracted out to a pesticide company. The

situation is abominable, " Taal continued.

" People from the Homeless Animals & Environmental

Protection Society (EHDKD) and Society for the

Protection of Animals (SHKD) on September 15,

2006 photographed the evidence at the Sariyer

Kocatas shelter, " an Istanbul municipal facility

now operated by a private contractor.

Taal and others soon distributed the

shocking photo portfolio worldwide.

" This year, Istanbul Metropolitan

Municipality opened a tender for neutering and

releasing 5,500 stray dogs, " retired economist

and longtime Sariyer Kocatas shelter volunteer

Dr. Bilge Okay of EHDKD explained to ANIMAL

PEOPLE. " No animal protection organization could

enter the tender, " because of a requirement that

entrants should already have completed a project

with the municipality worth at least $267,000.

" The contract was given to the lowest

bidder, Biosav A.S., which is an insecticide

producing firm, " and subcontracted a firm called

Anadolu Ilac Gida Ltd. Sti. to do the work.

" SHKD and EHDKD, as two organisations

experienced in neuter/release, offered our help

free of charge, " Okay said. " We offered to

train their vets in endoscopic neutering

techniques, at which our vets are experienced.

We gave them two vets, whose salaries are paid

by the animal organisation FHDD (Friends of

Fethiye Animals) to do operations and to train

their vets. These two vets worked for the

project for two months. We recommended to them

another vet who was experienced in neutering.

They fired him after a short time because he

objected to how things were handled. We offered

our experienced team to train their dog catchers.

They didn't accept our offers.

" The dogs are carried in vans without

ventilation, " Okay alleged. " Dogs who are

picked up in the morning arrive dead. Sick dogs

are taken to operation without any medical

treatment. And we have had many calls from

animal lovers saying that they are releasing dogs

in places where the dogs don't belong. We talked

to AIG several times, telling them about our

concerns, " Okay said, before taking the

complaints public.

" Our aim in publishing our pictures, "

Okay emphasized, " is not to destroy

neuter/release. On the contrary, we want the

neuter/release project to be applied properly and

humanely, and to be successful. We have

struggled for many years for neuter/release to be

accepted as the only rational and humane way to

solve the stray dog problem. Now that the

implementation has begun, it is our only wish

for it to be successful, because we are aware

that the alternative will be poisoning, as for

hundreds of years. "

ANIMAL PEOPLE on September 17 asked

Biosav to explain the EHDKD and SHKD photos, but

received no response.

There have been other difficulties in

introducing the Turkish ABC program.

" The regulations state that every

municipality in Turkey is now responsible for

their own neutering program, and they have to

build temporary shelters and operating clinics.

They also have to engage a veterinarian to carry

out the neutering operations, " explained Friends

of Fethiye Animals founder Perihan Agnelli, who

led the effort to make neuter/return the Turkish

national policy.

" Some municipalities are employing young,

newly qualified vets to do this work, but they do

not have experience in performing spaying and

castration, " continued Agnelli. " This has

resulted in municipalities asking us for help in

training their new vets. Some of the vets come

to our centre in Fethiye, where we accommodate

them.

" Whilst many municipalities are setting

up their own programs, which they will manage

with their own personnel, some of the larger

cities like Istanbul, Ankara, and Sivas have

hired private organizationa, " Agnelli

acknowledged. " I haven't heard anything negative

from either Ankara or Sivas, but I have heard

that the company that won the bid in Istanbul is

making a mess of things. "

British clothier Robert Smith, who has

sponsored several sheltering and neuter/ return

pilot projects in Istanbul, " offered to

undertake catching, neutering, and releasing

dogs on their behalf, " Agnelli added. " The

company agreed, but the municipality refused the

help. "

 

Romania

 

Smith, also involved for about seven

years in Romania, on September 15 unveiled " a

proposal and budget for a neuter/return project

in the whole province of Bihor, Romania, which we

intend to implement over the next three years, "

he said.

But Smith pre-empted his own Internet

discussion of the project after becoming aware of

a Romanian Senate proposal which, as translated

by Romanian animal advocates, would limit the

holding time for impounded dogs to just five days.

As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, Smith

and others were still trying to establish whether

that was the legislative intent, or whether the

intent was to set a minimum holding time of five

days, as required by the U.S. Laboratory Animal

Welfare Act in 1966 and reiterated in the Animal

Welfare Act of 1971. Originally applied only to

animals who were sold to labs, the five-day

standard became the default minimum for all

impounded animals in most states.

Sara Turetta of the Associazione Save the

Dogs and Fundatia Daisy Hope founder Aura Maratas

meanwhile reported aggressive municipal dog

collection and killing in downtown Bucharest.

" The action was run by night with the

support of the police, " Turetta e-mailed. " The

'cleaning' of the area, " in the neighborhood

where a loose pit bull terrier killed a Japanese

visitor in February 2006, " was done, " Turetta

alleged, " in order to give a western look to the

capital during the meeting of the International

Francophone Organiz-ation, " held on September

28-29.

The most recent and apparently the most

limited of many Bucharest dog-purges during the

past 10 years occurred while Turetta was

providing emergency help to the impounded dogs of

Calarasi, which she described as " a very poor

town 60 kilometres from Cernavoda, on the

frontier with Bulgaria. "

In 2003 Turetta " visited the kennel run

by the Sufletel association, " she recalled,

" which was starting activity concurrent with the

town killing stray dogs. Save the Dogs has a

video clip, shot in 2003, showing the violence

of the dog catchers. Many dogs were choked to

death on the street with metal nooses, " Turetta

alleged. " The dogs who survived capture were

killed by an injection of air or toxic agents in

the peritoneum. After protest by local animal

lovers, they shifted to shooting, which they

are still doing. According to the local press

and Sufletel, dogs are still brutally caught,

brought to the edge of town, and shot by

huntsmen.

" When we visited the kennel in 2003, we

gave one single piece of advice to the chair of

Sufletel: stop! " Turetta recalled. " They did

not have the economic resources nor the medical

knowledge to ensure decent living conditions to

the dogs hosted there.

" Back in 2003 and today still we cannot

manage a second facility, and at that time we

could not give them any economic aid. Calarasi

was one of many emergency situations in Romania,

and we had to step backward despite our

willingness to help.

" Unfortunately, the association did not

follow our advice, " Turetta said. " This year,

Sufletel asked us for the help of our mobile

clinic. On August 8 we went to Calarasi to

arrange for neutering the 230 dogs at the kennel.

About 150-170 of them were severely ill. Almost

all the dogs were bald from mange. Many were

close to death.

" Near the kennel, " Turetta continued,

" there were four or five tons of bones, the

basic food for the dogs, mixed with corpses,

left to rot under the sun because the authorities

cannot and do not want to organize a waste

collection service. "

Turetta published photographs of the scene on Save The Dogs web site.

Starting on August 9, Turetta said,

" Four vets from Unisvet, three volunteers from

Save the Dogs, and a worker from the Cernavoda

kennel spent three 10-hour days at the Calarasi

kennel. Unfortunately, some dogs were in such

poor health that they had to be euthanized. The

rest received worming and flea treatment. About

100 dogs were treated for mange. About 40 male

dogs were neutered. " Construction was started on

new perimeter barriers and kennels.

" The bones and corpses were removed by a

bulldozer and disposed of, " Turetta added.

" Unfortunately, despite a picture of our team

published on the first page of a local newspaper,

dog catchers were working the next day in the

city center, " capturing more dogs to be killed

and increasing the inclination of local animal

lovers to take strays to the overcrowded shelter.

Turetta in September led a follow-up

visit to Calarasi, with a mobile clinic donated

by the Dutchypuppy Foundation and additional

support raised from Italy, the Netherlands,

Sweden and the U.S.

This time they sterilized 50 dogs,

focusing on pregnant females; treated 150 dogs

for mange; introduced microchipping; followed

up on making physical improvements to the

shelter; and began making staff changes to bring

in more caring and dedicated people.

" We will keep you updated, " Turetta pledged.

 

Serbia

 

The Serbian situation reached

international notice through appeals for

international political support e-mailed during

the last weeks of September by Slavica Mazak

Beslic of EPAR (Friends of Animals Society), who

operates a shelter in Subotica.

" Local authorities sent a building

inspector, who commanded us to destroy all of

our dog houses and destroy our dog shelter with

450 dogs, " Beslic said, lamenting that even

before the demolition order came, " We need more

boxes for 43 dominant dogs who are still on

chains because they cannot be together with other

dogs.

" When we as a nonprofit nongovernmental

organisation asked for help from the republic and

local authorities, and offered collaboration,

they refused, " Beslic said.

Part of Beslic's complaint concerned her

contention that the government should pay the

cost of vaccinating the shelter dogs against

rabies. The inspection and demolition order

appeared to follow a dispute over vaccination.

Beslic illustrated her arguments-- and

the need for improvement in Serbian animal

control practices--with photos of about 30 dead

dogs in plastic bags at a garbage dump. The

photos, Beslic said, were taken on September

20, 2006, in the town of Smeder-evo. The dogs

were impounded without food or water, according

to Beslic, and then poisoned or clubbed.

" We try to explain to the authorities of

Serbia that a more useful, economical, and

more humane approach, including sterilization

and adoption, is the best solution for stray dog

control, but nothing changes, " Beslic alleged.

" They now do mass killing and sterilization

together, and we can see that last week some

dogs were sterilized and after this the same dogs

were killed. "

Investigating Beslic's allegations,

Belgrade activist and journalist Jelena told

ANIMAL PEOPLE that, " Belgrade owns one killing

pound, in the OVCA district, and sponsors

several private killing pounds around Serbia, "

some of which appeared to be implicated. The

OVCA pound practices apparently represent the

norms.

Taking statements from six witnesses to

OVCA pound procedures, Zaric concluded that it

" does not work to law, does not possess

appropriate management, and the workers do not

possess the skills needed to work with animals.

" Captured animals are kept without water,

food, and proper medical care, " Zaric

summarized from the witnesses' statements.

" Sterilization is performed on animals who are in

very bad health, and are held further without

proper post-operative care.

" Killing methods, " that Zaric was told

about, " include injecting various toxic

detergents, injecting the concentrated

insecticide Nuvan, various kind of oral

poisoning, suffocation by plastic bags or ropes,

hanging, clubbing, smashing animals' heads with

heavy doors, smashing restrained animals on the

floor, and injections of T-61, " a paralytic

lethal agent used mainly to kill mink on fur

farms, used by some U.S. animal control agencies

until banned in 1986.

" The OVCA facility is closed to the

public, " Zaric added. " The procedure for dog

adoption is very hard, and it takes more than 5

hours to obtain needed documents to get inside.

Even with the needed papers, no one with our

investigation could get inside the area where the

dogs are held. It is very hard to get inside the

killing area. All of our witnesses were citizens

who under pressure from workers gave money or

gifts before entering the area where dogs were

held in cages.

" By statements from all sides involved,

every year, from October through April, Belgrade

kills more than 6,000 dogs, " Zaric said, " but

there are no precise statistics.

" Sterilization plans have failed many

times, " Zaric continued. " Pet sterilization is

not popular in Serbia. We do all we can, without

the help of city officials.

" Caretakers spend their money to

sterilize street animals, " Zaric reported, " and

then the dog catchers kill them. "

--Merritt Clifton

 

--

Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

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