Fw: (LK) OBSTRUCTIONS OF THE KANDY ABC CONTINUE

[Guest guest]

-

Padma

aapn

Friday, February 15, 2008 9:15 AM

(LK) OBSTRUCTIONS OF THE KANDY ABC CONTINUE

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

as you can read in the newsrelease below, our work is still facing many odds...

how much more time and energy we would have available for our task if we did not

have to deal with this stubborn council-vet again and again. But this wishful

thinking does not help, with much patience we carry on....

 

Kandy Municipal Vet interrupts field-clinic

 

 

 

Some good news had been received some time back: the Health Ministry has

released funds to control the dog-population humanely and we hope these funds

are being used for surgical sterilization and not for so-called chemical

sterilization by injection with progesterone, which delays conception for a few

months only and is a great risk for the health of the dog. However, at least in

the Central Province, we heard, it is planned to focus on surgical sterilization

and Kandy took the lead two weeks ago and started field clinics in few community

centres of the city under the supervision of Dr. Jayasinghe, the KMC-Vet. We

were informed that we should not attend those clinics and that members of SOFA

are not allowed to bring dogs to those clinics. We were not surprised to hear

this even though it has been suggested by the Health Ministry, that the local

authorities should seek the cooperation of the Animal-Welfare-Organizations. but

Dr.Jayasinghe always has his own ways: even after the No-Kill-Policy has been

announced by President Mahinda Rajapakse in 2006, Dr.Jayasinghe still insists

on killing dogs.

 

 

 

At that time we had been requested by a temple in Dodanwala to conduct a

field-clinic at the temple, therefore we handed over leaflets to the temple to

inform the neighbourhood about the clinic. We went to the temple one hour before

the set time to first sterilize the temple-dogs, so luckily they were done when

suddenly four angry men came shouting to the temple-premises and asked us to

wind up the clinic immediately otherwise the Police would do it. The leader of

the shouting group was Dr.Jayasinghe. We asked him why we should wind up the

clinic and he said that within KMC limits only the KMC has the right to conduct

public clinics and we should not interfere with the National Programme. This is

rather absurd because there are still more than enough of dogs in Kandy, which

need to be sterilized and the KMC had not planned any clinic in Dodanwala at

that time. So we offered to inform him in future beforehand when we plan clinics

in Kandy, but since he has never requested this from us before we had no idea

about these new rules and he should therefore allow this clinic to continue.

Then he said, that he is acting on behalf of the Commissioner and if we want to

discuss any further we should meet the Commissioner, which we tried, but the

Commissioner refused to meet us. In the meantime of course all the people, who

had brought their dogs, had got scared because of the threats and had gone home.

So Dr. Jayasinghe has achieved his purpose and puppies will continue to be born

in Dodanwala, for which he will continue to blame us, as he has been doing for

the last four years. But we don't think that was intention of the Health

Ministry when the National Programme was launched and therefore we hope, the

Ministry will advice the KMC not to interrupt any animal birth control clinics

in the future.

 

 

 

We have sterilized more than 12000 dogs and cats in Kandy and surroundings

during the last five years, yet there are many more to be done. We would gladly

leave the balance work to the KMC, if Dr.Jayasinghe is really prepared to do it

and then we can concentrate our efforts on Gampola and the rural areas, where we

receive very good cooperation from the Urban Council and the village head-men,

while from the KMC we get only harassment and obstruction. However up to now we

don't have the impression, that Dr.Jayasinghe's field-clincs will cover the

whole of Kandy and for community-dogs and strays his clinics are of no help

because they are meant for domestic animals only. Hopefully the ongoing

court-case between SOFA and the KMC will come to an end soon and the

obstructions of our effort to stabilize the street-dog-population will stop once

the final legal decision has been taken. We were planning to offer a settlement

outside courts when the case is due on 12th of March, but the latest incident

does not indicate, that this offer will be accepted by the council. In order to

avoid further conflicts together with all humane minded people of Sri Lanka we

are waiting for the passing and implementation of an animal- friendly law, which

lays out scientific guidelines for the eradication of rabies without killing

dogs.

 

 

 

Eva Ruppel

 

Treasurer of SOFA (SAVE OUR FRIENDS ASSOCIATION)