(LK) Dogs disappear in Kandy

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

 

 

 

After a long silence from SOFA due to an overload of field-work, today we

wish to share an article, which is going to be published in a local paper

next Tuesday (in the Kennel-Corner of the " Island " ). The article reflects

some of the day to day problems we are facing and you can imagine that it is

very painful for us, that we are dedicating our lives, not only to create a

better life for the animals, but also to effectively solve a problem of the

community, but instead of giving us support, the community-leaders are bend

on their short-sighted short-cuts.

 

 

 

Since our last news-letter we had three hearings in courts, one in July, one

in September and one in January, but the court-proceedings are terribly slow

in this country (cases can go on for 30 or 40 years) and also these last

three hearings did not bring about any progress. next time we have to go

there in March. However, as long as the case is going on, the Municipal

Council is careful, not to kill dogs openly, though it could possibly happen

secretly, but definitely not in a big scale, otherwise we would know about

it. To find out more about this case please refer to our website

www.sofakandy.org <http://www.sofakandy.org/>

 

 

 

Still we cannot give you the break-up of our last year's expenses because

our treasurer was getting delayed in handing over the accounts to the

auditor, but we hope to have it ready next month.

 

 

 

However, we can already tell you that much: the food-prices have gone up

again during this last one year, feeding the dogs in the shelter has

therefore become more expensive and the salaries of the workers also had to

be raised because they also have to cope with the raised cost of living. Yet

we could sterilise more than 3000 dogs in the course of the year because

most of our clinics have been sponsored by Vier Pfoten Dog Care Clinic from

Germany. For the coming year however we need to raise more funds for our

birth-control-program again because Vier Pfoten had to reduce the amount it

can spend on Kandy because of its programme in the south of Sri Lanka.

 

 

 

Therefore please remember to mention our program to anyone, who might want

to support a worthwhile charitable cause.

 

 

 

At the same time we are thanking everyone, who has helped us during these

last six years to reduce the stray-population of Kandy and to rescue

thousands of abandoned pups and accident-victims.

 

 

 

Here the article:

 

 

 

A NATIONAL " SPORT " : THE DUMPING OF CATS AND DOGS

 

 

 

SOFA has been silently proceeding with its work these last two years without

giving much publicity except for the local publicity to invite dog- and

cat-owners for our regular field-clinics, which take place in various parts

of Kandy and in villages around Kandy. In these clinics we offer

Anti-rabies-vaccination and surgical sterilisation free of charge and also

treat skin-diseases, transferable veneral tumors and other common conditions

inflicting mostly dogs, sometimes also cats.

 

 

 

The fact, that throughout the country MOH offices also hold clinics offering

free sterilisation for female dogs, has been appreciated by us and we may

get less requests for field-clinics due to the coverage of the MOH-clinics,

but still we receive more requests than we can actually manage financially

and had to put some planned programs on hold due to lack of funds.

 

 

 

Besides those clinics we carry on with a Catch-Neuter-Return-Program for

strays in Kandy, Gampola and Pilimatalawa, this too is restricted due to

lack of funds and lack of volunteers, but whatever we can, we do.

 

 

 

The purpose of these activities is to reduce the number of stray-animals and

to eliminate rabies, but it's a lone battle against a wide-spread stupidity:

the sport of dumping cats and dogs into areas where they do not belong.

Apart from the terrible suffering inflicted on these creatures, being

uprooted from their homes and thrown out somewhere into a hostile

environment, it is also an offence against the people living in the area,

where the animals are being disposed. But more that that it is totally

counter-productive to the purpose it is trying to achieve:

 

For example the Mayor of Kandy did not like the dogs near his Residence and

therefore ordered the KMC Vet-Dept. to get ridd of these dogs. Since the

killing-policy has been been, at least officially abandoned, the

dog-catchers caught the dogs, which were all sterilized and vaccinated and

well looked after by the community and took them somewhere. nobody knows

where. Being approached by some of his neighbors, the Mayor said, that the

dogs have been taken to Gohagoda, where SOFA occupies the earlier dog-pound

as a shelter for homeless dogs and a transit-home for strays to recover from

sterilisation-surgery, but these dogs were never delivered there. Either

they have been killed or they have been dumped somewhere and are roaming the

streets, trying to find their home, which unfortunately was too close to the

Mayor's Residence. They share this terrible fate with many other dogs, which

unfortunately lived near the villas of the VIPs, who also did not like their

sight and got assistance of the KMC Vet-Dept. to get them deported. But the

point I wish to make is not so much, that people should understand, that the

suffering they inflict on any living being, will bounce back on them, but:

isn't it totally clear, that everytime you dump something, which you don't

like, infront of another person's house, the other person will do the same,

he will also dump it somewhere else, and this chain continues on and on and

eventually someone will choose exactly your home to dump whatever he doesn't

like, may it be a cat or a dog or whatever. And in case of the Mayor's

residence it is no question at all: in no time plenty of dogs will assemble

again because a temple is closeby and people love to dump dogs at temples,

thinking monks are very kind and feed any amount of dogs, and then we have

the Wales-Park nearby, where security-guards are there and they also are

usually kind and feed the strays. The difference will be: the new dogs

collecting there will not be vaccinated and sterilised, they will be real

strays, confused after having been dis-located, may be even aggressive due

to fear and confusion and they will multiply, while the dogs, you removed,

Mr. Aluvihara, have been safe, did not litter and some of them had homes,

but just spent the day-time at the Wales-park while their owners were at

work. Please re-think about this dumping-practice you have chosen to use a s

a method to " clean up " Kandy, it doesn't work, it just creates more and more

strays, more and more homeless animals, up-rooted from their territory,

where the community cared for them. Please take the President Mahinda

Rajapakse as your guide: all the strays in front of his Residence were

spayed and allowed to remain there. May our National Leader inspire the

ending of a terrible " National Sport " , he has already taken a bold step to

stop the killing and granted funds to the Health Ministry to conduct

sterilisation-clinics, but there is no way for us to " meassure " , which kind

of suffering is worse: being killed or being dumped and re-dumped again and

again into unfamiliar surroundings. Let's not exchange one kind of suffering

for another one, let's end the suffering of animals through a well-organized

nation-wide education- and spay/neuter-program, which makes sterilisation of

females obligatory until we have no more abandoned pets in Sri Lanka.

 

 

 

In good hope, that one day the Buddha's teaching will be practiced in Sri

Lanka and create a kind and safe environment for all beings.

 

 

 

Padma

 

 

 

Committee-member of SAVE OUR FRIENDS ASSOCIATION (SOFA)