FW: (LK) KANDY, SOFA newsletter

July 10, 2009

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padma [padmaeva]

Friday, July 10, 2009 6:03 AM

'aapn '

(LK) KANDY, SOFA newsletter

This week's Kennel Corner (7th of July) of " The Island " carried an article

by Dr.Jayasinghe accusing SOFA and me personally in a wild reaction to my

article in the previous week's Kennel Corner " KMC Vet continues to obstruct

humane dog population control "

Dr.Jayasinghe is asking me from where I got my informations about the number

of dogs the KMC has sterilized.

In the beginning of the ongoing program carried out by his department, the

vet conducting the program send me an sms, giving me the relevant dates and

later, when I called him back, he gave me the locations in which they

planned to operate. It was a three-day-program held in various parts of

Kandy simultaneously, I remember about 8 to12 locations, but later I was

told that some of them had to be canceled or postponed. He also told me that

Dr.Jayasinghe had asked him to tell us that SOFA-members should not show up

at the clinics, but we could inform people to bring their dogs for the

camps. Those days I did not know about the quality of these clinics and

actually told one person, that she could take her dogs to one of those

clinics. Now I would not do that because I get a lot of calls from people

telling me about infected sutures and many death-cases too. Later the same

vet (Dr.Chamith Nyanakara) told me that 680 or 860 dogs have been done, I

did not remember the figure correctly, therefore I wrote that few hundred

dogs have been done.

When I wrote the article I forgot that some time later I received a call

from a lady, who had taken her two dogs to a KMC clinic in Katugastota, she

asked me about the cutting of the sutures, she said that the vets had not

told her that they have to be cut, but she noticed, that they were

nylon-sutures and therefore they would not dissolve. I told her that I would

come to her house to cut the sutures after ten days, but later she told me

that the dogs have done the job themselves. Fortunately many dogs do that,

but not all. Unfortunately some dogs do it too early.

After that I did not hear anything about KMC clinics until Dr.Nyanakarra

send us another sms few months ago about a new plan to target 1000 dogs in

Kandy, again it was supposed to be a three or four day-program carried out

in various locations simultanously and one night-program near the lake for

the strays in the city. I called him to get the dates and places so that we

could keep our sterilized dogs safe because in the meantime we already knew,

that they do not check whether the dogs are sterilized when they catch them,

but without checking they transport them to the location of the camp, sedate

them, anesthetize them and then only check for muscle sutures just before

they cut. Since we know the catching-methods of the KMC, we were very

worried, that unnecessarily many sterilized dogs would have to undergo that

trauma, but our main fear was the returning part because we had already

heard that this is not being done properly at all, we even wondered, whether

the KMC would even use the opportunity to take the dogs out of the city as

they have done with the Wales-Park-dogs few weeks before. we could never

find out where they have been dumped or whether they have been killed even,

but we know for sure that it was Dr.Jayasinghe's team, which took them away.

I asked Dr.Nyanakara, who was still a SOFA-member at that time, whether he

could make sure that the dogs are being returned to their territories, he

said his job is to do the surgery only, but we should not worry. After that

we had a meeting and decided, that he and Dr.Wijewardane are actually not

really in line with SOFA any more and we nominated other members for the

positions they held in our committee. We anticipated the upcoming program

with fear and made whatever arrangements possible to hide at least some of

the sterilized city-dogs during the night-program. We were quite relieved

when we heard that the program was canceled in the last minute because of

the tooth-exhibition at the Tooth-Temple, then suddenly the exhibition was

called off and a staff member of the KMC Vet-Dept said the program was on at

least in one of the planned locations and also the night-program. So we were

hiding Sherry, Brownie, Kalu and about six other dogs during the night.

Since Dr.Nyanakara had said that the program would be going on til midnight,

one volunteer released the petrol-shed-dog at 4.30, but later she found her

with a terrible neck-wound, which had to be sutured and so we guess that

they tried to catch her and another volunteer had heard dogs screaming

around five in the morning. we have no proof, but we have a suspicion, that

the planned night program was made an opportunity to catch dogs and remove

them from the city because from the next day, some dogs, which come to the

stray-feeding places in town, were missing. However, the same KMC vet dept.

staff member, who had told us that the night-program was on, later said,

that it had not taken place at all. So we eventually lost track of the count

completely except for the 17 dogs, which were sterilized at the army-camp,

we have no clue what they have done. About the Watapulluwa - Program we know

because it was announced with notices in various locations and because we

saw the drowsy dogs on the streets, and about the night-camp, which took

place at Bogambara recently we heard from an observer, who came all the way

from Colombo to watch. She phoned us next day and said that many male dogs

were done and most of them were caught very humanely by hand. Now, this is

not at all surprising because the males running around town during the night

are domestic dogs and easy to catch. The difficult dogs, the timid and

scared females, have not been caught, only the tame ones like Sherry, which

were already sterilized long ago. Actually, even though for individual

welfare-reasons I agree that male dogs should be fixed too, but they need

even more aftercare than the females and due to the minimal sterile

procedures taking place in these Central Province clinics we have come

across many cases of swollen testicles and infected sutures, therefore we do

not agree to the new government-policy to release funds for male dogs too.

Since this has been decided, the majority of dogs castrated in the Central

Province clinics are males and the females keep littering.

Dr.Jayasinghe claims that his department has fixed a total of 2000 dogs, I

have no way to proof that it is a lie, but I know that Sherry is one of the

dogs counted and Watapully too.

Now I want to come to the second accusation Dr.Jayasinghe made against me:

he says that he has never been contacted by TAPA. It is true that TAPA has

not contacted him directly, because it is the policy of TAPA to contact the

chairperson of the location, therefore in this case the Mayor has received a

letter from TAPA handed over by Mr. Mohan Samarakoon and immediately

welcomed the offer, but after few days he said he cannot accept the offer

because Dr.Jayasinghe does not want any interference with his own program. I

knew beforehand that Dr.Jayasinghe will be reluctant, so I asked Champa

Fernando, the secretary of KACPAW, who is usually very good in convincing

people when it comes to canine issues, whether she could talk to him in a

friendly way and try to convince him that accepting the offer would be

beneficial, specially since it would save Government funds, she said she

will try to speak to him about this, but later she called me and said that

he refused.

During this time the Governor was abroad, so there was no higher authority

to appeal to and therefore the sponsor of this offer, Mrs.Marina Moebious

from Germany, who is running a shelter, a clinic and ongoing

sterilization-camps in the south of Sri Lanka, redirected the offer to

Gampola , where she had already sponsored 2000 sterilizations in the

previous year.

However, when the Governor returned to Kandy, he asked whether he could

invite TAPA at another date to come to Kandy and have a clinic at his

residence or at the army-camp below his residence carried out in cooperation

with the Provincial Health Department. Mrs. Moebius obliged and offered to

send TAPA to Kandy for a 500 dogs-rotation starting from 29th of June.

Immediate after receiving the letter from TAPA accordingly, the Governor

called Dr.Shanthi Samarasinghe, Director of the Provincial Health Department

and said that he would forward the letter to her the following morning so

that she could go ahead organizing it. He gave her my phone-number as a

contact-number because Mrs.Moebius was in Germany at the time. After few

days, Mr. Jayakody from the Department called me and said that Dr.Jayasinghe

does not want TAPA working in Kandy, whether we could choose another MOH. I

told him that it was the Governor's wish to have the clinic in Kandy. Then

he said that in this case the Governor should speak to the Mayor and get his

permission. The Mayor promised to the Governor that he will make the

arrangements and invited a representative of TAPA to come to Kandy to

discuss details. However when Dr.Tushira arrived at the Mayor's office at

the appointed time on 19th of June, the Mayor showed him a letter by

Dr.Jayasinghe, dated 18th of June, stating that he already carries out a

sterilization-program in Kandy and another group working in Kandy would

interfere with his program. A copy of this letter had been sent to the

Governor too and was received by him on the 19th. Why did he write this

letter if he did not even know that TAPA had been invited to Kandy?

The Governor then suggested that TAPA should arrange a rotation in

Pilimatalawa or any where else for the moment until he could sort this out.

So Dr.Tushira on his way back to Colombo stopped over at the Urban Council

of Kadugannawa and spoke to the Secretary to arrange the clinic for

Kadugannawa and Pilimatalawa, which is in process now since 30th of June.

Dr.Jayasinghe asks me in his article why I am worried about this request

made by TAPA to the Mayor. Now, first of all TAPA made no request, but an

offer, secondly I am not worried about this, but I am worried about the dogs

of Kandy. I know that TAPA is very efficiently and humanely catching dogs,

concentrating on female dogs, which is essentially our main target if

population-control is the purpose. After catching it is being checked

immediately if they are already sterilized to avoid unnecessary trauma for

them by being transported to the camp unnecessarily. The handling of the

animals is also done gently and with great concern to minimize trauma. The

sterile procedures and safety-protocols are the best possible. The dogs are

being monitored properly until they are fully recovered and then returned

exactly to the place of capture. Whenever I had a chance to monitor a dog

after sterilization done by TAPA, I have seen quick healing of the wound and

never saw infected sutures. I have been in charge of the aftercare of many

hundreds of sterilized dogs during the last ten years, so I can compare. I

have seen many infections and therefore never return dogs immediately after

surgery, only with TAPA I am confident that it is safe to return them in the

afternoon if they have been sterilized in the morning.

Today afternoon I received a call from one of our volunteers in

Pilimatalawa, she had gone with TAPA-dog-catchers to successfully catch some

of the dogs, which she had tried to catch without success with the help of

Ilangakoon, the dog-catcher, who works for Dr.Nyanakara too. I also have

lots of dogs in Kandy to be caught, which I tried for years without success

and therefore they keep littering and I keep taking in their pups. I know,

if TAPA is allowed to work in Kandy, these dogs will be done. But I am

afraid Mrs.Moebius will not repeat her offer for a third time, she has many

requests for TAPA at many locations.

Last not least Dr.Jayasinghe mentions the pending court-case. First of all

it is not pending but a valid court-order has been made in our favor stating

very clearly that the KMC should not obstruct the ongoing sterilization and

vaccination-program by SOFA. For more details about the court-order see

article by Lucien Rajakarunayake on www.sofakandy.org

<http://www.sofakandy.org/> The case is not pending, it's the KMC's

objection to the valid court-order, which is pending and the additional case

we had to file because Dr.Jayasinghe ignored the valid court-order and

killed hundreds of dogs in August 2005. Pending is also not the right word,

it is being dragged by the KMC eternally announcing that they want to amend

their answer, but they never do it and get another date.

All this should have been actually published in the Kennel-Corner for the

sake of fairness, but I decided to write about Watapully and Arupolly, my

two new permanent inmates at the Tikiri-Shelter. see article below

.. This page is dedicated to our canine friends and it should not be used for

disputes, therefore my response to Dr.Jayasinghe's attack against SOFA can

be read on our website (www.sofakandy.org) with all details including the

names of witnesses.

Today I want to introduce two new-comers to the Tikiri-Trust-Shelter, I

called them Arupolly and Watapully.

Watapully I found in a drain on the day the KMC had a sterilization-clinic

in Watapulluwa. First I did not realize what had happened to her, she was

dazed, traumatized, frozen with fear. Then I saw another dog, who could

hardly walk, two children tried to shuffle him across the road, I was

wondering whether they need help, so I asked them what had happened to their

dog, they said it had been caught, operated and just now they found him and

try to bring him home. Then I looked at Wattapully's stomach, she has not

been operated on that day, but I could feel muscle-sutures under her skin

and therefore knew that she has been sterilized in quite some time ago

because no scar was visible any more. So the same thing has happened to her,

what has happened to hundreds of dogs since the Central Province

Sterilization-Program has started: even though they are already fixed, they

are being caught again, transported, anesthetized and then only, just before

cutting, the vets check for muscle-sutures. So at least now I knew, that she

was not sick or injured, but just under the effect of the anesthetic drugs,

so there was nothing to worry, I could take her home, let her have a good

sleep, treat the mange and then return her later. But when I wanted to

return her after few days, I showed her to many people in the area to find

out the place where she really belonged, but nobody knew her. Several people

told me that on that day many dogs have been released here totally drowsy,

most of them have not been seen in the area ever before .they were all

totally lost. Of course I could not just leave her in that lane under such

circumstances and so now she has become a happy family-member at my

residence.

During that week I received several calls from people, who saw dogs on that

terrible Saturday wobbling in the middle of the road, even fast asleep in

the middle of the road in Watapulluwa and Asgiriya. The people, who called

me were animal-lovers, they stopped their vehicles until the dogs had

finally moved away, but we all know, that not everyone is like that, so we

can only hope, that not too many died that day.

Arupolly was found on a garbage-dump near the Arupola Bakery-Junction, a

young lady, living there, had called me because of two puppies, which had

been dumped there. When our driver went there, to pick up the two pups, they

saw a very skinny mangy female dog, bit bigger than the pups, she had a

Nylon-suture in her stomach, so she must have been also sterilized on this

terrible Saturday. The young lady said she had not seen that dog there

before. so the driver brought her to Kandy town, where I was trying to find

out why Sherry, the Flower-Song-dog, who had been sterilized by SOFA five

years ago, had so many wounds on her body. The SOFA-volunteer, who feeds

Sherry every day, had called me to help her getting Sherry treated, she also

said that Sherry was very nervous and fearful since some time. When we

checked her body, we realized what had happened to her, she had been caught

in the Bogambara-night-program, of which we could see a photo in last week's

Kennel-Corner, but in her case the vet has not checked for muscle-sutures,

made a big cut, probably because he could not find the track, he must have

cut it bigger to search until he finally realized that she was already

operated and then he sutured her again and now all the suture-holes are

totally infected. We have started an antibiotic course for Sherry

immediately and hopefully she will be alright soon. Then we proceeded to

pick up a kitten, which had been found at Kataragama Devale and went home

with four new inmates for our already over-crowded shelter.

I don't think I need to make any more comments.

I am happy, that Sherry has someone, who looks after her and I am happy,

that I was able to rescue Arupolly and Watapully, but how many are roaming

lost and hungry, getting wet and beaten and chased away, dumped and

re-dumped again and again. now even in the name of " humane

dog-population-control " !!??

I have already 60 dogs and 20 cats at the Tikiri Trust Shelter, which has

only 60 perch of land and I will not be able to take in any more unless at

least some of the 20 pups get adopted. Please call me if you like to adopt a

lovely female pup or a sweet little kitten: 0777-426229

July 10, 2009