(IN) Retired cavalry general rides to the rescue of Animal Birth Control programs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2010:

 

 

Retired cavalry general rides to the rescue of Animal Birth Control programs

 

 

CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD-- Responding to alleged corruption that

has in recent years crippled the Indian national Animal Birth Control

program, Animal Welfare Board of India chair Rammehar Kharb warned

the cities of Ahmedabad and Ludhiana against employing unauthorized

ABC providers.

" You are requested to cancel your ABC contract awarded to

Animal Shelter & Hospital at Ahmedabad Foundation, which is not

recognized or registered with AWBI, " Kharb wrote to the Ahmedabad

Municipal Corporation, " failing which AWBI will be constrained to

initiate action in the matter. "

A similar warning went to Ludhiana for contracting for ABC

services with the Amritsar-based firm Doggie Lane.

Kharb, a veterinarian and retired general in the Indian Army

Remount Corps, notified ABC providers after the mid-2009 publication

of the AWBI Standard Operating Procedure Manual for Sterilization of

Stray Dogs that they must comply with the SOP to continue to receive

AWBI funding.

The AWBI, a federal agency, underwrites city ABC services

on a matching basis. Monitoring performance, however, has lagged

behind allocating funds. This has attracted unscrupulous service

contractors.

" There are two kinds of unscrupulous contractors, " explains

Abodh Aras of the Mumbai ABC service provider Welfare of Stray Dogs.

" Some do this for the money, and show fictitious figures. The

public then believes that many more sterilizations have been

conducted than have actually been done.

" Others catch dogs who have already been sterilized, or do

surgeries with a high mortality rate, which is akin to a killing

rate. Then there are well-meaning people who either have no

expertise in running an ABC program, or are misguided, or are plain

stupid, " whose incompetence calls the value of ABC into doubt.

Aras in August 2009 recommended that the AWBI should publish

a list of ABC service providers whose performance has flunked the

AWBI standards.

Clementien Pauws, founder of the Karuna Society in

Puttaparthi, added detail to Aras' descriptions of ABC mismangement.

Once, responding to a complaint from a veterinary student

who found five badly spayed dogs dead on a road, Pauws said she

found that the local ABC facility " was an old chicken barn without

electricity or water, and only mesh instead of windows. The

operating theatre consisted of an old table, " Pauws remembered,

with " no medication or other equipment. Inside were no holding

facilities. The building was dirty and unused for a long time, "

Pauws found. " Outside it was painted nicely, with a sign. We took

photos and reported our findings. " Despite Pauws' report, she

testified, the organization received funding to perform another

1,000 ABC surgeries, after purportedly doing 500.

" We went to their office and asked for the details, " Pauws

said. " On paper, 500 dogs were sterilized or castrated. Not one

dog died, not one had a problem, none had internal bleeding, none

were pregnant, none had a pyometra, none had distemper, there were

no maggot wounds, and none had dog bites, " indicating a need for

rabies quarantine. " Yet everything was properly signed for by the

relevant authorities, " Pauws marvelled.

The AWBI " has received several complaints against ASHA

Foundation for claiming money for bogus sterilizations, " Kharb wrote

to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

The first Ahmedabad ABC service provider was the Animal Help

Foundation, founded in 2000 by Rahul Sehgal, who now coordinates

ABC programs in several other Indian cities and in Bhutan, where he

works under the auspices of Humane Society International. In

2005-2006 Animal Help sterilized 55,000 dogs in Ahmedabad,

introducing to India the use of gas anesthesia and same-day release

of dogs, if they are operated on without complications.

ASHA bid against Animal Help for the Ahmedabad ABC contracts

in 2007. The contract allocation was delayed for more than six

months. Unable to pay the Animal Help veterinarians to work in

Ahmedabad, Sehgal transferred teams to Bangalore, where they are

still active, and to Hyderabad, where the Blue Cross of Hyderabad

had already withdrawn from providing ABC service after encountering

alleged corruption.

Animal Help left Hyderabad after experiencing mob violence

allegedly incited by the same factions who had discouraged the Blue

Cross of Hyderabad.

Meanwhile the Animal Help surgical methods became

controversial after several veterinarians who claimed to have been

trained by Animal Help botched numerous surgeries while working for

other ABC programs.

An eight-member veterinary team sent by AWBI to investigate

the Animal Help surgical approach evaluated, vindicated, and

recommended it in 2009.

In the interim, two persons associated with ASHA invaded the

Animal Help office in Ahmedabad on July 30, 2007, menacing Sehgal

with staves while destroying three computers and damaging his

vehicle. Kharb urged the Ahmedabad police commissioner to

prosecute the alleged offenders, but ASHA nonetheless ended up as

the major Ahmedabad ABC contract holder, with Animal Help handling

only a small part of the city.

On November 30, 2007 ASHA director Harmesh Bhatt appealed to

ANIMAL PEOPLE for funding with which to buy vehicles and surgical

equipment, claiming that ASHA was " a registered trust approved by

the Government of India. "

Two years later, on November 20, 2009, Jamalpur district

councillor Imran Khedavala asserted to the High Court of Gujarat that

the Ahmedabad street dog population had increased from 230,000 to

more than 300,000. Unsuccessfully seeking an order that Ahmedabad

should begin killing street dogs, which would contradict the

national law that created the ABC program, Khedavala blamed both

ASHA and Animal Help.

Khedavala's action encouraged Zahid Qureshi and Ruturaj Jadav

of the Ahmedabad Mirror to investigate. They found that 13,691 dogs

had been sterilized in Ahmedabad, mostly by Animal Help.

" We neutered 1,400 dogs in one and a half months, " Harmesh

Bhatt told them. " Our participation ended four months ago. "

The one and a half months coincided with the summer visits of

German veterinary students Alina Pohl and Laura Schueller, who

recounted their experiences on personal web sites and to the Times

News Network. In their first three weeks, they told the Times News

Network, they operated on 45 street dogs. In subsequent

correspondence they clarified that they did no sterilization surgery.

An investigator who reported to the AWBI found no evidence

that ASHA employed any other veterinary help. Yet ASHA claims to

have won the ABC contract for the city of Surat, as well.

In Ludhiana, meanwhile, " Steriliz-ation of stray dogs in

the city, which was to get under way on February 10, 2010, has been

put on hold, " reported Kuldip Bhatia of the Ludhiana Tribune.

Doggie Lane had contracted to sterilize 20,000 dogs in 2010, but

" lacked the required number of skilled and qualified veterinary

professionals and also did not have the necessary experience in

conducting surgical procedures at such a large scale, " Bhatia

reported.

" We have invited the second lowest bidder to take up the

work, " said Ludhiana commissioner A.K. Sinha.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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