The Kandy no-kill-programme was offered by Dr. Jayasinghe (KMC-Vet.Surgeon) through a newspaper article in October 2002 

Mrs. Edith Zellweger from Switzerland, who happened to be a guest at my residence at that time, decided to sponsor this no-kill-programme 

The Mayor of Kandy Hon. Kesera Senenayaka and Dr. S.R Jayasinghe were contacted through the Swiss Embassy and an appointment was given to Mrs. Zellweger and myself to discuss the future of Gohagoda (pound, where the dogs seized used to be killed) and the planned sterilization programmes. 

The agreement was to bring any dog found on the streets to Gohagoda dog pound, to be sterilized and vaccinated there, registered, identified and then returned to the place from which it was caught.

In addition to the Gohagoda programme, 24 KMC sterilization programmes were to be carried every second Saturday in the community wards of Kandy.

End of October 2002 the keys to Gohagoda were handed over to us. 

At the same time we arranged a free sterilization and vaccination programme with the University Peradeniya Vet. Department.

During the working hours of the University clinic anybody can get his cat or dog sterilized there free of charge and will get the vaccination and a red collar free of charge (This programme still continues). 

First we took the dogs from Gohagoda also to the University Peradeniya Vet. Faculty for sterilizations, but soon realized, that it would be easier and more cost effective to sterilize the dogs in Gohagoda.

When we suggested this, Dr. J. informed us, that nobody else is permitted to sterilize the dogs in Gohagoda but him! He did not want to come to Gohagoda to perform the surgeries there, but suggested, that he will send the dog-van every Saturday or Sunday to bring the dogs from Gohagoda to the KMC-lab in his office. We did not like this additional stress-factor for the dogs (to be transported in this horrible dog-van once again), but we had no choice than to submit to his dictates. 

We came to an agreement, that he will be paid 1200 Rs per day and his assistant will be paid 500 Rs per day as a fee and per sterilized dog he will be paid 250 Rs for the drugs; under the condition that he would sterilize at least 16 dogs on one day. This was the usual charge of the Vet.Fac. for a weekend-programme, even though the Vets from the Faculty where able to carry out more than 16 surgeries in one day. Dr. Jayasinghe then asked for an advance of 35000 Rs to purchase the drugs at wholesale-rate in advance.

The calculated amount for the drugs per dog includes a long acting antibiotic (5days) called Benacillin. Dr. Jayasinghe however used a cheap antibiotic (Doxycillin), which only works for a period of 24 hours. So, we realized, that he was not interested in the animals¡¦ life. Numerous dogs would just have died due to infections. But not to lose his cooperation we did not complain, but bought the long acting antibiotic and injected it ourselves after sterilization. 

As he was not able to sterilize 16 dogs per day, to his convenience he asked the dog catchers to catch only 10 dogs in a week or two;  sometimes less than that!

Although we repeatedly told him of the need of catching more dogs, if this programme is to be a success, our plea was ignored and finally only 370 dogs were caught in the first year. The standard excuse given to us on inquiring why not more dogs were caught, was, that the dog-catching-van was broken.

 On the 20.Jan 2003 another article by Dr. Jayasinghe appeared in the Daily News, promoting this programme. 

Mid. of Sept. 2003 Dr. J. asked us to increase his fee from 1200 Rs to 1500 Rs. Since his performance was much below the agreed upon numbers of dogs, we refused to raise the fee. At the same time the KMC-workers involved in the KMC- sterilization programmes also asked to increase their pay. This also we had to refuse because the organising of the programmes had become less effective in the course of the year. The publicity given to the programmes had become less as time went by and while in the beginning 75% of the total cost per programme was for the sterilizations and only 25% for organising the programme, by September 2003 we had to spend 75% for the KMC-staff and only 25% were spent on the sterilizations because the publicity was not given efficiently at all. Therefore after completing 17 programmes on 6^th of September 2004, we decided not to complete the balance 7 programmes. 

One week after we refused the pay-raise, Dr. Jayasinghe started to create problems in Gohagoda. There he openly threatened to fill up the place (also with puppies) so we can not cope with the work anymore. Earlier he had instructed the dogcatchers not to catch small puppies!

The drinking water supply was cut due to non-payment of the water-bills; we had to fix a pump so we could get the water directly from the river to wash the kennels. The drinking water for the animals had to be carried in buckets a long way from a well quite a distance. We had to employ another person, as the KMC worker did not appear to work regularly. For two months we had no KMC-worker at all.

Then the electricity supply was cut due to non-payment and so we had to pay the electricity bill for the KMC as the Vet.Dept. refused to pay. 

Dr. Jayasinghe instructed the dog-catchers to catch 15 dogs per day and bring all the puppies to the pound (the dog-pound in Gohagoda is actually built only to keep around 20 dogs). Now the dog van was never broken, but went to catch dogs even on Saturdays! We had to build additional kennels for the pups. Added to this the dog-catchers gave us wrong addresses of the places of capture, so that we could not return them to their territories or else would misplace them. They were even asking pet-owners to hand over their dog to be taken to Gohagoda. Some did and paid even a small sum to the dog catchers in anticipation to get their dog sterilized, vaccinated and treated for various diseases back in two weeks time! 

Suddently Dr. J. informed me, that there will be a meeting with the Mayor and the KMC on the 03. Oct. 2003. He said that the Councillors are worried about the dogs and rabies spreading etc.

Fact is that there was not one rabies death reported in Kandy in that period! 

On the 03. Oct. 2003 Mrs. Champa Fernando (KACPAW) and myself attended the meeting. Neither Champa nor me got the chance to speak there. It was obvious, that Dr. J. had already frightened the Mayor and the Councillors and the decision was already made to revert to killing. At that stage we had already spent around 1.7 mio. Rupees on the programme. 

On the 06. Oct. 2003 I asked for another meeting.

A meeting was called  for on the 17.10.2003. . This time more people, who were against the killing of dogs accompanied me. 

After long discussions we were granted to continue the programme and also got the permission to employ the Vets of the Faculty and other vets in Gohagoda.

First the University-vets were reluctant to sterilize in Gohagoda as Dr. Jayasinghe still was not giving his o.k. to it. As we were full with animals (around 120 dogs), we rented a room nearby to sterilize the dogs because  Dr. Jayasinghe had locked the surgery-room!

We had to carry the dogs up and down from the pound to the rented room and it got so muddy that a pregnant Lady-Vet.surgeon. almost fell. After this incident the Univerity-Vets did not want to come there anymore, not only because of the inconvenience, but also because of the lack of hygienic conditions. They suggested, that we should bring the dogs to the Faculty in Peradeniya on Saturdays, which we had to do several times even though it was very costly to hire lorries and added stress for the dogs. Finally after contacting the Mayor more than once and telling him about the problems, the door to the surgery-room was opened again. 

Still the number of dogs (especially puppies) was increasing day by day; so we decided to employ two private Vets to come and do the sterilizations at Gohagoda. They worked very efficiently and asked only minimal charges because they agreed on our humane approach to the dog-population-control.  

As Dr. Jayasinghe heard about the private Vets sterilizing, he locked the room again, so the vets had to carry out the surgeries in the same hall where the dogs are held. 

In May 2004, I was informed, that the KMC had decided to kill again (again with the unfounded argument of rabies spreading etc.) We were only informed after the meeting!  

This time the Mayor was out of the country, so we turned to the Governor of the Central Province for help. He immediately decided, that reverting to killing was out of question and called for a meeting with Dr Jayasinghe and the Mayor at his office. At this meeting Dr. J. again was asked to open up the room and to let us proceed with the programme. To win back Dr Jayasinghe's cooperation with the no-kill-policy, he offered him to fund sterilization-programmes in the community-wards again. Dr Jayasinghe was asked to prepare a budget for the programmes and we agreed on another meeting at the Governor¡¦s office to plan out the details. For the second meeting Dr Jayasinghe had prepared the estimate and the Governor immediately asked the funds to be released. The first programme was planned to be held in Dangolla after the Perahera. However it never took place because the Governor had not released the funds directly to Dr Jayasinghe, but through the KMC. So Dr Jayasinghe lost his interest because he wanted to be in charge of the funds without any control by the Commissioner of the KMC. Probably he had as he did earlier appointed a full pay for the day.

 for himself just for his presence even though the surgeries at such public programmes were not carried out by him but by the University-vets. He had good reason to believe, that the commissioner would not approve of such a practice. If not for this reason we have no clue why he did not go ahead with the community-programmes. 

From September 2004 onwards Dr. Jayasinghe's new strategy was, not to catch any dogs at all! Whenever we inquired why no dogs were caught, the answer was that either the van or the catcher were not available. (May be they were busy to bring dogs from the outskirts into the city in order to create a public nuisance¡K???)

After the Dept. stopped catching dogs, naturally more complaints came to the Dept. about strays. Sometimes people called us also and asked us to remove certain dogs. When we asked them why they do not call the responsible Dept., they told us, that they had already given a call to the Vet. Dept., and the answer they have received was, that there was no point of catching dogs, because an NGO would be operating the KMC-dog-pound and they would bring the dogs right back. Of course they were not told, that we return the dogs as safe dogs, sterilized and vaccinated. 

Another method of trying to create a certain opposition to the humane programme was, to give wrong information to the media also. A minor incident of a small puppy getting frightened and biting someone at the Good-Shed ¡V bus-stand in Kandy, was puffed up into a story about 15 people getting injured because of a mad dog. Here too the impression was created, that such incidents happen because of an NGO returning dogs back to the street. Of course it was not written, that the KMC fails to do its duty of catching dogs and vaccinating them. But every citizen in Kandy knows, that anti-rabies-vaccinations have not been supplied by this Dept. since years. 

Back to the terminological order of events:

On the 10. Oct.2004 I received a letter from Dr. Jayasinghe asking us to vacate the office in Gohagoda; A KMC-Vet.Dept.-worker informed us, also to empty the Kennels as they will start to seize and kill again and the dogs remaining in the Kennels will be destroyed as well. 

His explanation was, that there is a rabies threat and the dogs are becoming a nuisance. Even though these arguments are futile, I just like to mention here, that during the first year after we started the programme, even though the output was low due to the non-cooperation of the Vet.Dept., still we noticed, that the dog-population in the heart of town was stabilised. After Dr Jayasinghe started working against us in Oct. 2003, problems arose. One factor was, that during the meeting on the 17.10.2004 he insisted and received support from the Mayor on this point, that no dogs should be released back to the heart of the town. We had to agree, but the disadvantage of such a policy is, that by not returning the dogs into their habitat, a biological niche is created and dogs from outside will enter this place because, as long as food-sources are there in the city, hungry dogs will be attracted. It would have been much wiser, to return the safe (sterilized and vaccinated) dogs instead of making room for unsafe dogs, who entered the city from elsewhere. But unfortunately not even the Mayor listened to us at that time. Now the situation has become worse because for many months the KMC has not caught dogs in the heart of town and therefore the new dogs, which have entered are not even sterilized and vaccinated. May be this was the purpose of not catching dogs from the city since many months and stopping catching altogether since September 2004?

An increase of dogs in town would bring up more complaints and more resistance against the no-kill-policy at least amongst certain communities. The majority of the Buddhists however are still against killing. We received a confirmation of this fact when we collected signatures for an appeal to the Mayor and the Governor, not to allow the KMC to revert to killing. We wanted to show some evidence of the fact, that the Kandyans are against killing before the second meeting at the Governor¡¦s office in May, therefore we had only four days time and could devote only a few hours a day to that task, but even in these four days we collected more than 2000 signatures and in all institutions and shops where we went, more than 95% of the staff-members undersigned the petition.

Most people know, that most of the dogs have homes or at least someone, who looks after them, may it be a beggar or a street-vendor, they do not like such dogs to be killed. The majority of the houses do not have fences, some do not even have a kennel or a chain to keep the dog at home, therefore many of the street-dogs are not really strays but domestic dogs.                                                             

The dog-catchers cannot discriminate and catch whatever is easy for them to catch, which are usually the domestic dogs, not the strays, who are timid and hard to catch. Even Dr Jayasinghe's own dog was brought to Gohagoda in Dec. 2002. If we were not there, he would have been killed.

 It is true, that many domestic dogs are neglected, but their skin-problems etc we have treated in Gohagoda before returning them, thereby we have not only relieved the dogs from their suffering, but also helped the owners, who cannot afford to take their animals for treatment.  Most of the people have no objections against sterilized and vaccinated dogs being returned. If someone really refuses to accept a stray back near his residence or institution, we don¡¦t insist, but try to find a home for this animal or keep it at Gohagoda. In some cases I took such unfortunate ones home, which increased the dog-population in my estate to 57 now.

Dr Jayasinghe had fully agreed with us on all these issues until September 2003. It is obvious what made him change his mind and course of action.

Since October he became even more determined to stop the programme and even printed a leaflet and distributed it in Kandy. The leaflet announces the commencing of catching and killing and states,  that rabies is on the up-rise again. 

Two days before distributing these leaflets Dr Jayasinghe called me and told that the Health Minister has ordered to kill all the dogs! I knew it can¡¦t be true because the day before the Health Minister had held a meeting on the issue of humane rabies-prevention-methods and recommended the humane approach.

Dr. P.A.L. Harischandra, Director, Dept. of Public Health and Veterinary Services also refused to send dog-killers to Kandy as there is no rabies- threat in Kandy.

 However we did not leave Gohagoda and no dogs were killed so far. Except five dogs they caught on the sly at the Mawilmada-children's-home giving a wrong statement to the director of the home and then took them to the Vet. Faculty, where they were put to death for "teaching-purposes".  

On the 23. Nov. 2004  we had a demonstration (protest) in front of the KMC and a petition was handed over to the Mayor of Kandy.

We were told, that the KMC does not insist on killing, but only wants us to leave Gohagoda, as those premises belong to the KMC. The time given, to vacate Gohagoda with our 50 remaining dogs was up to the 15^th of Dec. 2004. This would mean, we must raise funds, put up a fence, build a large building and everything in a period of three weeks! And the land we were promised by a monk does not even have water or electricity! It is obvious, that this is neither possible, nor does it make any sense, that the KMC Vet.Dept. will keep the dogs for three days starving in Gohagoda  and then hand them over to us to be transported to a place out of town. If they were really catching 10 dogs per day as they should, we would collect 3000 dogs in one year¡K what sense does it make and who can feed such a number? We agreed, that we would take the dogs of the heart of town if there were real strays, and the Mayor did not ask more than that, but after returning home Mr Gunawardana from the Vet.Dept. gave me a call and said, that we should not misunderstand the agreement, what was really meant, was that all the dogs from the KMC area must be taken by us and none can be put back to his territory after sterilization and vaccination. No wonder, that Dr Jayasinghe did not want to say that in front of everyone present. 

Immediately we turned to the Governor again, because he is firm on the no-kill-attitude of the predominant religion in our country and he suggested, that we should attend the meeting on the 14^th of December in Colombo, which will finalise the Humane Policy for the whole of Sri Lanka. He said it makes no sense to revert to killing in Kandy, where already 3 Mio. Rs. have been spend on a humane programme, while the rest of the country is moving forward to put the teaching of Lord Buddha into practice.

SOFA therefore requests the Ministry of Health to ensure, that this humane programme will continue.

This programme is not only humane, it is also the fastest way to eradicate rabies and strays from Sri Lanka. Fact is, that the KMC with the inhumane method of killing 3000 dogs each year in the KMC- area has not succeeded to achieve either purpose. In these 2 years, we were able to prevent a number of more than 70000 unwanted puppies through sterilizing 3348 animals, out of which approx. 80% were female dogs. Even if only one female puppy would survive of each litter, this would be the effect of the humane method. How long will the KMC take to remove such a number of dogs by killing 3000 dogs per year? More than 23 Years!

If we had the chance, without being interrupted and harassed by Dr. J. and his workers, we could have done much more! We got no cooperation from the side of the KMC ¡VVet.

Dept. from the beginning, particularly after the increase of fee was not granted.

Since Dr.Jayasinghe does not show any signs of becoming more cooperative, we now appeal to the Central Government, particularly the Health Ministry, to intervene.

 Rohini de Silva
 Secretary of Save Our Friends Association (SOFA)

                         SOFA                           

                 SAVE OUR FRIENDS                                    

                      ASSOCIATION                                          
Humane Stray-dog ¡V Population ¡V Control ¡V Program 
 An Alternative Method of Rabies ¡V Prevention  through Care for Man¡¦s Best Friend 

President: Dr.C.Godamune    

Current account-No.: 0180749802
Savings account-No.:0180749818 Hatton National Bank,  No.1, Dalada Veediya, Kandy,  Sri Lanka          
Swift-Code: HBLI LK LX

 
Dog-Population-Control-Programme in Kandy  -  an update 

Two and half years after we started the programme and have got more than 4000 dogs sterilized plus nearly 300 cats, it is time to review and also to plan for further progress and to inform all donors and well-wishers about the successes as well as the obstacles we are facing. 

Let's start with the success-stories: 

Until recently our greatest worry was whether we would have enough funds to continue the programme because the initial funds had been terminated in September 2004. But thanks to donations from animal-welfare-societies from various countries we are not only able to continue looking after the dogs in the Kandy Municipality dog-pound and with the free sterilization-programme at the university, but were able to expand our mobile clinics (sterilisation and vaccination-programmes every weekend) and finally we also can catch dogs now with our own catchers and our own vehicle. This was not only necessary because the KMC hast stopped catching dogs since several months, but it has always been our aim, to be able to catch dogs because when the KMC did it, we had no control which dogs and where and how many were caught. Now we can be sure from where each dog comes, so we can return it to its proper place and we can respond to calls from people, who feed stray-dogs, but do not want to feed puppies, and we can systematically ¡§comb¡¨ the city. 

We still have no savings whatsoever and wonder from where further funding will appear, but we have faith that a programme, which is of benefit not only for the animals, but also for the people, will draw the attention of those, who like to support a good cause. 

The obstacles and how to overcome them: 

The main obstacles we are facing came from the exact corner, which made it possible to start the programme in the first place: the Kandy Municipality Veterinary Department. Dr Jayasinghe, who had originally offered this programme, had obviously some other intentions than to save the dogs from being killed. When his demand to increase his fees for neutering the dogs passing through the programme, was rejected because his performance was much less than agreed, he started opposing the project and worked within the KMC to revert to killing the dogs. Finally we had to get an injunction from the courts to prevent this and now we have to continue with the case to make this injunction permanent. Thanks to Maneka Gandhi, the famous animal-rights-lawyer in India, we got some encouraging material about cases, which have been successfully fought for ABC-Programmes in India and we will even go appeal-courts if necessary to save the dogs from this terrible treatment they used to have during the three days in the pound and this painful death through poison or gas. 

Another, more ¡§natural¡¨ obstacle we face in our work is the increase of strays due to mainly two reasons: 

1.Economic reasons¡K: more and more people find it hard to feed pets and even to pay the transport of their pets to the clinics, where free sterilisations are offered by us, so they dump not only puppies, but often also their mothers, even male dogs are being dumped when they get old or mangy or difficult to manage.

2.Breeding of so-called ¡§good dogs¡¨¡K: While earlier mongrels were the only ¡§breed¡¨ we had in Sri Lanka, recently the import of other breeds from other countries has increased and even though many are unable to really look after these dogs properly, if they can afford to get a pure-bred puppy, the so-called ¡§normal¡¨ dog, which may have received food and shelter earlier is then being neglected or even chased out of the house.

Since we can't do much about these conditions, we just have to continue and possibly increase our efforts to neuter the domestic as well as the homeless animals and thanks to some very diligent and dedicated volunteers working along with us we will certainly see a difference on the streets of Kandy very soon. 

Another aspect of preventing strays is to educate the people to accept responsibility for their pets, unfortunately we had no time yet to focus on this, only one leaflet has been printed so far, only one awareness program had been held in a school, very few newspaper- articles were published because our hands are busy in the grass-root-level, but we have not forgotten, that we have got another aspect of work to cover here. 

We could name a big list of people here, who have been helping in this programme in one way or the other, in the name of the Kandy community-dogs we want to say THANK YOU to all of you. 

Even though our last update was written only two and half months ago, many news are to be reported today also. 

As most of you know: we won our court-case, the court has filed a stay-order, which means we can continue to stay in the KMC-dog-pound and carry on the programme. However the KMC has not yet given up and will file its objections end of this month. But we are very confident, that the judge will not let the dogs of Kandy be killed again.  

It is very obvious, that the number of dogs has been very much reduced due to the programme, the few dogs, which still roam the city, are looked after by street-vendors, taxi-and three-wheel-drivers, beggars or shop-keepers, they are sterilized, vaccinated, healthy, friendly and well-fed. None of them could be regarded as a rabies-threat and whenever new dogs appear in town, who are mangy, skinny, not yet sterilized and vaccinated, we catch them as soon as possible and keep them until they are fit to be released back. We have also distributed a leaflet to inform the citizens of Kandy, that they should inform us when they notice strays in their neighbourhood, so hat we can pick them up and get them sterilized and vaccinated. When we return them back, the neighbourhood knows, that they will not produce unwanted off-springs and that they are vaccinated and therefore they are not chased away, but are being fed with left-overs by various families. They cannot be called strays anymore, but they are in fact becoming community-dogs. In spite of this success, we have to keep working hard and possibly with increased output because new dogs appear¡K we don¡¦t know from where¡K some may be neglected owned dogs, which came to the streets because their owners did not want them anymore after they developed mange or just became old, others may have been dumped from the outskirts of Kandy.  

While the dogs roaming the streets are being taken care of at the transit-home, the transformed KMC-dog-pound, the owned dogs are getting a chance to be sterilized free of charge in our mobile clinics and in our ongoing permanent programme at the Vet. Faculty of the University. Fortunately two of the University-Vets have opened private clinics and offered us reduced fees, so we can get animals sterilized in their clinics as well. The Vets operating at the transit-home, also carry out surgeries and treatment in their clinics and charge only a minimum. It is this kind of cooperation and support, which is encouraging us to keep up this effort, while the public response to the programme is also very positive. However the attitude is usually a positive, but very lethargic one¡K many people say: 'it is a very good service you are doing, please come and pick up my dog also and get it done'. This may take time to change, but as time permits, we work on that also. 

Until the general awareness in Sri Lanka with regard to responsible pet-ownership increases, we are happy to have financial support from other countries to carry out this programme.  

And until such time, we can also not support the proposal to start a system of dog-licensing and registration, which is presently suggested by the Director of Public Health and KACPAW. At the present time with regard to the actual realities we face here, such a policy will only lead to an increase of strays because people will ¡§dis-own¡¨ their dogs and nobody of course will want to pay the registration-fees for the community-dogs. Licensing can be implemented when each dog has an owner and even then the community-dogs and dogs rescued from shelters or from the street must be exempted. Unfortunately only one more member of the committee, which is responsible for drawing a new policy with regard to rabies-prevention, Sagarika Rajakarunayake from Sattva Mithuru, is supporting our view. Hopefully further discussion in the next meeting of the committee will change the present position, which is in no way making the policy more humane. In fact, according to the present policy, at least theoretically, the Government accepts the responsibility to vaccinate the dogs against rabies free of charge, according to the newly drawn policy, the dog-owners will be charged for the vaccination. We can only hope, the Minister for Health will not accept this suggestion. After all he had formed this committee to work out a humane solution and we have accepted to join this committee only because we would wish, that the ABC-programme, which works well in Kandy, will be carried out in other parts of Sri Lanka as well and eventually in the whole island.  

We are very happy, that intense vaccination and sterilization-projects are taking place in the Tsunami-zones and they have encouraged the authorities in Colombo to move into the same direction. We know too well the hardships of implementing humane intentions, but thanks to the support we receive, we were able to keep it up for more than two and half years now and want to encourage others to take it up also. For that reason we have accepted an invitation to join in the Asia for Animals Conference in Singapore next week. 

It is thanks to much hard work of local volunteers and generous support of foreign friends, that we can continue with the programme now after the courts have also taken the side of the dogs.

In their name I wish to thank all of you 

Rohini de Silva

The Work of SAVE OUR FRIENDS ASSOCIATION (SOFA)

By Rohini de Silva, with introduction by Peter Gibbs

As tourists visiting Sri Lanka in December 2003, my wife and I just loved the people, the smiles and welcomes, Buddhist shrines, exotic birds, and dogs in every house yard and temple precinct. Mostly, these dogs are well fed and at ease, because Sri Lankans, although so poor by Western standards, respect all animal life and like to live and let live. Yet while we certainly saw no cruelty to the island's dogs, many nevertheless suffer from neglect. Often, dogs sustain injuries or skin diseases, because, after all, who can afford a vet's service when a day's work spinning coconut fibre into rope pays only one dollar?  

Throughout the island, there are concerned individuals, who care for these animals, such as Pushpa and Anu de Silva, who, at the antique shop in Temple Street, Kandy, regularly feed some 20 dogs and cats. Pushpa told us, that an organisation called SOFA (Save Our Friends Association) has recently been formed in order to counter the mass killing of strays by the Kandy Municipal Council. The volunteers, devoting their lives to this cause are Rohini and Margaret. Rohini takes up the story now:

The Desperate Reality 

Due to the economic and political realities in Sri Lanka, the stray-dogs are the last to draw public attention, but since rabies is not yet eradicated and stray-dogs are regarded as a public nuisance and a risk-factor, a hundred thousand of them are being killed every year in brutal ways, either gassed or poisoned. Not all of them are really strays, most of them have an owner, someone, who feeds them and allows them to sleep in the compound, but yet they roam free on the streets and look for an extra-bite on the nearby garbage-dump or in front of a butcher-shop or a bakery.

Attempts at Solution

In the last few years animal-welfare-groups have addressed this issue many times and tried to make the politicians understand, that killing is no solution, but population-control and anti-rabies-vaccinations are the only effective methods to reduce the number of dogs on the streets and eradicate rabies. Many agree, but they say, that they do not have the funds to implement a humane policy.

However, in Kandy, the so-called hill-capital of Sri Lanka, in October 2002 the Mayor agreed, to allow a pilot-project when a generous animal-welfare-activist from Switzerland was prepared to fund a humane alternative. At first he was reluctant to give his permission, that we would return the dogs to the same spot, where they had been caught, after spaying and vaccinating them. But then he realised, that it would not be possible to find homes for all the dogs, so he asked us to return the dogs discretely because he expected opposition to this new policy. 

Getting started

So with trepidation and a prayer in our hearts we were handed over the keys for the Municipality dog-pound and transformed it from a slaughter house into a transit-home for the dogs caught by the local dog-catchers. Almost every day the van comes and brings us 4 to 6 dogs.

Unexpected problems

For the young ones we try to find homes, but if that is not possible, we just have to keep them because usually the places, where they have been caught, cannot be regarded as their territories, as is the case of most grown up dogs. Usually they have been dumped there in a safe distance from their place of origin because their owners did not want to cope with them. To change such peoples¡¦ attitude towards animals, words are not sufficient, the only way to prevent dumping of puppies is to offer free sterilisation-programs, which we do, in the university-clinic as well as in local mobile clinics. But in most cases even that is not sufficient. Some will only make use of this offer when free transport to those clinics is also provided. With our modest resources we can provide such a service only on a very limited scale. We do it in our immediate neighbourhood, but we cannot do it all over Kandy district. So this problem will remain until a change of attitude takes root in the population and we appreciate the help of many journalists in Sri Lanka, who make an effort to create more awareness about responsible pet-ownership. 

The sick dogs are also being spayed after they are fit enough to undergo the surgery, but in some cases returning them to their territories is not possible because during their prolonged stay they get used to us and we feel, that it would be hard for them to return to the street after the security of a safe place to stay and regular food. Some of them are old and their state of health and malnutrition also shows us, that taking them back to their original place would mean to return them to a miserable life.

We have also had some badly handicapped dogs, two of them I have taken home and one of them was taken home by Margaret. Apart from those, I have given a home to sixty strays at my residence and at Margaret¡¦s house fifteen strays have found a loving home¡K these are the lucky ones! 

In case of complaints about a returned stray-dog, we usually try to speak to the person, who has complained and try to convince him, that this dog is safe, and that removing him from the territory would only create a biological niche and therefore attract other strays. But if he remains unconvinced, we have to take the dog back and if we cannot re-home it elsewhere, this one also becomes a permanent resident. 

Need for Financial Support

That the transit-home would develop into a shelter we could not foresee when we started this project and the cost of running this project we could also not realistically calculate at the time because we had no experience. The donor from Switzerland, who has sponsored this program up to now, had offered to fund it initially, but expected us to stand on our own feet in due time. We founded a small organisation for this purpose, the ¡§SAVE OUR FRIENDS ASSOCIATION¡¨ (SOFA). But in Sri Lanka it takes one year before a new society can get registered. So we could only start fund-raising after one year and fortunately the support by the Swiss donors was extended for another one year, which has expired in September 2004. Since then we have got donations from various animal-welfare-organisations, barely enough to keep going, not enough to expand the work, which would actually be necessary.

 Results

 3000 dogs a year used to be killed in Kandy. Not only are their lives saved now, but the reduction of strays through sterilization makes their lives more easy, because they will have more food available and since they are vaccinated, they will face less hostility¡K we have devoted our lives to it, but they cannot survive on love alone.  

While we save the dogs in Kandy, this project will also point out for the rest of Sri Lanka, how rabies can be eradicated. Last year 72 cases of humans falling prey to this deadly disease have been registered. In Kandy no fatal cases have been reported during these last two years. We are ever so proud of this and desperately hope to win through We are grateful to anyone, who can see the value of this project and would like to give it support.

Please contact us if you wish to send us a donation:

Donations can be send with a code-word (¡§SRI LANKA¡¨) to a German animal-welfare-organization ¡§Menschen für Tiere¡¨: Sparkasse Ennepetal/Breckerfeld, account-no. 8045767, IBAN: De 81 4545 1060 0008 0457 67, Swift.BIC: WELADEDIENE. A receipt can be obtained for tax-free donations.

Donation can also be send to our Sri Lankan account: SAVE OUR FRIENDS ASSOCIATION, Acc.No.: 0180749818 at Hatton National Bank, Kandy Branch, Swift-Code: HBLI LK LX