HSI Team Extends Stay in Sri Lanka to Prevent Military Action Against Homeless Dogs
February 4, 2005
Dog being treated
In temperatures that often top 100°F, with supplies so limited that
teams have to endure a half day's labor without water, Humane
Society International disaster relief workers in Sri Lanka are
nonetheless forging ahead with an innovative program to spay,
neuter, and vaccinate animals in the areas affected by the December
26 tsunami.
You could say the workers are, in a sense, operating at
gunpoint.
In Arugam Bay, where the predominantly Muslim community has
conflicting feelings about dogs (the Koran doesn't explicitly call
them unclean animals, but neither does it embrace them), the Sri
Lankan military has said that it is poised to launch an eradication
campaign against thousands of homeless canines if there is a single
outbreak of rabies. HSI disaster veterinary disaster teams are
specifically there to ward off that threat, and HSI executives have
already agreed to extend the teams' stays in Sri Lanka for an
undetermined period.
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Now in its four week, the vaccination/sterilization program is
still the main weapon being aimed at curbing an outbreak of rabies
in a country already ravaged by death and destruction. Led by Dr.
Eric Davis, director of our Rural Area Veterinary Services, the Sri Lanka team
completed its first round of surgeries and vaccinations in the
nation's Western province, holding clinics in the towns of Kalutare
and Moratuwa, south of the capital, Colombo. These are areas where
a large number of stray dogs have fled, each looking for a handout
from people whose economy has taken a sharp dip.
Along with Lloyd Brown, a member of The HSUS's National Disaster Animal Response Team, Davis has
been working with a local group, KACPAW, as part of a
multinational, multi-organizational effort to vaccinate dogs in Sri
Lanka, both in the western province and in Arugam Bay in the
eastern part of the country. Their mandate is clear: Bring the
homeless dog population under control or the army will launch into
lethal action. The only reason the military hasn't already started
feeding poison to dogs in Arugam Bay, says HSI Executive Director
Neil Trent, is because HSI gave army officials written confirmation
that we would launch a sterilization and rabies program in the
area.
The Importance of International Cooperation
Davis has shared the operating tables not only with veterinarians
Rai Arniasih and Komang Sudiati of Bali Street Dogs Foundation from
Indonesia, but also with volunteer vets from Pet V Care, a Sri
Lankan organization. Together, they have sterilized several hundred
dogs and some cats, mostly in the eastern area. Their work so
impressed a man from the Western region, who had brought his two
dogs to be sterilized, that he volunteered to work with the team at
the clinic at Aragum Bay.
The work with the Pet V Care veterinarians is, in particular,
critical to the long-term success of these dogs in Sri Lanka, a
country that has not had many qualms with killing canines when the
animals proved to be inconvenient. "We feel that it is essential to
integrate the local vets into our program," said Sudiati of Bali
Street Dogs. "Otherwise, who will carry on the work once we are
gone?"
The question is valid in this country of nearly 20 million people,
many of whom are still trying to piece their lives back together
after the devastating tsunami. If some of these residents had ill
feelings toward dogs before the disaster, those feelings have only
intensified after the tsunami. But part of HSI's goal, notes Trent,
has not only been to save the dogs, but also to educate the
community about safer, more effective, and more humane approaches
to dog population management.
To that end, Sherry Grant, director of HSI's Asia office, has been meeting with Sri Lankan
officials about the benefits of spay/neuter and vaccination
campaigns vs. out-and-out eradication programs. As she has told
everyone who will listen in Sri Lanka, killing campaigns never
succeed because they never catch all the dogs, who immediately flee
at the first sign of danger. This only causes dogs to populate
other areas, where they continue to breed and pose dangers.
By contrast, vaccinating dogs will prevent the spread of rabies,
while sterilizing the animals will prevent them from breeding.
"Sterilizing animals also makes them better companions, quieter and
less aggressive," says Trent. "And, of course, the best part is
that the dogs are spared a completely unnecessary death."
View from the Bay
For the foreseeable future, the HSI team will remain based in
Arugam Bay, a small beach-side town 300 kilometers east of Colombo.
Dave Pauli, director of The HSUS Northern Rockies Regional Office, and Susan Monger,
a veterinarian with RAVS, recently replaced Davis at the field
clinic in Arugam Bay, which is currently handling an average of 40
dogs a day. Brown will stay on to help with animal captures.
This is a community quite pleased to see the HSI team in action.
Arugam Bay, after all, relies heavily on tourism, mostly surfers
from around the world who ride the region's legendary breaks. Shop
owners and hotel workers in the area have been thankful to receive
HSI's assistance, in hopes to recover their devastated tourism
industry. Many have commented on the effect that an uncontrolled
dog population can have on tourism. "The dogs sometimes swarm the
area, fighting or copulating. That is not a good environment for
tourists," said the manager of the once pristine Tri Star
Hotel.
The HSI team has been working hard to calm both nervous residents
and hungry, agitated dogs. But their work hasn't been easy. Arugam
Bay has been cut off from the Sri Lankan mainland ever since the
tsunami wiped out the main bridge; with the assistance of the
Canadian army, the team has been able to ferry in regular
provisions and materials, including all-important water and
medicines.
Their collective efforts are clearly visible to citizens and
officials alike: Every vaccinated and sterilized dog gets a red
collar. And every red collar is one less reason for the military to
step in and begin rounding up the pooches.
But Trent warns not to take anything for granted. "It's important
to remember that, despite our best efforts, there are no guarantees
here," he says. "When we all leave, we have no guarantee that these
dogs will be spared."
RAVS
Director Applies Scalpel to Save Sri Lanka's Homeless Dogs from
Poison
By Eric Davis
As I stood on the beach at Arugam Bay, looking at the sunrise over
the deep-blue Indian Ocean, with the pristine sand all around and
the palm trees out on the surf-washed point to the south, I could
almost imagine I was on vacation. Just a turn of my head to the
left or right, though, and I immediately knew I was in the middle
of devastation. Piles of rubble were everywhere—broken concrete
buildings, personal belongings mixed with fishnets and
driftwood.
Sri Lanka has always been a strikingly beautiful paradise, which
people seem to discover almost by accident. Perhaps that's not too
surprising: The word “serendipity,” after all, comes from the
ancient name for the island, “Serendip.” These days, however,
beauty and destruction live side by side; the signs of the mighty
tsunami that crushed this little village can not be ignored. Most
of the people live in temporary shelters or tents and rely on
international aid agencies for water and necessities.
The dogs have also been displaced. Those canines who had owners are
now forced to scavenge for food with the ubiquitous street dogs one
sees everywhere in the tropics. With their families displaced or
dead, pets have had to become feral to survive.
And survive they have.
My early morning companions on that pristine beach were a band of
eight Sri Lankan dogs, each about 30 pounds, all with short hair,
some degree of mange, and stand-up ears. While dogs will always
find a way to survive in such a compromised state, these were at
increased risk from parasites, mange, and other diseases. Worse
yet, they had come to be seen as a human health hazard. The Sri
Lankan Health Department and the army had orders to eradicate the street dogs by strychnine
poisoning or shooting in areas such as Arugam Bay. The program was
only postponed because the local director of public health is a
Buddhist who believes in the welfare of all living things. This
reprieve was tenuous at best, which was why Rural Area Veterinary
Services came to this place.
Humane Society International had convinced the
government that a vaccination, parasite control, and sterilization
program was the best way to control the feral dog problem. RAVS and
a group of Indonesian veterinarians from the Bali Street Dog
Foundation traveled ten hours across the mountains of Sri Lanka,
from Colombo to Arugam Bay, to demonstrate that this humane program
could work. With the bridge washed out, the team had to rely on
Canadian Army relief team tractors to get through the sand and into
town. Setting up in one of the few buildings left standing, the
team of veterinarians and wildlife capture specialists had to do a
lot of improvising. They sterilized instruments and drapes in a
pressure cooker over a pile of burning rubble, used car headlamps
for light, and turned a half-destroyed hotel room into a surgery
theater.
Standing Up for the Little Guy
Lloyd Brown, a wildlife rehabilitator and a member of the National Disaster Animal Response Team, and two dog
trappers from the Bali Street Dog Foundation, went off into the
streets of Arugam Bay, which looked like a war zone. They set up
feeding stations in vacant buildings. Sri Lankan dogs apparently
love a savory mixture of dog food, rice, and dried fish, also
cooked on a pile of burning debris. The feeding stations served the
dual purpose of improving the dogs’ nutrition and forcing them to
congregate where they could be trapped more easily.
With every consideration for their quarry’s safety, the trappers
brought dogs back in a van provided by a retired Sri Lankan
policeman named Gamini. At the clinic, the dogs were vaccinated,
treated for mange, and given antibiotics, analgesics, and
anesthesia for humane surgical sterilization. After recovery, the
dogs were set free, though several chose to stay around the clinic,
becoming unofficial mascots. Gamini adopted one tiny, disheveled
puppy, saying that he couldn’t resist the little guy’s bravery for
standing up to dogs four times his size. The puppy will live with
him in Colombo.
Many of the dogs needed other care, especially for transmissible
venereal tumors. These ulcerated masses develop from a tropical
virus and spread when dogs breed. The treatment is inexpensive and
effective, but must be given intravenously and with proper fluids.
Thanks to Dr. Danjaya, a Sri Lankan veterinarian volunteering with
the RAVS team, numerous stray dogs received the treatment they
needed.
Difficult Patients
The most difficult patients to handle were the feral dogs. They had
never had a home and tended to form dangerous packs. Such packs
give all canines a bad name, injure other dogs, spread disease, and
pose a threat to humans. This is especially true in a country with
some 90 reported cases of human rabies each year and where
post-exposure rabies treatment takes up a significant part of the
government’s health budget. Brown’s skills, learned over years of
rescuing animals all over the world, became very important.
Extremely accurate with a blow dart, Brown was able to capture one
feral dog after another.
Of course, not every dog behaved as we would have liked, even after
a well-aimed blow dart.
One particularly wily young male had been eluding the trappers for
two days. Brown was able to dart the dog, but as occasionally
happens with sedatives, the dog had a paradoxical reaction after he
was leashed. Instead of becoming relaxed and sleepy, he became
extremely wild and agitated. Aside from the danger posed to the
handler, such a reaction was extremely dangerous to the dog in the
tropical heat and humidity. Risking bite wounds from an
unvaccinated dog, Brown rushed the struggling animal to the clinic.
RAVS veterinarians immediately started fluids and administered
muscle relaxants to calm him down. Finally, it was safe to
vaccinate him, remove his parasites, and neuter him, making him
healthier and less aggressive in the future. Our wild patient was
kept in a makeshift kennel overnight, and was released to a better
life the next day.
Street dogs are and probably will remain a part of Arugam Bay’s
culture. RAVS and HSI are giving them a chance for survival by
stabilizing the population and treating the diseases that make
their lives miserable. The residents of the area, though they have
little left for themselves, feed the dogs and want a them
around—just in smaller numbers. In two weeks, our team vaccinated
and treated 2,000 dogs for mange. In four days, we sterilized
180.
The clinic is a model of cooperation and ingenuity that will
continue for the foreseeable future. Experts from the United
States, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and Sweden are all working
together. The cooperation far transcends language barriers and
differences in technique, with everyone learning from one another
for the good of the dogs. I’ve returned home now, and RAVS Dr.
Susan Monger has taken over direction of the clinic. I will miss a
lot about Sri Lanka and Arugam Bay. But mostly I will miss my
morning tea with my dog friends on the beach, watching the sunrise
over the Indian Ocean.
Eric Davis, DVM, is Director of the Rural Area Veterinary Service
program.