National dog sterilization program

In order to comply with President Rajapaksa’s no-kill policy on dogs, this government has taken admirable steps to curb humanely the proliferation of dog populations by establishing a national dog sterilization program and allocating money for it since 2008.

It should be clear to anyone that in order to have effective and long-lasting results, this kind of program needs to reach every corner of the island, simultaneously. Leaving out female dogs, especially the relatively small number of owned female dogs, unsterilized in any area would be the start of another repopulation cycle.

One of the major impediments to such a widespread implementation of the dog sterilization program is the acute shortage of veterinarians for the program. KACPAW has consistently campaigned for the recruitment of veterinarians to the Health Ministry via MOH offices or any other suitable public institution to conduct this program.

We have written to President Rajapaksa that it is a waste of resources not to employ veterinarians - who have been given their professional training spending huge amounts of public money—to carry out the dog sterilization program across the country.

The money allocated for the dog sterilization program (Rs.600 million)could be used as the salaries of the veterinarians, instead of allowing it to be earned by a few private veterinarians who are able to sterilize dogs only in a relatively few areas at best.

Sri Lanka’s government-funded dog sterilization program started in 2008 and continued through 2009. The 2010 programme is being conducted in a few provinces. Rs. 600 million has been allocated for 2010.

The 2008/2009 program were conducted only in a couple of provinces, engaging the services of private veterinarians, who were paid at the rate of Rs.500 per surgery. We understand the costs were around 200 million for each year. The effect of the 2008/2009 programs needs to be assessed against the costs and the net results.

There were many allegations made against the conduct of the dog sterilization programs in 2008/2009 and some of them were:

* Money claimed for surgery was over and above the actual numbers that were sterilized * Lack of satisfactory surgical practices * Lack of humane handling of the dogs, particularly the stray dogs * Lack of post-operative care for the dogs, particularly the stray dogs, leading to death of some dogs * A significantly higher number of male dogs being operated instead of females * Lack of transparency and accountability Although reported in an article titled Soaring costs spark call for new anti-rabies strategy, published in a Sunday newspaper on 20 June 2010, that, allegedly “some health ministry officials were trying to halt the ongoing sterilisation program”and “some top officials were benefiting from the Rs. 600 million budget,” there was never an issue of any top official of the Health Ministry trying to stall the dog sterilization program or helping themselves to the allocated funds as far as we are aware.

On the contrary, some appropriate and progressive steps were taken by the Health Ministry to ensure that the 2010 dog sterilization program is carried out effectively.

The Ministry appointed an internal audit inquiry to look into the fist allegation mentioned above and issued a directive that only female dogs must be sterilized from November 2009. All sterilized dogs need to have the ear notched and cauterized for easy identification.

We urge veterinarians/veterinarian groups to take up with the relevant authorities our request to recruit veterinarians to conduct the government-funded sterilization program in 2010 and onwards.

KACPAW (Kandy Association for Community Protection through Animal Welfare)