Islandwide dog shelters :

Are we going rabid?

We are appalled to learn that money had been passed to set up islandwide shelters to hold dogs. This extremely unprogressive suggestion comes after three years of running the national dog sterilization program, which should have by now reduced the dog populations, providing long-term sustainable and cost-efficient results, if the dog sterilization program had only been conducted without allowing it to be turned into a lucrative money making racket by some contractors (this was highlighted in the Divaina Editorial of November 10, 2010 and in their first page of November 9, 2010), who monopolized the program, allegedly bribing health workers to falsify the number of sterilized dogs, thus placing the concept of sterilization as a highly successful method of dog population control into total jeopardy. We are aware that contractors who do not agree to give bribes are not awarded work.

Sterilization program

If at some point anyone deems dog sterilization to be a failure in effectively controlling dog populations, it is because the national dog sterilization program continues to be run as a money-making venture and has not been allowed to blossom into a results-oriented and cost-efficient service across the country. Questions are being asked by the Auditor General’s Department we understand why the expenses do not match results. The answer could be found by conducting an audit inquiry into the way the program was conducted in several provinces and also by going over an audit inquiry already conducted on the alleged malpractices.

We sincerely welcome such an inquiry by he Auditor General in the interest of the country and its people and the common goal of eradicating rabies from our island, which would ensure the safety of both man and animal and enable the saving of millions spent on the rabies prophylactic program.

Veterinary surgeons

KACPAW, which provided the model that was adopted for the national dog sterilization program via a pilot project we conducted in 2006/2007, has repeatedly written to the newspapers and to the President and the Health Minister, alerting them to the alleged fiscal malpractices enabled by the piece-meal basis payment and urging the establishment of countrywide service of veterinary surgeons on a contractual salaried basis, which would stem the practice of falsifying figures and provided the opportunity to owners of female dogs to obtain the dog sterilization services across the country.

Huge billboards have come up in several towns boasting a target of eradication of rabies by 2016 and asking people to have their dogs sterilized. Where is the poor dog owner going to obtain the veterinary surgical service if the service is not provided by the Health Ministry via veterinary surgeons?

The number of female owned dogs per village is generally around 15-20 and if these dogs were sterilized in the past three years we would have most definitely begun to reap the long-term benefits of the national investment.

Instead, male dogs were castrated on a large scale and despite a Health Ministry directive to stop sterilizing male dogs in November 2009 we understand that claims are still being sent in for male dog sterilizations. Sadly, despite our pilot study proposals and repeated urging to the authorities to target in the first instance the puppy-producing female owned dog population across the country and place the national dog sterilization program on the right tracks by engaging the services of salaried veterinarians, we are yet to see any concrete move towards that. Why, we indeed wonder.

Instead, now comes this utterly retrograde suggestion to establish dog shelters for each district.

Contagious diseases

A million questions emerge. Which dogs will be put in these shelters? Will owned dogs that loiter on roads be caught and put in these shelters? Will a compulsory registration scheme be established to identify each dog? Will sterilized, marked/tattooed, vaccinated community dogs be targeted? What kind of humane cage/enclosure/space facilities will be available for the dogs? How much money will be allocated for each shelter? Who will care for the dogs held in the shelters (cleaning, feeding etc)? Will there be a supervisor to supervise the day-to-day activities/care? What will be done to the dogs when the numbers increase? How will overcrowding be dealt with? What about quarantine facilities for new comers and goes with contagious diseases?

Will the sick shelter dogs be treated? What about the provision of annual vaccinations (parvo and DHL inclusive) and general veterinary care for the animals? Will a veterinarian be available for each shelter and etc and etc? Or will these ‘shelters’ simply be prolonged torture chambers for the inmates like the infamous municipal-run dog pounds that existed in some cities like Kandy and Colombo, which mercifully went out of operation several years ago?

Animal welfare issues

Majority think shelters are the answer to the dog problem and that animal welfarists like nothing better than to run a shelter.

It may surprise many that most animal welfarists are against shelters as the shelters soon become hell-holes for the poor animals held in them, regardless of the fact that they are managed even by animal lovers/welfarists. Pet owners see shelters as dumping grounds and the shelter population grows to unmanageable numbers in a very short time.

Overcrowding leads to fatal fights amongst the dogs leading to serious animal welfare issues. In most countries, shelters euthanize the dogs after two weeks. Euthanasia is generally not supported in Sri Lanka.

Pet owners

The biggest negative impact in setting up shelters would be that it will go against the concept of sterilizing dogs as many pet owners would see the shelter as an easy way to dispose their dog’s litters and even sick, old and disabled dogs.

Animal welfare groups like ours worked tirelessly to change the attitudes of pet owners regarding sterilizing their dogs and now people actually plead with us to come to their villages to conduct clinics. Setting up shelters would irrevocably alter this trend of thinking by pet owners.

As an organization that ran a shelter for 12 years, handling over 4,000 dogs, KACPAW knows how expensive, time and energy consuming and difficult it is to run shelters.

Shelters do not help at all in curbing stray dog population growth. In fact the situation would worsen as pet owners will view shelters as disposing grounds.

Monetary transactions in the form of bribing to take in dogs between the shelter workers and pet owners would thrive. Sick, wounded, lame, blind, paralyzed and old dogs will be thrown into the compound or tied to the gates. Boxes full of puppies will inundate the shelter in no time.

We urge old dogs will be thrown into the compound or tied to the gates. Boxes full o puppies will inundate the shelter in no time.

We urge the authorities to please put on hold the idea to set up shelters and instead run a malpractices-free national Dog Sterilization Program in 2011 using islandwide services of contractual based salaried veterinarians, immediately replacing the current system, which if allowed to run any longer would still not provide sustainable and cost-efficient results and would only serve to line the pockets of a few unethical people and cast a negative shadow on dog sterilization as a highly successful and humane dog population control method.

- KACPAW
(Kandy Association for Community Protection through Animal Welfare)