The Indispensable Friend

Ishara JAYAWARDANE

Right throughout history humans have had a connection with dogs. Indeed this canine friend of humans has figured in many stories. Some of them much loved. Readers were spellbound by the Sherlock Holmes story: The Hound of the Baskervilles a haunting story of a blood thirsty hound said to haunt the moors. Which reader could possibly put down the engrossing story by Jack London : ‘The Call of the Wild’?, which is a story about ‘Buck’, a domesticated dog thrown into a harsh and cruel world who finally finds friendship and love in the form of a man.

However for many of us our encounter with this faithful friend of man goes beyond the book. A dog is a special friend. There are no negative feelings on the part of the dog. A harsh word is easily forgiven and forgotten. They only ask for love and friendship. A place in the home as well as the heart.

“Blue Paw Trust is an offshoot of my pet animal practice. We want to address problems that are created in the interaction between people and animals. Our approach is to create rational and balanced solutions to benefit both. The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) introduced us to state of the art information and knowledge pertaining to rabies and control” said, Trustee, Blue Paw Trust Dr. Nalinika Obeyesekere.

Blue Paw Trust have worked alongside the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) in what has proved to be an effective and productive partnership that has benefited dogs. WSPA has generously provided their expertise, experience and financial support throughout as they were aware of the situation in Sri Lanka in relation to rabies and Blue Paw’s interest in this problem.

Blue Paw Trust (BPT) and the Colombo Municipal Council in collaboration with the WSPA initiated a five year dog population and rabies management program within the city of Colombo commencing 2007.

Blue Paw Trust received many complaints and requests from hospitals, government offices and schools to remove the dogs from their premises as they were a nuisance and danger to the public. To address this problem BPT developed the concept of a Dog Managed Zone.

This is a reasonable and sustainable solution where humans and dogs could co exist by minimizing the nuisance from these dogs. When an area is selected for a Dog Managed Zone, the existing dogs are not dumped into another place but remains there in a controlled environment. DMZs are an innovative concept to managing location specific solutions in confined public premises and stops new animals from entering the premises.

BPT with the partnership of WSPA have had many achievements. The following are the achievements from June 2007 until August 2011;

* Dogs Rabies Cases – Reduction from an annual average of 35 prior to 2007 to 4 per year.

* Mass Vaccination of both owned and community dogs- 80% cover which is sufficient for herd immunity. (Vaccination of a significant portion of the dog population which provides a measure of protection for dogs who have not been vaccinated in that area)

* Sterilization of both owned and community female dogs – (70%) involving maximum community involvement in bringing dogs to the mobile clinics and volunteering for post operative care.

* Education of school children and adults on bite prevention, rabies awareness and responsible dog ownership

* 63102 Primary school children – almost 90% of schools covered 19836 secondary school children (35 schools) 4615 community (42 programs)

* Dog Managed Zones (an innovative tool to managing location specific solutions in confined public premises) 6 DMZs developed ( 2 hospitals ,1 school and 3 government offices)

* Training and capacity building of CMC staff in relevant skills including humane dog handling and recognizing dog behavior signs, delivering responsible ownership messages to communities and surgical neutering.