A Plea To Save Innocent lives

August 27, 2005

When I first met Jayasinghe at the KACPAW / WSPA conference in Sept 2002 he

played a similar game there.... almost crying, that he is a Buddhist and he

doesn't like to kill and about the terrible conditions at Gohagoda... as if he

had no power to instruct and supervise the people working there! I knew more

about him even at that time from Pethiyagoda, but I am not surprised,

that Hari fell for this game because he plays it quite well. Even when he

started to work against our programme, he also almost cried because the anti

rabies ordinance was forcing him to kill and I almost felt sorry for him.

Now something else: today we received word from the Mayor of Kandy through

someone from AWT, that he would stop the killing immediately, if we promise to

find some land for a shelter and take in all the street-dogs. Now this joke we

had from him before also (but now he gives us 6 months, earlier it was only two

weeks ... quite sufficient, isn't it? ... to build a shelter!). What we tried to

make clear to him those days, but he didn't get it, is, that this shelter should

have space for thousands of dogs, even if we have only few really ownerless

dogs, but the KMC's anual target is seizing 3000 dogs and if they take away 3000

dogs from the road, 3000 new dogs will take their place and they will be also

removed during the next year and so it goes on... if we take them all within 3

years we will have already 9000 dogs and this population will continue to grow

and the majority will be domestic dogs, because people usually do not have

fences, cages, chains etc, so their dogs also are on the road and are being

caught. So it's really silly, but in order to get a stop to the ongoing terror,

may be we should accept this agreement and then slowly see how to proceed.

Please let me know what you all think about it.

A ray of hope ... that's what I feel right now, at least for the moment... but

the problems, which will follow, are already embedded in it. It reminds me of

Oct.2002: Dr.Jayasinghe announced, that he has stopped killing the dogs in

Gohagoda (KMC dog)-pound, but he kept on catching more dogs and they were piling

up inside that terrible stinking hell-hole with hardly any food or water and the

kennels were never cleaned. Then he offered, that anyone, who has the funds, can

use the pound as a transit-home for a neutering-proramme, so Rohini and Edith

came forward and they got the keys and we all were happy, cleaned the place, fed

the dogs well, sterilized and vaccinated them and re-homed most of them. Then we

discretely shifted from re-homing to returning because naturally we could not

find homes for all the dogs... with silent cooperation of Dr.Jayasinghe... Hari

is asking quite rightly: why did nobody ask the councilors at that time whether

they agree? But now both, the Mayor and Dr.Jayasinghe are hiding behind the

" majority " of the council (to keep it anonymous). To get more details please

refer to attachment: History of the no-kill programme, which Rohini wrote in

Oct. 2004 in order to inform the Health Minister of the problems we encountered

even at that time (also at aapn website, srilankadogs). I just mention this now

because of the similar siuation: we can't bear the suffering and so we go for

any lolly-pup they offer us just to have a momentary solution. But as Pradeep

Nath mentioned quite truely: we should not have accepted this without having a

written agreement and all terms clarified in that. By insisting on conditions we

may have lost the offer, but if we had got it right at that time, we would not

face this tragedy now. So let's think carefully about the present offer. I'm

looking forward to your e-mails.

Thank you all for your concern.

Padma

-

Arun Tampoe

Padma

Cc: Nihal Fernando

Saturday, August 27, 2005 3:57 PM

Fw: A Plea To Save Innocent lives

so...this is what comes of uncoordinated shotgun massages scattered allover

and creates confusion....

after allthe tears and bleating DR J is hiding behind another bunch of

bureaucrats who are " only doing their duty " have we haerdallthis before ?

who has done what ?

-

Harindra Amaratunge

postmaster

Cc: Sagarica Rajakarunanayaka ; Arun Tampoe ; Elly Hiby ; Kelly Omeara ; Sherr

Grant ; Merrit Clifton ; Linda Furness ; Coolingkim ; Robert Blumberg ;

Padma ; Family Marsh ; Karin Busch ; Amaratunge, Chandi M. ; azam24x7 ;

nandablr ; P1hendo ; Dr.S.Chinny Krishna ; aapn

; Nilesh Bhanage ; Tracey Clarke ; Rod & Tessa Weaver ; Linda Molvik ;

Weintraub ; Visakha SPCA ; Pradeep Nath ; Swathi Buddhiraju ; Pat Jayatilleke ;

Nicki Farthing ; Harindra Amaratunge ; suzane.vanina ; Paulette

Begon ; mertens.rosa ; speakeasy ; phianimal ;

perro10 ; sb299871 ; nihalas ;

email-sarathjayasinghe21 ; mail ; Nimal Ranasinghe ;

Manel Liyanage ; dinesh nanayakkara ; Jayani Lokuge ; Nayomi ; Nishantha

Weerathunge

Saturday, August 27, 2005 3:55 PM

A Plea To Save Innocent lives

Dear Mr De Silva,

Ever since I heard that innocent dogs were being killed in the religious city

of Kandy during the past few days, I have been calling numerous officials in Sri

Lanka to find out what is going on.

These are my findings:

First I talked with Dr Jayasinghe.

From what I understand, Dr Jaysinghe is not the evil person who is calling for

the killing of these poor creatures. He is mereley a government servant trying

to fulfil the orders of the government officials that he works for.

Next I talked to the Mayor of Kandy (Mr. Senenayake). He informed me that he

had placed a no kill order for the for past three years and had asked KACPAW to

completely rid all stray dogs from the streets of Kandy. (A very big task). He

also stated that the decission to start killing the dogs was an unanimious vote

consisting of approximately 24 officials and that he could not put a stop to the

killing.

What I dont understand is this:

Mr Senanayake needed several officals to implement the recent kill order but

three years ago he placed a NO KILL order with no apparent involment of

officials.

KACPAW and several organizations have steralized and administered rabies

vaccinations to stray dogs and released them back on the streets of Kandy only

becuase of limited funds and manpower available to completely re-home or house

stray dogs. But at least these organizations and donaters from across the world

are trying to find a humane mehtod of animal control. The whole world is

stepping in the direction of humane mehtods of animal control, in which

direction is Sri Lanka heading?

Only you Mr De Silva can bring about a humane resolution to this attrocity. I

have the utmost faith in you sir that you will put a stop to the killing of

these innocnet dogs, and once and for all implement a humane mehtod of stray dog

control.

Thank You for you cooperation and time.

You definitely have my vote including the rest, I wish you success in all your

endeavours

Sincelely,

Harindra Amaratunge

USA

FYI (see email below)

Dear Dr. Harischandra, many emails from across the world have been sent to Dr.

J and the Minister of Health urging Dr. J not to start killing dogs in Kandy.

Kim Cooper of the UK alerted all of us about these developments. It was just the

other day that the minister was talking about getting cabinet approval for a

no-kill programme in SL. We need a meeting with the minister to discuss all

this. I wonder whether you could have one arranged? Could you also speak to Dr.

J and try your best to convince him not to do this senseless thing? These are

sterilized, vaccinated dogs (vaccinated by your teams as well last year) and the

tireless efforts of SOFA members and the enormous amounts of money they have

spent cannot be just dismissed like this by commencing killing dogs in Kandy.

This was a programme mooted by non-other than Jayasinghe himself when plans of

an ABC programme were being discussed by SOFA with the KMC. Champa

----------

Van: Karin Busch [mail]

Verzonden: zondag 21 augustus 2005 14:03

Aan: 'sarathjayasinghe21'

Onderwerp: stray dogs in Kandy

Urgentie: Hoog

Dear Dr. Jayasinghe,

The distressing news reached us that after all the vaccination and

sterilization campaigns in Kandy and surroundings conducted by Dr.

Harischandra's team last year, which were supported and welcomed by several

international organizations as well as private donators, you have plans to kill

all the stray dogs after all in the fight against rabies. We re ally do not

understand how it can be decided to kill dogs that already have been sterilized

and vaccinated against rabies. Apart from the waste of resources and efforts by

the people who put all their energy in it to realize these campaigns, it would

also be a terrible shame on the Municipality of Kandy if innocent creatures are

killed. And should there be still some dogs left which have not yet received the

same treatment, why cannot these be vaccinated and sterilized as well? Not only

human beings, but also animals are entitled to a healthy life. In your capacity

as the Kandy Municipal Chief Veterinary Surgeon, you are one of the persons who

is responsible for the welfare of the animals in the region of Kandy. Therefore,

we respectfully but most urgently request you to use only human methods such as

vaccinating and sterilizing in order to improve their health. Killing would do

not only the opposite, but is furthermore a most barbaric deed.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. Karin Busch.

Burg. van Fenemaplein 2 / 1103

2042 TA Zandvoort

the Netherlands