SRI LANKA... policies and practical steps

[Guest guest]

While the President has taken a revolutionary step and ordered the local

authorities to stop the killing of dogs and to implement humane methods of

rabies-prevention and population-control, we hear, that at the same time the

policy-makers still talk about revising the laws, which enforce a

registration-fee on dog-owners, which would definitely double or triple the

number of homeless dogs because, if people are supposed to pay for their dogs,

many will dis-own their dogs, and in many cases it is actually true, that they

have not intentionally aquired their dogs, but have adopted them since they were

roaming around their house hungry and in need of shelter. SOFA and Sattva

Mithuru have repeatedly stated, that at this stage we are against enforcing

registration-fees, but once the population is stabilized and every Sri Lankan

dog has an owner, we agree, that the dogs should be registered to ensure, that

all dogs receive their annual rabies-vaccination.

 

We would have expected, that after the Presidential Order, the KMC and the

Central Province Government as well, will release funds to vaccinate and

sterilize dogs, but so far all sterilizations of community dogs in Kandy are

still done by us with the help of donations received by animal-welfare groups

and individuals abroad. Right now we are facing a high number of dogs being

brought to our transit-home for sterilization not only from Kandy, but also from

the Central Province, and many requests for field-clinics from all parts of

Kandy and surrounding villages. We would gladly like to respond positively to

all those requests and would also gladly increase the number of community-dogs

and strays being sterilized, but it will not be possible with the contributions

of our present donor-base. Therefore we can only hope, that the local

authorities will soon either establish their own clinics or assist the groups,

which already carry out clinics to reduce the numbers of homeless dogs. It is

well known in Sri Lanka, that most homeless dogs are bred by domestic dogs and

later abandoned and therefore it is crucial to offer free sterilizations

islandwide if the Presidential Order is being taken seriously and followed up by

practical steps.

 

It will also be necesssary, that the media steps in with educational programmes

because many Buddhists still are made to believe, that, if they sterilize their

dogs, they will not be able to have children in their next life as a punishment

because sterilization is regarded as a sin by many respresentatives of Buddhism.

We are not aware, if other religions also have objections, but we are happy,

that many dog-owners from all religions have already understood, that it is much

more moral to neuter an animal than to abandon its offsprings onto the street.

 

In Kandy the court-case is still pending, even though the municipality offered a

stettlement two months ago. The Mayor has not responded to our request for a

meeting to discuss the terms of settlement. We would gladly agree to settle the

conflict if the KMC is ready to cooperate with the Catch - Neuter - Return

Programme, even though that woud mean, that the contempt of court, which has

been commited by killing sterilized and vaccinated dogs in August 2005, will

remain un-punished.