Author: Kristin Stone

“Finally, we can see light at the end of the tunnel,” said officiating Prime Minister and current Minister of Works and Human Settlement of Bhutan, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba. In a meeting with Dr. Andrew Rowan, CEO of HSI, Mr. Zimba was referring to the results achieved by our spay/neuter/vaccination program for street dogs. In a span of three years, in a joint project with the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB), HSI vets have reached more than 50 percent of the total street dog population in Bhutan.

On the streets of Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital, the program has made a tangible difference to the locals. “There are no new additions to the gang here,” said a shop owner, pointing to a group of dogs lounging outside.

Give now to support our efforts to help street dogs in Bhutan and around the world.

Before HSI partnered with RGoB, local authorities had tried several methods to reduce the dog population. In the 1980s, a vigorous elimination program was carried out but failed to bring down numbers, as it always does. Relocating dogs was followed by impounding, with shelters constructed across the country. Despite all these efforts, conflicts between street dogs and people were worsening. After the impounding program, the animals who escaped from shelters would form packs of as many as 30 dogs each. “The only thing controlling their numbers was cars running over the puppies—what a mess!” Mr. Zimba said.

A happier, more humane approach

Now, in a few years, Bhutan may emerge as the first country in Asia to have successfully and humanely managed its street dog population. Dr. Rowan was there to sign a three-year extension of our project.

“This program is not only a long-term, sustainable and humane solution, but is also in harmony with Bhutan’s Buddhist culture and principles,” said Lyonpo Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, Minister of Agriculture, RGoB, as he signed the Memorandum of Understanding with HSI.

The small, mountainous country, between India and China, has been in the global spotlight for suggesting the Gross National Happiness index as one of the indicators to measure its citizens’ quality of life. At the signing, Dr. Rowan, who had visited a local dog shelter earlier in the day, spoke about having received his “happy pills” in the form of many doggy kisses. “When the dogs are sterilized, they’re healthier and people are happier. Although hard to document, this (a happier relationship between people and dogs), will be one of the more positive outcomes of HSI’s efforts in Bhutan,” Dr. Rowan said. He also predicted that Bhutan was going to be the landmark project in humane dog population control in Asia, and perhaps, the world. “Everyone’s going to be citing the Bhutan project. This is going to be a very important program.”

Indeed, the project has already garnered a great deal of appreciation from people inside the country and the animal welfare community around the world. Even neighboring Bangladesh and Nepal have taken note of Bhutan’s success. Almost all of the dignitaries and ministers that we met thanked the team and welcomed the extension. Among them was the Queen-Mother of Bhutan, Queen Ashi Tshering Yangdon, an avid dog lover. In her meeting with us, the Queen-Mother spoke about dogs as sentient beings, whose welfare people should no longer ignore.

Facing challenges

“Across most of mountainous Bhutan, accessibility is a problem. When we started off, our vehicles broke down every day. Eventually, we had no choice but to invest in a bigger, more rugged vehicle. Even then, many areas had to be covered by foot,” said Dr. Rajesh Pandey, HSI Project Coordinator in Bhutan, who is originally from India.

In keeping with our commitment to empowering local authorities and communities to ensure long-term sustainability of our programs, our team has been consistently working to share their expertise. Over the past three years, we have kept a dynamic ratio that slowly raises the number of local vets and talent working on the project. In 2009, when we had just begun our work in Bhutan, 90 percent of the staff comprised of HSI team members, while last year, our staff comprised of only 30 percent of the entire team. The country opened to modernization only recently, and finding qualified veterinarians was not easy. “Alongside work on the field, training and setting up a local team was also essential, but there weren’t enough vets,” Dr. Pandey said.

The way ahead

Encouraged by local officials, 28 fresh veterinarians will graduate this year and are scheduled to join the government team working on the project. Also, to ensure consistent and optimal coverage, HSI will donate operation tables, equipment and surgical supplies to spaying clinics in all the 20 dzongkhags (districts) of Bhutan.

We believe that it is very important to examine the different outcomes of the spay/neuter/vaccination program. Various parameters like the subtle shifts in the human-dog relationship, rise of community adoptions when there are fewer dogs, reduced aggression and post-operative health are being considered for documentation and research.

A study, jointly conducted by HSI and RGoB staff, towards the end of the first phase (three years), demonstrated that there was reduced aggression and also howling during mating season. In the past, the barking of street dogs was the only thing many tourists complained about regarding an otherwise wonderful experience in the country! A comparative study by the team also revealed that the treated dogs fared much better in terms of general health, including skin conditions.

In the past year, our team has already been approached with numerous research proposals based on the Bhutan project. “Of course, we’re going to work on improving the program in Bhutan, but an equally important focus area is going to be documenting the entire process and creating a guide book for other countries,” said Rahul Sehgal, director of HSI/India and a project leader. “This work is important not just for Bhutan but also for other developing countries that assume incorrectly they do not have the resources to deal with the problem in a humane manner.” It is our goal to prove them wrong. Donate now to support our efforts.

by Peter Li

April 20, 2012 was a significant day for the estimated 130 million dogs in China. A weibo (Chinese twitter) alert led to a massive dog rescue on a highway in Kunming, southwest Yunnan Province.

Advocates intervene

Stopped at a toll station was a truck loaded with misery and despair. Bound for Guangxi, some 1,000 miles from its place of origin, the truck carried 475 dogs headed for dog-eating markets. On learning of this, hundreds of Kunming activists converged on the toll station to demand confiscation of the dogs. Persistence finally led to their release after hours of difficult negotiations.

A sad state

The rescued animals were in shocking condition. Dead dogs were found in many suffocating small cages. Some were barely clinging to life. Most were stoic, emaciated and dehydrated.“The crying of the dogs was such that I fought hard to suppress my emotions,” said a rescuer tearfully. “But I lost control of my feelings when I saw a dog licking every drop of water around him that he could reach.”

Donate to support our work to help dogs in China and around the world.

Many dogs had injuries. Some of them could not even stand up when moved into bigger enclosures. Despite what they had endured, most were forgiving and showed no signs of aggression toward people. In fact, many dogs seemed to have been household pets. Some wore jackets. Others wore collars. Their temperaments suggested that they had been close to humans.

Hope for the cause

Leading the rescue and post-rescue care is Haoyuner Animal Protection Center (HAPC), Kunming’s biggest animal protection group and a previous participant in an event sponsored by HSI in China. Ms. Zhao, an HAPC staff member, told HSI that the dogs would be moved to their shelter after evaluation. “We are working hard to provide the best possible care for these traumatized animals,” Zhao said. Volunteers from across the city have joined HAPC to help and the rescue operation has attracted worldwide attention.

Kunming is relatively remote, and this rescue shows that animal protection efforts are expanding into the country’s less developed inland areas. “Those young people who spent sleepless nights caring for the dogs are the hope of our country,” wrote one Web surfer.

Creating change

This incident was not without controversy. Dog-eating is not illegal in China. There are still people who see animal protection as a hobby of the rich. In fact,volunteers and activists are young and passionate, with limited means.

HSI has been following the development of the rescue operation. Our China operation team has contacted HAPC and offered funding help. We believe that the Kunming rescue sent a strong message to Chinese society to be conscious of and sensitive to the adverse moral, economic, public health and political impacts of dog abuse and dog eating.

We congratulate the Kunming activists for their success and we will continue our efforts to encourage greater awareness of animal welfare issues, support capacity building, assist in lobbying activities aimed at policy change, respond to distress calls and monitor developments as the Chinese animal protection movement grows. Give now to support our life-saving work.

Dr. Peter Li is China Policy Specialist for HSI.

by Cynthia Dent

Should an animal be afforded dignity and protection against cruelty?  In Costa Rica, the answer was a resounding “Yes,” effectively halting a proposed Pamplona-esque bull run.

Bringing bull runs to Costa Rica

At the beginning of 2012, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce joined with several private companies to try to bring “Pamplona y Más” to Costa Rica, with one of the main events featuring a bull run similar to those held at the San Fermin festivities. Traditionally, Costa Rica has had modified bull runs, where a bull is thrown into a ring with several people teasing the animal and avoiding getting hit by him.  The new proposal was meant to emulate the Pamplona bull run, with a 700-meter course, with sharp corners, through which the bulls would run.

The public reacts

Animal welfare groups and other concerned citizens protested the activity on many grounds, citing the sharp corners of the run and the inappropriate flooring.  HSI, along with several other NGOs, reacted strongly to bringing another culture’s cruelty into Costa Rica and started an aggressive campaign against the event. HSI/Latin America sent a letter to the Department of Animal Health, urging the denial of necessary permits on the grounds of poor animal welfare. The Association of Psychologists, the Association of Biologists and the Association of Veterinarians all sent out public statements renouncing the bull run, specifying similar concerns. At the same time, three organizations presented a case to the constitutional court, basing their argument on the bull run’s representing an infringement on animal welfare.

Constitutional victory

Costa Rica’s constitutional court declared the “Pamplona y Más” bull run unconstitutional, showing in a historic vote that animals should be treated with diginity and must be protected against mistreatment. Given that this is the highest constitutional court in Costa Rica, it sets an important precedent, to be celebrated.

Cynthia Dent is regional director of HSI/Latin America.

India’s sprawling, government-owned university, college and research campuses are scattered across the nation. As odd as it may sound, these, along with leading space research centres, engineering hubs and global management institutes, make safe havens for the country’s stray dogs. Acres of tall, green trees provide shade and comfort through sweltering summers, and food sources are aplenty, thanks to onsite residences, cafeterias, and poor garbage disposal systems.

However, dog and man don’t necessarily coexist in harmony, due in part to the poor implementation of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) program by local municipal bodies, uncontrolled breeding of the animals, and short-term measures such as displacement (which never works!) taken by campus authorities.

A call for assistance

HSI/India was called upon to help out on one such campus, the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. The IIMs, as they’re known, exist at several locations throughout the country, and the one in Ahmedabad, in the west Indian state of Gujarat, has been called “the Harvard Business School of India.” The institute’s authorities had been struggling with a dog issue for several years. “The municipal authorities could not solve it, and obviously, there was nothing we could do directly,” said campus official and Group Head Mr. H.J Vadher

“The huge campus is located in the centre of the city, surrounded by the worst congestion of vehicular and human traffic. Naturally, the dogs are looking to find safe spots and almost every dog in the area attempts to get onto the campus and stick around,” said Rahul Sehgal, Ahmedabad resident and director, HSI/India.

Getting into action

Upon receiving the call, our team immediately began work on the problem. Several initiatives needed to be undertaken at once, including investigation of complaints, documenting the dogs’ conditions and their locations, and most importantly, setting up feeding stations.

Just before we stepped in, the number of dog bite and dog attack reports had skyrocketed. We started with a thorough investigation of the situation, probing every complaint more deeply. We found that many could be attributed to fear and phobia, which had deepened in recent times. This was especially true for reports of attacks. However, the problem could not be denied entirely as the dogs were indeed turning aggressive for a variety of reasons.

Give now to support our efforts to help street dogs in India and around the world.

One of the first things that we did was to work with campus staff to set up feeding stations. These served multiple purposes, including reducing aggression and allowing us to monitor the animals on a daily basis. “At the feeding stations, the team notes new entrants and observes the dogs for injuries or changes in behavior,” explained Sehgal. The stations also help the staff befriend the animals, so they are more compliant when the time comes to transfer them to the on-campus sterilization and vaccination centres. In some cases, humane catching methods like blow pipes are also used.

Keeping the dogs healthy and busy

Things, of course, are far from perfect. To controlling the dog population, ensure the animals’ constant welfare, and minimize conflicts requires a long-term commitment. Thankfully, campus authorities are aware of this. The current chief administrative officer of the institute, Mr. Manoj Bhatt, started work on the campus a few months before the first year of the project was nearing completion. “I had heard from my team about the situation with the dogs and I was glad to note that this project had been initiated. Reactions are mixed about the results, but it takes time to resolve a problem of this nature,” he said.

Mr.Vadher echoed Mr. Bhatt’s point of view: “Opinions may vary on how successful the program has been so far, but for us, as people in-charge on the campus, it a huge relief that there is an agency we can call to deal with the matter in a scientific manner. I would say there has been 80 percent improvement since the problem was at its peak in 2007. Complaints of bites and chasing have dropped dramatically.”

Many people who are generally anti-animal have hardly changed their stance, says faculty member Professor Navdeep Mathur. “The problem is not going to be solved immediately or forever… the notion of animal birth control has to become part of an institute’s ecology,” he said, adding emphatically, “although nobody will say this programme has not been a success.” Professor Mathur shared figures [note: these could not be verified] to complement our team on their efforts: “Where there used to be complaints of 10 bites a week, now there’s probably one every month. That’s a vast improvement,” he said.

A haven and an identity

As of February this year, our team had also completed a geotagging project with all the dogs on the campus, so we know the exact location of every dog, and since the pictures are tacked onto virtual maps, new team members and staff can easily identify the animals.

With more than 100 dogs sterilized, vaccinated, treated, fed and now being monitored, this pioneering welfare project is off to a fabulous start. The second year, our local team promises, will see the fruits of their efforts, with results expected to be unprecedented compared to any solutions attempted before.

“IIM-Ahmedabad has proven that it’s among the nation’s most forward-thinking institutes by taking an intellectual and humane approach to stray dog welfare. We’re so very proud of this partnership,” said Sehgal.

“It’s such a relief not to see dogs being chased or beaten with sticks or sick ones simply being heartlessly ignored,” said Professor Mathur, who, like many of us, is an animal lover, and for whom these things alone are half the battle won and a giant leap forward.

A few years ago, Rubaiya Ahmed founded Obhoyaronno, a non-governmental organization with a focus on street dog welfare.

HSI has partnered with Obhoyaronno to better the lives of street dogs in Bangladesh through multiple meetings with government officials and ongoing training in spay/neuter and humane capture of dogs. We helped identify the key areas to focus on and worked within the cultural and social boundaries of Bangladesh to effect positive change.

Making a deal

Toward the end of last year, we supported the local group’s efforts to conduct a census of the street dog population in Dhaka; during this time, for about three months, dog culling was put unofficially on hold. HSI and Obhoyaronno pushed for an agreement that following the completion of training in humane animal control, dog culling would come to an end in Bangladesh.

A milestone victory

Last month, we were proud to stand alongside Obhoyaronno as the government announced an end to street dog culling in the country’s capital, Dhaka. Rahul Sehgal, director of HSI India, was one the speakers at the historic January 21, 2012 event. It was an unprecedented victory for street dog rights in this country: the first time that the culling of these animals has been called off in a Bangladesh city.

Help animals as an HSI Street Dog Defender.

Ensuring long-term success

However, the journey doesn’t end there. As agreed, sustained, effective spay/neuter programs by trained, local veterinarians will follow to ensure the long-term welfare of street dogs in Dhaka. HSI brought vets and paravets from Obhoyaronno to our newly established Jaipur Veterinary Training Center in India for month-long training sessions, including practice of our easy-to-perform spay/neuter surgery, typically coupled with vaccinations against diseases like rabies, a raging problem in Bangladesh.

HSI India’s veterinary teams, who have performed thousands of spay/neuter surgeries in countries like Bhutan, Philippines, and India, will also continue to visit Bangladesh to support their colleagues. Give today to support our work.