INIMITABLES...: Care for Strays in Sri Lanka

Just because this article informs you about places in Sri Lanka that house and help homeless animals, it does not mean that you can dump your sick animals and new born animals in these places. This article is meant to give credit to the organizations that help strays in this country to have a better life. It is important that you know that there are such places in Sri Lanka, that need funding and volunteers to keep them going. The following stories and information are ones I found on the websites of the following animal-friendly organizations: Adopt a Dog in Sri Lanka, Animal SOS, Dogstar Foundation, Pet Express, Embark Foundation and Animal Welfare and Protection Association. All these organizations carry out programmes where dogs are sterilized or neutered, vaccinated and treated for wounds and diseases, and they also promote the adoption of stray animals and have educational programmes about animal welfare. This article follows stories that are specific to each of these organizations.

On an August evening in 2016, a mamma dog was found with her hind legs and her front legs bound together with wire so tightly that the wire had cut into her skin. A chain around her neck was tied to a pole and her three weak pups were feeding at her breasts. They all had a dangerous tick-borne disease called Babesia gibsoni. It was volunteers from Animal SOS that found her like this. Mamma dog, Badger as they later named her, was terrified of humans but was all love and care to her pups. Out of the three pups, the weakest one died but the other two were neutered, vaccinated and rehomed by Animal SOS. The story of Badger does not end there. Later on, two newborn pups were left in a box in front of the 4-acre Animal SOS shelter at Ahangama. The volunteers introduced them to Mamma Badger who still had milk. She accepted them gladly and nursed them into health. Badger proved to be a very caring mother once again.

Animal SOS continues to have on-site clinics, with resident and local vets, that are operational every day of the year and is registered as a U.K. charity programme. They conduct educational and animal adoption programmes regularly and provide life-saving treatment for sick and stray animals.

Wisky doggy was found dumped on the side of a road in the pouring rain. It was AWPA that found him. He had only two legs which were on the same side of her body and had a raw wound on her body. Wisky is now a long-term resident at the AWPA shelters and manages to walk on her two legs and balances against walls when he wants to stand still. Wisky is another happily-ever-after story, just like momma Badger.

AWPA, Animal Welfare and Protection Association, is one that also has shelters like Animal SOS. They are a non-profit based organization that works solely with voluntary work and funds from the public. They take in stray, abandoned dogs and cats and their goal is to find forever homes for them. They house and care for over four-hundred dogs and sixty-five cats in their two shelters at Kahatuduwa and Dehiwala. The Committee Members of AWPA visit their shelters at least five times a week to monitor the shelter operations and to make sure that the animals are well cared for. During these visits the animals are brushed and checked for ticks and other diseases. The number of happy stories is many, at AWPA.

Dogstar Foundation was registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales in 2006. They say that they operate “because every dog deserves to be healthy and happy” as they say in their website. Dogstar Christmas Appeal 2018 is a programme that raises funds to help five-hundred dogs via the Street Dog Skincare Programme. They also have a programme called Give a Gift to a Street Dog in which two-hundred and ten gifts have been received to date. By November 27^th this year, they had sterilized 27 346 dogs, 2 656 cats and given 49 319 rabies vaccinations. They also have a branch called Catstar Foundation.

Embark. They say: ‘Compassion: Learn it, Teach it, Share it.’ They are focused mainly around the Western Province. To date they have sterilized 23 737, vaccinated 52 979, rescued 20 848 and rehomed 4 123 dogs. They have a clothing and accessories line from which a large percentage of proceeds is used for the welfare of dogs. Their t-shirts have interesting pick-up lines like ‘Adopt Me’ and ‘Take me Home’ and are popular among the youth in Sri Lanka.

ADSL, Adopt a Dog in Sri Lanka, is a smaller organization based on the town-level. It is run by a small group of animal lovers and volunteers. It only has a facebook page where they are described as a non-profit organization that finds homes for, rescues, sterilizes and has feeding programmes for animals. CNVR programmes are ones that focus on ‘Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate and Release’. They have conducted sterilization programmes in Sigiriya and Habarana and have rescued many injured dogs. So far, they have rescued around four hundred dogs. They also have a dansala for street animals. ADSL is also funded by kind donors.

Pet Express is a different kind of organization. They help people who are moving to Sri Lanka with their pets. They do the documentation work, for their customers, with regard to bringing their animals with them to the island. Their services are of a wide range. They make air freight arrangements, arrangements for import permits and import license, they give their assistance in preparing the necessary travel documents, they provide import customs clearance within three hours and import quarantine clearance within another few hours and they also do a door delivery service to get your animals safely to your doorstep. Pet Express is the only organization in Sri Lanka that provides these services and they are open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and three-sixty-five days a year. This one of a kind animal organization is one that only a few know of.

These are some of the main animal-welfare-based organizations in Sri Lanka. Apart from these there are also individual people who feed and give home to large numbers of stray animals. Mr. Shiru Gamage is one of these people. His place is home to over eighty dogs and he feeds many more street dogs outside his home. You can help people like this by adopting, volunteering at their events, sponsoring a meal or by helping to find a kind home.

These are people who give hope to Sri Lanka as a country: a country in which the stray dog population is over 500 000. These kind people, being many in number, still cannot care for all the stray animals in the country. What Sri Lanka needs is a community which stops shopping for pure-bred animals and, instead, adopts and loves the already roaming, homeless animals in the island. So, I am suggesting to you: adopt animals, don’t shop for them.