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NepalBoudha Camp
Street Dog Care Camp was established in early February 2009 in Boudha by Ms. Andrea Bringmann from Germany. Every Saturday the Street Dog Care Camp team which consists of two local veterinaries and several volunteers, treats sick street dogs. The care given ranges from curing skin and infection diseases, over deworming, accidents to vaccinations (like rabies, distemper, parvo,
tumours etc.) So far, every Saturday about 15 dogs have been treated and overall the health condition of about 60 dogs has been significantly increasing. Since this treatment takes place in a public area, a considerable importance is given to building up awareness about the local street dog population. People are invited to bring sick and injured street dogs from their neighbourhoods. Apart from the regular camp, the team provides also medical care or transports to the veterinary clinic in case of emergency, during the week. The stage of health of every individual treated is regularly overviewed and reported and the required medicines etc. are given regularly to the dogs in need. A local person who is paid by the camp provides fresh drinking water to the dogs in order to prevent sicknesses connected to dirty water. All these activities are discussed with the local committee and approved by them. Over 25 000 stray dogs wander around the streets of Kathmandu valley. Most of these dogs live in miserable states, suffering from mal nourishment, diseases and mal treatment. These days severe chronic skin infections are also affecting the dogs' immune mechanism. Dogs are also being killed either intentionally or unintentionally by automobile accidents, or they are paralyzed throughout their life time by this. Despite of these sad conditions, not much attention is given to make a healthy street dog community, because people tend not to be aware about it. Therefore, every individual of the community should pay at least a minimum attention for the welfare of these dogs. A street dog will be healthy by a combined effort of the street dog care camp and the local community. Purpose and Objective of the Street Dog Care Center: The main function of the SDC Centre in Kopan area is to provide daily and intensive care for emergency cases, such as car accidents, severe infections and open wounds. The experience of the street dog care camp has shown that post-operation care is extremely difficult to provide to the dogs without fixed home. The dogs are difficult to find and the healing process can therefore not be supervised and supported properly by the team. Another important issue is to vaccinate all street dogs passing through the SDC Centre against rabies. (Of course, this keeps on happening also at the various SDC camps) If the stage of the mange (skin) disease is particularly advanced, the individual suffering from it needs a more intensive care than can be given on the street. Namely, the dogs need to be showered, get daily medicine as well as a tonic application on the whole body. Operation or chemo therapy of CTVT (canine transmissible veneral tumour) will be done in the future clinic, and again, it is indispensable to provide for a proper post-operative care for these female dogs. Contagious sicknesses such as distemper will be tried to take under control by isolating the infected individual in the centre. The SDC Centre will provide the possibility to begin an ABC (Animal Birth Control) program, which will take place in the future intern clinic of the Centre. As mentioned above, proper care in the post-operative phase will be given at the centre to these female dogs for the time needed. Our aim is to treat the dogs at the centre up to the point where it is possible and reasonable to release them again and bring them back to their previous territory. Generally it is the overall aim of this project to make the streets free of the suffering dogs and have a community of healthy and therefore happy street dogs. Building awareness: People tend to be afraid of street dogs generally and sick street dogs in particular. They have the misconception that they might be attacked or bit by them and then infected by the sickness like mange, rabies etc. the dog is suffering from. Therefore, the correct knowledge about rabies and other sicknesses would be helpful to decrease their fear. The team is planning to provide to the local people information material how to treat a street dog in a way that is good for both man and animal, and in more rare cases, how to deal with an aggressive dog or a rabies infected dog. One should also be aware that aggressive behaviour from the side of the dog often comes from the peoples' way of acting. Observing the activities going on every Saturday at the camp and the treatment, care and love given to the dogs in general by the team influences the attitude and behaviour of the people, as it has been noticed in Boudha. A particular attention is given to involve also local helpers. If only foreigners are doing this work, it might still appear to the Tibetan and Nepali people, to be something foreign and strange to treat a street dog properly. The example of an emergency case, taken care of by a Nepali youngster (see below) has shown that a big educational effect has taken place among his family members as well as local people observing his effort on the spot. The long term aim is therefore to make the people sensible about their attitude towards the street dogs. A minimum goal would be, not to mistreat them, such as throwing stones or kick them, and the dream of the team is that local people become more interested and caring about these dogs. www.streetdogcare.org |    |
