News
Blue Cross of India acknowledged
February 20, 2009, 4:58PM MT
By Sharon St. Joan
For starting world's first TNR program for dogs
For starting world's first TNR program for dogs
By Sharon St. Joan, Best Friends Network
In 1964, Blue Cross of India, was the first organization in the world to humanely address the street dog population with a spay/neuter/return program.
Now this achievement of Blue Cross of India has been recognized in a list of major environmental milestones in the world. The list has been posted on the website of Radford University, in Virginia, in the U.S., with Merritt Clifton of Animal People Newspaper given as the source for the mention of Blue Cross.
Here is the link:
https://php.radford.edu/~wkovarik/drupal/?q=node/19
In 1959, Dr. Chinny Krishna co-founded--along with his parents, Usha and Captain Sundaram--Blue Cross of India, the first of the modern animal organizations in India.
In 1964, they began the first spay/neuter/return program in the world for street dogs. The program was called ABC, or Animal Birth Control, meaning, Dr. Chinny Krishna explains, that it was "as simple as ABC."
This program, begun 45 years ago, is still setting the standard for how to cope with street dog populations. It is the only method that actually works--both to control the street dog population and to reduce the incidents of rabies, which is a grave problem in many developing countries.
A way that works
In a paper "The Success of the ABC-AR* Program in India"
(*Animal Birth Control – Anti-Rabies), Dr. Krishna tells the story of how this program succeeded in transforming the way India was relating to dogs--going from a failed, inhumane policy to successful, humane policy that virtually eliminated rabies in the areas where it was implemented.
Despite these proven successes, sadly, in numerous countries there are still recurring instances when a flashback to a previous time seems to occur--and all over again, one can see dogs being killed in the streets--even in India.
However, by and large, India--traditionally a land of peace and non-violence--has welcomed an approach of kindness and compassion--and has rejected the simplistic, delusional doctrine that killing is the answer.
Nearly every day, Best Friends receives letters from individuals and groups across the world telling of scenes in the cities of their countries of the mass killing of dogs, often in appalling ways--because of the entirely mistaken view that killing dogs is the effective way to address a dog overpopulation problem.
Yet 45 years ago Blue Cross of India discovered the answer, which is as "simple as ABC." It is hoped that we all, through the global animal movement, can find a way to communicate with our fellow human beings that killing is not the answer--that spay/neuter/return (and vaccinate!)--is the formula that stabilizes dog populations in a way that is kind, compassionate--and long-lasting.
100 years later!
In 1964, when Blue Cross of India began to study this issue, they discovered that the Corporation of the City of Madras had begun its catch-and-kill program way back in 1860. Blue Cross thought about this and concluded that if Madras (now Chennai) had been killing dogs for 100 years--and had not yet resolved the problem--that something must be wrong with their approach.
They then launched their spay/neuter/return program--which was at first rejected outright by the city of Madras. Undeterred, Blue Cross continued to spay/neuter all the street dogs that they rescued. After recovery from surgery and being given a rabies vaccination, each dog was carefully returned to the neighborhood from where he or she had been picked up.
This policy of returning dogs to their own neighborhoods meant that the dogs were able to resume their relationships with people who may have been feeding them and also with dog friends, with whom they had established a bond.
Then these neighborhood dogs as a group would together defend their territory against intrusion by new dogs who were strangers. In the old catch-and-kill policy, whenever neighborhood dogs were killed or removed, then new dogs, who were more likely to have rabies, moved in to fill the void--which was the reason that the city of Madras had had to keep killing more and more dogs for 100 years without ever coming to an end to the problem.
After the span of 100 years, Madras was killing far more dogs and dealing with far more human rabies cases than when they started. Sometimes the city of Madras was killing as many as 135 dogs a day; whereas, in 1860, they had been killing around one dog a day. The killing seemed simply to cause a need for more killing.
At last, an official program
In 1995, thirty years after starting their spay/neuter/return program, Blue Cross was finally able to persuade the City of Madras (Chennai) to try out the ABC program.
Chennai, in the south of India, and Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan in northwestern India, were the first two cities to begin spay/neuter programs. People for Animals took on the ABC program in northern Chennai.
Statistics show that from 1996 to 2004, while the ABC program was being carried out with official backing, in Chennai, the number of human rabies cases dropped from 120 a year to just five a year--in a dramatic demonstration that the more compassionate approach is also the most effective one.
Blue Cross's program continues and is still saving the lives of dogs!
Thanks to Dr. Chinny Krishna, to all at Blue Cross, and to all those throughout India and the rest of Asia who have also been pioneers in this movement--who have led the way to a truly kind, effective, and practical way to relate to street dogs.
Now all that is needed is a way of spreading the message to those cities throughout the world who seem not to have heard yet that the answer has already been found--was, in fact, found 45 years ago. There is no longer any need whatever to kill innocent animals, simply because they live on the streets. Compassion and kindness to animals, as it turns out, are also the very best way to guarantee human health and safety.
What you can do
To see the Environmental History Timeline, please go to
https://php.radford.edu/~wkovarik/drupal/?q=node/19
For Animal People Newspaper, please go to
http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/
For the website of Blue Cross of India, please go to
http://www.bluecross.org.in/
Photos: Sharon St. Joan
Top photo: Drs. Nanditha and Chinny Krishna
Second photo: Dog in Bali guarding his home
Third photo: Street dogs in Bali