News
Himachal Pradesh: Uphill battle during rabies outbreak
January 28, 2009, 1:9PM MT
By Sharon St. Joan
Himalayan Nature Society fights to protect dogs
Himalayan Nature Society fights to protect dogs
Himachal Pradesh lies in northwest India, bordering Tibet. The capital Dharamsala is perhaps best known to outsiders as the town that has extended its hospitality for over fifty years to the Dalai Lama and his government in exile after they fled Tibet.
Himachal Pradesh is beautiful, mountainous country with an abundance of forests and wildlife.
Himalayan Nature Society fights to protect dogs
By Sharon St. Joan, Best Friends Network
The Himalayan Nature Society (HNS) is struggling to save the lives of thousands of dogs from being killed during a rabies epidemic.
In India, rabies is an active disease that kills 20,000 to 40,000 people every year.
Last May and June saw the start of a rabies outbreak appearing first among the street dogs of Dharamsala and spreading rapidly to the surrounding villages; Sidhwari, Shamnagar, Dari, Fatehpur, Yol and Khaniyara. In Sidhpur village alone, three people died of rabies, including a four-year old child.
There were 283 dog bites in this area, with 65 school children bitten in the village of Nagrota Surian.
The Himalayan Nature Society is estimating that there are 6,000 street dogs living in Dharamsala and the nearby villages.
Arvind Sharma, the group's Founder and Chairman of the Board tells Best Friends that whenever this sort of a crisis happens, the Dharamsala city government and the people resort to mass killing of the street dogs in very brutal ways.
Why killing dogs doesn't stop rabies
Arvind Sharma and his group have been waging an uphill battle to protect the lives of innocent dogs--and to convince people that their group's spay/neuter program offers a much better plan for preserving human safety than killing dogs. With spay/neuter (called ABC in India), the dog population can be stabilized, and the risk of rabies will then diminish.
Whenever massive numbers of street dogs are being killed, then new dogs soon move in to the area to fill the vacuum, with a greater likelihood that some of the newcomers will bring rabies with them. Mass killing of dogs only prolongs and intensifies the rabies danger. A stable population of spayed/neutered dogs works to prevent new cases of rabies--and is a safer situation for humans as well as for animals.
This logic, however, is a hard sell in the atmosphere of fear engendered by the outbreak of rabies. Killing dogs is an instinctive response.
Starting their spay/neuter program from scratch
Arvind Sharma has approached local authorities several times over the past couple of years. An agreement had been reached between the HNS (Himalayan Nature Society) and officials that the killing would stop provided the HNS could manage the dog overpopulation with their TNR/vaccination program for dogs. But with the rabies outbreak, there as been a return to killing the dogs.
Two years ago, HNS started their ABC program in a rented building on a shoestring budget, supported by one U.S. donor, Deb Jarrett, who started a U.S. organization, Piyara Kutta, to help their efforts.
In the single, ramshackle building, HNS was able to spay/neuter 1,460 street dogs and vaccinate 3,400 without any governmental or organizational support.
A "life-long project"!
Now, HNS has a new shelter and clinic under construction, where they'll be able to bring many more dogs to be spayed/neutered and vaccinated.
They've only been going for two and a half years, but they've accomplished a lot. Motivated by a sense of compassion, Arvind Sharma started the Himalayan Nature Society following a mass killing of street dogs in the town of Mcleod Ganj in July of 2006. They help all kinds of animals, including wildlife--and when they found, among some of the poor people, that the elderly and orphans were suffering from neglect, they helped them too.
The ABC program is a major thrust of their activities. Since December of 2008, they've had an understanding with the government Veterinary Department, who will now be sending one of their vets to work on the ABC program. Dr. Suje Sharma will be available for three days every week and is expected to make a huge difference.
The Rajasthan organization Help in Suffering graciously provided training for a para-vet (veterinary technician) and dogcatcher, Surinder Kumar. So, now HNS has three trained dog catcher/vet techs.
Arvind Sharma describes this undertaking as, for him, "a life long project,"--first tackling Dharamsala, then expanding throughout the Kangra Valley--wherever their services are needed to help animals.
In the future he hopes they'll be able to build other clinics and shelters too, branching out to more areas of Himachal Pradesh.
They've also started a school education program.
They're working day in and day out to help the street dogs of Himachal Pradesh, who, until they began their efforts, had no access to vet treatment at all. In many parts of India, there are ambulance services for injured street dogs, but Himachal Pradesh has been lagging behind in this regard.
Now the Himalayan Nature Society represents a new hope for the street dogs of Himachal Pradesh.
Thanks to Dr. Chinny Krishna, of Blue Cross of India, and to Merritt Clifton, of Animal People, for their many very clear explanations of how spay/neuter programs save the lives of dogs, while diminishing the risk of rabies to humans.
How you can help
The current, immediate need is to stop the killing of street dogs that is happening right now because of the fear of rabies.
• You can help by sending a polite email to
Mr. Prem Kumar Dhumal
Chief Minister of Himachal Shimla,
Himachal Pradesh,
India
Email: cm-hp@nic.in
In your email, please
…Ask the government to stop killing street dogs and to abide by the animal welfare laws of India and the principles set forth by the Animal Welfare Board of India.
…Thank them for sending one of their government vets to help with the Himalayan Nature Society's ABC (spay/neuter/vaccinate) program.
…Ask them to provide increased support and funding for the ABC program--since this is only effective way to reduce and eliminate the danger of rabies to humans.
• To help support the building of the new HNS spay/neuter shelter and clinic, you may make a U.S. tax-deductible donation, by credit card, at
http://piyarakutta.org/?page_id=8
• To read more about the Himalayan Nature Society, please go to
http://www.hnsindia.org/
Top Photo: © Goranmulic | Dreamstime.com / two dogs (not in Himachal Pradesh)
Second Photo: © Saru.malho.../ Dreamstime.com / Himachal Pradesh
Third Photo: Himalayan Nature Society / Laying the foundation of the new clinic
Fourth Photo: Himalayan Nature Society / Construction of the new clinic, with Surinder Kumar, Vet Tech and Dogcatcher