Volunteering at the KAT Center November 23, 2009

Today I started working at the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre (KAT Centre), a non-profit organization that works for the humane treatment of street dogs in Kathmandu. The KAT Centre rescues sick or injured street dogs, nurses them back to health, and spays them (only the females) before reintroducing them back to the area where they came from. Ideally, these street dogs would have a permanent home at the KAT Centre but there are over 20,000 stray dogs in central Kathmandu and the center does not have the resources or the capacity.

I'm working with the center to create a written proposal for educating the local population on the humane treatment of dogs. Many Nepalis don't know how to treat animals; children regularly beat, kick, and throw stones at street dogs so KAT is working to change that. With the written proposal we hope to find additional financial support to put the program into place.

Currently the only method of controlling the dog population in Nepal involves mass poisoning-- the metropolitan authorities poison more than 10,000 dogs each year with strychnine. This is a horrific form of death, throwing the dogs into violent seizures for up to nine hours before they die. Poison is scattered around the streets in lumps of meat, which are later dispersed to wider areas after being picked up and dropped by birds. The poisoning campaigns not only endanger the stray dogs, but also children who play in the streets as well as peoples' pets. When the dogs die, their carcasses are often left to rot in the streets or dumped in a pile and left to decompose on stream beds. This poses additional hazards, including the pollution of water sources. After decades of poisoning dogs, it has been shown that this method is ineffective in the long term as the fertile stray population quickly recover their numbers.

These are a few of the dogs I fell in love with today.

Tara

The name "Tara" means "star" in Nepali. And Tara is a brave little star. She was rescued from the streets of Kathmandu 4 years ago--she had been hit by a car and was paralyzed from the waist down and had a horrible case of mange. Hers is the recurrent kind of mange, so unfortunately, it keeps coming back. She has a pair of wheels--like a doggie wheelchair--for moving herself around but her wheels don't really fit too well so she prefers to drag herself around using her front legs except that it creates massive open sores on her tail. She's very affectionate and will push herself up to you and nudge you with her nose to tell you when she wants to be petted. If you sit down on the ground she'll clumsily inch her way toward you until she manages to position her head in your lap for a nap.

Lola

Lola & Me

This is Lola. Well, we don't really know what her name is, but I named her that today and all of the staff at the KAT Centre loved the name. So, Lola, she is. Lola is a puppy. She was run over by a car when she was only a few weeks old and had to get her left arm amputated. But she's a happy little tyke and it doesn't seem to bother her too much. She's charming as can be and will steal your heart away within in seconds. Today she stole mine. I was very happy to find out that Lola already has a prospective family--an Australian expat family that lives in Kathmandu--so unlike the other dogs at KAT, she won't have to go back to the streets when she has healed from her operation.

My Precious Little Unnamed Project.

This little girl has no name. She's the weakest one of our dogs at the KAT centre. When she arrived a month ago she was practically starved and had a horrible case of mange. I can't imagine what she looked like a month ago because she looks pretty terrible still, but she is a sweet girl with a calm demeanor. I've taken a particular interest in her because no one else has--she looks so frightening with her open sores that she just lays alone in a corner all day and no one bothers her. But today I took her for a walk outside her pen and petted her and she seemed to really enjoy it. I need to get myself some plastic gloves so I can handle her more often, but it is my project to give her love and nurse her back to health.

Christmas is coming up, please consider donating to the KAT Centre on behalf of some one you love. For 10,000 Nepali Rupees, approximately $137 US dollars, you can sponsor a dog for an entire year. My little unamed girl still needs a sponsor. If you'd like to donate, please contact me or click here.