|
Wildlife S.O.S. rescues 3 feet long Monitor Lizard from mob fury |
|||
|
|||
The street dog that changed our lives:
The story of one family’s love for the starving animal saved from a Thai backstreet
By Natasha Courtenay-Smith
Last updated at 8:22 AM on 17th June 2009
Ten years ago, the Mail told the heartwarming story of Kim Cooling and her husband Gary, who fell in love with Rama, a street dog, while on holiday in Thailand. Sadly, Rama recently passed away, but not before inspiring the couple to set up a charity. Here, Kim, 52, a social worker who lives in Woodford, East London, with Gary, 43, a roofer, pays tribute to the dog that changed her life.
My love affair with my beloved dog Rama started on holiday in Thailand just over a decade ago, and it ended last week when she was put to sleep in a treatment room at our local vet’s.
As Rama slipped into unconsciousness, and slowly stopped breathing, I held her tightly and whispered to her how much I loved her.
When my husband and I returned to the house, my eight rescue dogs, seeing Rama was not with us, started howling.
They knew she was gone. A week on, and Rama’s death feels as raw as ever to all of us.
Yet amid our grief, I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a terrible tragedy, but in fact the closing chapter in the life of a street dog who had incredible good luck.
I can still recall, as though it were yesterday, the moment in November 1998 when I first laid eyes on Rama.
My husband, who was then my boyfriend, had taken me to Thailand for a romantic break.
We planned a week in Phuket, followed by a week in Bangkok. During the first week, we decided to go to Patong, a bustling area with stalls and restaurants.
And it was there, as we sat drinking coffee in a bar, that I spotted an emaciated, fawn-coloured stray dog, weaving through the tourists and stall holders.
She was desperately searching for food and trying to dodge the firecrackers some boys were throwing.
My eyes followed the wretched-looking animal and after gulping down my drink, I raced after her.
In my bag, I had some tins of pilchards, so I quickly opened a can. She wagged her tail in appreciation and gobbled the food in seconds.
And that, I thought, would be it. Our hotel taxi was waiting across the road and it was time to go.
But just as we were climbing into the taxi, the dog appeared and stood at our feet, looking up at us hopefully.
She had risked her life following us across a busy road heaving with cars, tuk-tuks and bicycles.
We made a quick decision to take the dog back to the beach area near our hotel, where it was safer and quieter.
She sat on our laps in the taxi and seemed happy in our company. We decided then to call her Rama, after the Thai King.
Back at the hotel, we took Rama to the beach and sat with her until we had to retire for the night.
We got up the next morning to see her sleeping under a deckchair exactly where we’d left her.
After that we became inseparable. Rama would spend the whole day with us on the beach, joining us for dinner at local restaurants, where she’d sit under the table waiting for scraps.
When it got late, Rama knew we would have to leave her – and she hated it. One of us would distract her as the other slipped away, but she would race past the guards at the hotel gate and run into the lobby searching frantically for us.
Every morning, she’d be standing at the hotel gates just waiting, her tail wagging furiously when she saw us. We suspected she’d been there all night.
Naturally, our worry over what would happen to this dog when we left Phuket to go to Bangkok grew, and we went to great lengths to try to find someone to take care of her. But no one was concerned about a street dog.
Then we heard that as part of an annual cull, all the stray dogs at the beach were due to be poisoned.
We were horrified and decided immediately: we would take her back to the UK with us – whatever the cost.
The first step was to purchase a cage so Rama could travel to Bangkok with us. Much to our surprise, at Phuket airport, Rama was checked in with the rest of the luggage.
She seemed to take it all in her stride, sitting in her cage with her front legs crossed as we hauled her up on to the baggage carrier.
As we arrived at Bangkok airport we were frantic with worry about Rama and had no idea how we’d find her.
But when we arrived at the luggage reclaim, we heard howls of laughter. There was Rama in her cage, with her front legs still crossed, going around the carousel with all the suitcases.
We were booked into a first-class hotel in Silom Road and had to plead with the manager to let her stay with us.
Rama was allowed to stay in the basement in her cage. Over the course of that week, Gary proposed, which was the reason he’d arranged the trip in the first place.
I said yes, but the romance of the moment was lost in the sea of paperwork and endless phone calls.
Before we could take her on a plane, she had to undergo a full health check. We found a top veterinary hospital in Bangkok, where we were told she was about two years old.
Blood tests, however, revealed some bad news. Rama had heartworm, a serious but common condition in dogs in Thailand caused by mosquitoes.
She would have to undergo weeks of treatment once back in the UK and the drugs would cost more than £1,000.
The condition, which is linked to heart failure, also meant there was a slight risk to Rama on the flight.
But she was doomed if she stayed in Thailand, so we ploughed ahead.
We didn’t see any of Bangkok’s sights, instead traipsing around government offices filling out paperwork.
But at the end of the week, we’d managed to get Rama a ticket for our flight back to the UK and had arranged her quarantine in England.
When we boarded the plane, we were frantic with worry. Would they remember to put Rama on the plane? Would she even survive the flight?
Suddenly we saw an old truck racing towards the plane. On the back of the truck was Rama in her cage, and we were able to watch from our seats as she was loaded into the cargo hold.
We were so relieved, but it was only when we arrived at Heathrow that we dared to hope Rama now had a chance of a life she deserved.
Rama spent six months in quarantine, undergoing treatment for heartworm. Each week, I drove around the M25 from our home on the Essex borders to visit her, using up all my annual leave.
Meanwhile, I was busy planning our wedding and any plans for an extravagant affair were quickly shelved.
In all, it cost us almost £5,000 to bring Rama home.
Rama was finally able to leave quarantine a month before our wedding. As Gary and I drove home with Rama, we could hardly believe that after everything we’d been through, she was finally about to become our pet.
Taking in a stray dog is never straightforward, let alone one from Thailand. Rama suffered terrible separation anxiety for the first months, and howled in despair every time we left the house.
But despite having never lived in a house before, she was very clean and had good lavatory habits from the outset. She loved having her baths.
And about eight months after she came home, her separation anxiety suddenly came to an end. She learned that if we left, we would return and she was no longer on her own.
Rama constantly made us laugh with her antics. Once, she fell in a swamp when chasing a fox in Epping Forest.
I didn’t recognise her when my husband dragged her out. She was covered in slime and you could only see the whites of her eyes.
She also had a phobia of having her claws cut and as soon as you said the words ‘clippie clippie’, she would be off under the bed or hiding behind a shrub in the garden.
Rama quickly settled into a wonderful existence. But I don’t think she ever completely forgot of the horrors of her life on the street.
She always slept on a cushion next to my bed, and throughout her life would frequently have nightmares. She’d twitch, before waking up whimpering or howling.
As I watched Rama blossom, I found myself thinking about stray dogs and their plight. The more she flourished, the more I wanted to help other dogs.
In 2000, a year after taking in Rama, I went to Battersea Dogs’ Home and got Tulip, a black poodle.
That same year, I returned to Thailand and came home with another stray, Peggy.
Then, the following year, I went on holiday to Sri Lanka. I was so upset by the problems experienced by stray dogs there that I started to return to the country as often as I could afford.
I’d fly there with a friend and spent my wages paying for stray and sick dogs to be treated by a vet.
It always broke my heart to leave stray dogs behind and, in 2004, I returned with one called Lavinia.
A year later, on another trip to Sri Lanka, I came back with two more, Scooby and Sid, who had both had their tails cut off.
In all, I’ve spent more than £10,000 bringing dogs home from Sri Lanka.
In 2006, I rescued Tinky, an apricot toy poodle, from a local dog shelter and Molly from another shelter.
The following year, I formalised my efforts in Sri Lanka by setting up a charity, Animal SOS Sri Lanka.
It was a lot of work and, even now, I often stay up until 3am working on fundraising and organising our local help.
But as a result, we’ve recently acquired a plot of land that we are turning into a shelter for unwanted dogs.
Finally, last year, I rescued Harry, a 14-year-old poodle who looks like a monkey and was abandoned when his elderly owners died. He’s 15 now, but still going strong.
As for Rama, she seemed to love the new additions to our family and over the years became the definite matriarch to what was now a pack of dogs.
And her devotion to us never wavered from the moment we met. Every morning, she’d leap up from her cushion at my bedside to lick my hand.
If ever she saw me in tears, she would place her head on my lap.
Rama was 13 this year and, in early May, I noticed a number of lumps clustered around her neck.
The lumps were removed and tests inconclusive. I was told they were fatty deposits and nothing to worry about, but from the outset, I feared the worst.
At the end of May, one of the lumps on Rama’s shoulder suddenly grew rapidly and my vet removed it.
The lesion was sent away for pathology and a week later Rama was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma.
We were told there was no cure, and she had just weeks to live. Rama had chemotherapy, but the cancer was already overwhelming her. I think she knew her days were coming to an end.
One night I heard her stirring and turned my bedside light on to find her with her nose resting on the mattress. She let out a tired sigh and had a look of resignation in her eyes.
Then, Rama stopped eating. The Sunday before last, she started lying in the soil in the garden, which she’d never done before. It seemed as though she was asking to go.
The next day – June 8 – we took her to the vet and she was put to sleep. We didn’t want her to suffer any longer.
Heartbreaking as it was, her death was peaceful and I know she would have felt loved as she left this world.
Rama was cremated and I’m planning to keep her ashes and have them scattered with mine when I die.
Rama’s death has left a terrible void and I honestly don’t think life will ever be the same again.
She’s played such a big part in our lives and, by inspiring me to do all the work I do now, really changed the course of my life.
The last words I said to Rama were that I will see her at the Rainbow Bridge. I’m sure she’ll be patiently waiting, wagging her tail, just as she was outside our hotel in Phuket all those years ago.
? To help Kim’s work in Sri Lanka, visit www.animalsos-sl.com
The letter stated: “A person named Robert has 8-9 horses. He keeps them in an open land near an Airport Authority of India plot behind Hotel Leela in Sahar. While talking to residents in the area, we came to know that the two dead horses also belonged to this person. In fact, body of a horse is also suspected to be buried at the spot.” Paws urged the DCPs to consider these revelations and take strong action in the issue.
Responding to the complaint, DCP Prassanna, in-charge of the Sahar area, said that investigation was on and the owner of the horses would soon be nabbed after a complete search. But A A Sonawane, police sub-inspector of the Andheri police station and the investigating officer in the case said that there is no progress in the case.
Meanwhile, Sunish Subramanian, secretary of PAWS, said that they have also taken up the issue with the traffic police and dispatched complaints to the officials on Monday.
|
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
|
||
| PETA activists want KFC boycotted 4 Jun 2009, 1901 hrs IST, IANS
|
||
|
NEW DELHI: Alleging abusive treatment of chickens by Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in India, animal rights group PETA Thursday distributed
balloons urging customers to boycott the popular fast food chain.
Activists of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) dressed up as chickens and distributed balloons saying ‘Boycott KFC’ outside a Connaught Place outlet. “Every chicken KFC serves has suffered a lifetime of torment and a painful death,” alleged Arkaprava Bhar, PETA’s KFC campaign coordinator. According to PETA, KFC’s suppliers treat chicks cruelly by drugging them and breed them to grow so large that the chicken becomes crippled under its own weight. “The chickens’ throats and beaks are cut while still conscious, some are even scaled to death, which is an illegal treatment,” Bhar said. In a statement, PETA India said they had written many letters asking KFC executives to stop the abuse but the pleas fell on deaf years. In response to PETA’s protest, KFC issued a statement saying though they appreciate and understand the concerns regarding animal welfare highlighted by PETA, KFC is committed to the highest poultry welfare standards. “Our suppliers meet all relevant national animal welfare legislation and industry standards. We do not own or operate any poultry farms, but purchase products from the highest quality producers who also supply other leading supermarkets and retailers, ” said KFC spokesperson Ashna Sridhar. |
http://petadoptionmumbai.blogspot.com/
URGENT
Through E-Mail and By Courier
25th May, 2009
To, Shri S.P. Singh IAS Commissioner Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Hyderabad
Shri M.T. Krishna Babu Special Commissioner Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Hyderabad And
Shri D. Goopal Krishna Reddy Chief Veterinary Officer Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Hyderabad
Copies to : All Zonal Commissioners Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Hyderabad
Shri Y.S.R. Reddy The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
SUBJECT : CONTRAVENTION OF LAW, AND OF SUPREME COURT DIRECTIONS BY THE GREATER HYDERABAD MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, ITS FUNCTIONARIES, EMPLOYEES AND AGENTS
Dear Sir,
I am the Legal Advisor of, and represent the Animal Welfare Board of India, which is a statutory body established under the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. I have been instructed by the Chairperson of the Board to write to you as under : We have received complaints from several concerned citizens of Hyderabad city, who are possessed of photographs, and other material to substantiate their contentions, that in ostensibly rounding up stray dogs for ‘animal birth control’ and taking them to pounds, such as the pound at Chudi Bazaar, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, its functionaries, employees, and agents, are :
· Grossly violating the Prevention of Cruelty (Capture of Animals) Rules, 1979, since the dogs are caught in the cruelest of ways not sanctioned by any law, with complete disregard as to any pain or injury or any other bodily harm that they may suffer as a consequence ;
· Grossly violating the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, since the dogs that are caught are kept at the pound in the most abject, horrible of conditions –– 20 to 30 crammed into each ‘cage’, with no place to sit, or even stand properly, let alone lie down ; suffocating slowly to a most cruel death ; or dying of starvation and thirst, since food and water are a rarity, rarely provided ; or killed by other dogs, since too many are crammed into small enclosures ; decaying carcasses not removed from cages ; feces and stink all around, and never cleaned —- living creatures treated with barbarism and viciousness in the ‘forward looking’ ‘I. T.’ city of Hyderabad ;
· Grossly violating the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, since sterilization and vaccination of stray dogs in the manner prescribed by the Rules, after putting into place, the infrastructure prescribed, is not being followed ; · Grossly violating both, Supreme Court directions, and Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, since dogs are being killed in contravention of the same, as is apparent from the ‘Excerpt from an Eye-Witness account’ that follows this communication ; and
· Committing the offence described in Section 428 of the Indian Penal Code, by acting in the manner set out in the ‘Excerpt from an Eye-Witness account’ that follows this communication. Please in the first instance advise us, why are so many dogs being caught if you do not have the facility to house, sterilize and vaccinate all, and then release them into the very areas that they had been picked up from? Secondly, is any record being maintained of the number of dogs that are caught, the areas from which they are caught, when and where they are released after sterilization (if at all), other treatment administered to them, if any?
Kindly also appreciate, if killing could control dog populations, so many stray canines would not still be around. Recognizing this fact the WHO (World Health Organization) and the WSPA (World Society for Protection of Animals), after considerable research, collaborated in the publication of the ‘Guidelines for Dog Population Management’ in the year 1990. These Guidelines advocated a systematic sterilization programme in place of mass killing, for reducing dog populations.
The law in India, i.e. the Animal Birth Control (Dog) Rules, 2001 enacted under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 reflect this progression in thought. It is also pertinent that the WHO’s latest report on rabies, i.e. the ‘WHO EXPERT CONSULTATION ON RABIES’, published in the year 2005 under the WHO Technical Report Series, specifically notes that, à dogs breed so prolifically that even the highest recorded removal rate – removing 15% – does not significantly impact their population, or reduce the spread of rabies ; and à sterilization programmes systematically followed in several countries have shown encouraging results, with dog populations, and the number of human rabies cases, reducing. In any event, the actions of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, its functionaries, employees, and agents, are obviously in contravention of the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, and the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules framed thereunder ; and in contravention of a widely publicized Supreme Court order passed on 23rd January, 2009, in a Special Leave Petition titled “Animal Welfare Board of India versus People for Elimination of Stray Troubles and Others”, numbered as S.L.P. (Civil) No. 691 of 2009. Copies of the Supreme Court order, and a news report in the said regard that appeared in the Hindustan Times edition circulated in Delhi on 24th January, 2009, are enclosed herewith for your perusal.
For your information, the Animal Birth (Dogs) Rules, 2001, enacted under the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, do not allow killing of healthy dogs ; and only sterilization and immunization can be resorted to in order to control stray dog population, and control the spread of rabies. Moreover, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has, vide order passed on the 23rd January, 2009, in a Special Leave Petition titled “Animal Welfare Board of India versus People for Elimination of Stray Troubles and Others”, numbered as S.L.P. (Civil) No. 691 of 2009, stayed the operation of a Bombay High Court order, which had permitted the killing of “nuisance” dogs by the Municipal Commissioner under the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act. That is to say, the issue regarding stray dogs, and whether they can be destroyed, is sub-judice before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court has unequivocally stayed the order passed by one High Court, permitting the killing of dogs under the municipal law of the concerned metropolis. An order passed by the Supreme Court, i.e. the Apex Court, is applicable all over India. Kindly therefore ensure that you put into place in the city of Hyderabad, the internationally recognized practice of animal birth control, i.e. sterilization and immunization of stray dogs, which is provided for by Indian law as well.
For any guidance in the said regard, you may write to :
The Secretary Animal Welfare Board of India (Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India) 13/1, 3rd Seaward Road, Valmiki Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai – 600 041.
Please stop capturing animals that you do not have the facility to house (without subjecting them to the worst possible cruelty, leading to their death through suffocation, and/or starvation, and/or thirst, and/or infection and disease).
Please stop killing stray canines – the law does not permit that you do so. You are also hereby put to notice that if you do not act in accordance with law, the Animal Welfare Board of India shall be constrained to take recourse to legal action, to obtain redress. You are put to notice accordingly.
Yours truly
ANJALI SHARMA, ADVOCATE
EXCERPT FROM ONE OF THE COMPLAINTS / EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNTS RECEIVED BY THE ANIMAL WELFARE BOARD OF INDIA :
“ Stray dogs are brought to the pound for vaccination and to perform the ABC, post operative care and subsequent release. Which is not the exact story here. The conditions at the dog pound are pathetic. The dogs are loaded into the cages in the trucks from the streets and they are brought to the dog pound. During unloading dogs are dragged out of the truck literally. Dogs are not treated like they are breathing living creatures, they are considered as non living objects. A rope (looplike) tied to a stick is used to handle the dogs (according to rules a net has to be used).The dogs are handled by the employees working there. They simply drag the dogs by tightening the nooze around the dogs neck. Dogs gasp for air. Blood oozing from the nose, mouth, fractured legs, injuries to the neck, eyes, everything is a common thing there. The dogs are dragged into the enclosures or cages as they call it, but i call them death traps. Dog pound is a hell on earth for the dogs which are brought there .Dogs are dumped into the enclosures and each one contains more than 20-30 dogs. The Dogs struggle for their life. There is no space even to stand as the cages are overcrowed. Initially the aggressive strong ones dominate, fight for space, they bite the weaker ones. Slowly there is not much of any fighting between the dogs, because the dog’s survival itself becomes a big thing. The dogs cannot sleep, no space. They are cramped. There is no water provided, there is no food. The food or water bowls cant be seen anywhere in the pound. Even if there are bowls there is no space for placing the bowls in the cages. Only a few bowls can be seen, only when there are any visitors to the pound. Skin diseased dogs, pregnant dogs, whelping mothers with little pups(many are just few days old and some havent opened their eyes yet),aggressive ones, puppies, terminally ill sick ones are all dumped into the same cages. I dont know in what state of mind but sometimes they show little mercy and they put whelping mothers, pups in seperate cages. Many Dogs and pups die in the cages. A whelping mother was seen licking her death pups which were few months old. Few cages contained the half eaten bodies of pups. The dogs dont bark because they dont have the energy to even bark. Dogs dying in the cages is a common thing there. The dead dogs are not removed from the cages, the bodies start decaying, We had to personally insist them to remove the partially degraded bodies of the dogs, which they did after a lot of pestering from our side. No water, no food, even if they are provided with food, the dogs are not in a state to eat. There is filth and feaces everywhere in the cages and in the pound. And there is this unbearable smell (feaces, dead decayed dogs do their part).Dogs suffer psychologically and physically. Dogs are seen biting the cages out of frustration, many dogs are seen stucking their heads out of the cages just for some air to breath. After few days the dogs die out of dehydration, suffocation, lack of food and other factors. Few dogs are operated and their ears are clipped. The post operative care is worst. The operated dogs die of infections .Few of the operated dogs are released on the same day or the next day after the operation. Its like gifting them a slow death due to different infections. The operated stray dog has no energy to move about and find food, they die slowly. We are showing them hell right here on the earth. Its like literally the dogs are tortured to death. Usually only about 20 dogs can be operated per day and they need complete post operative care for recovery. Question is why so many dogs are brought to the pound? When there is no possibility of those dogs being operated. No registers are maintained regarding the areas from where the dogs are brought in and the areas the dogs are released into, number of operated dogs etc. Stray dogs are territorial animals and the area where they are being released is very important, its important that the dogs are released in the same area from where they are brought, which is not followed. Many dogs with clipped ears are again brought to the pound, just to make up false records. Pregnant animals are brought to the pound and they are operated. The number of dogs in the cages was always low when we counted on the next day and many dogs were missing and new ones where seen in their places. Apart from the dogs which are dying in the cages, pups and dogs where being killed early in the morning between 4.00 am – 5.30 am by giving them poison injections. Even completely healthy ones are being euthanised. About 100-150 dogs die at the pound daily(ones which die out of dehydration, starvation, diseases and ones which are being euthanised).The dead dogs were being dumped at kesaragutta near hyderabad. The dogs which are being euthanised are lucky compared to the ones which die in the cages due to dehydration and stravation. ”
