E-Kantipur

MAY 01 - ‘A female stray dog is constantly raped,” Jan Salter puts it bluntly. It may sound difficult on the ears, but Salter, founder of the Kathmandu Animal Treatment (KAT) centre, is probably right. For female dogs come into heat once every six months, and in that hormonal period, it’s extremely difficult to keep away any unwanted male attention.

But dog owners would know that. What scares most potential owners about keeping a female dog is this single fact, and horror tales abound about how one’s pedigreed Labrador is suddenly pregnant, without the owner having a clue on the father. At these times, taking your dog out for a walk is going into a hostile situation, with your pet the apple of every other male suitor’s eye. What makes matters worse is that your pet seems more than happy to oblige.

Jokes aside, the stray dog population in Nepal is so high because of one simple fact: female strays are easy. And it is to counter this that Salter’s organisation has started a simple process: spaying. In other words, call it family planning for dogs.

In spaying, the reproductive organs of the female dog are removed surgically. The same process in males is called neutering, or castration. While the surgery yields equal results in both males and females, specialists in Nepal prefer to perform the surgery on females. “Neutering males does not really reduce the population, as other males can always impregnate females. However, spaying females means that it will be impossible for them to have any more puppies, which is far more effective,” says Salter.

KAT has already sterilised at least 7,000 stray females in the six years since they were established. The sterilization process is quite simple, and any qualified veterinarian should be able to do it. There are two different operating techniques, based on where the incision is made. Midline operations take place right underneath the rib cage, where a vertical incision is made, and the ovaries and uterus are removed. In a side-flank operation, the operating incision is made near the hind legs of the dog. “Side-flank operations are generally more difficult. But we use this technique because a midline operation does not always heal properly, and the stitches sometimes actually fall apart, exposing the stomach,” says Bidhur Piya, senior vet at KAT.

KAT only operates on street dogs, and their operations are more humane than government attempts to reduce the stray population through poisoning. Strychnine is the most preferred poison, whose consumption leads to a slow, painful death. The toxic causes painful muscular convulsions, which leads to eventual neural degeneration, paralysis, and death through either asphyxiation, or sheer exhaustion. “Surgery is not only more compassionate, but also less costly. With poisoning, it costs quite a bit to set up the bait, then collect the dead dogs, and dispose of them,” says Salter.

KAT organises “dog drives” six days a week. Early in the morning, an ABC (Animal Birth Control) team rounds up female dogs from a certain locality with the help of the local community. The dogs are then brought back to the KAT centre in Budhanilkantha, and first checked if they are healthy and fit for the operation. They are all de-wormed, de-loused, de-manged, and vaccinated against rabies. Dogs deemed healthy are operated on, kept for three to four days, and then released into the same locality they were captured from. In most cases, the operations take less than 15 minutes (spaying can also be performed on pregnant dogs, but that takes around 35 to 40 minutes). “On average, we catch around six dogs a day,” says Piya.

What is most striking about spaying in Nepal, though, is how few people actually spay their females. The costs are high for the average Nepali, but not unnaturally so.

“People are actually using human contraceptive injections, like Sangini, on dogs. This is cheaper, but many complications arise, which could make surgery necessary in the future. In fact, it could be even more expensive in the long run,” says Piya. The health benefits of spaying are obvious: No more puppies mean that a street dog conserves its nutrients, and its immunity is thus strengthened.

Further, because KAT vaccinates the female strays, the fear of canine-animal rabies transmission is also curbed. Other organisations have also started spaying street dogs, most notably Animal Nepal. Tourists too have commended these efforts.

While people may question the ethics behind spaying, what cannot be argued is that spayed street dogs are healthier than others. The practice has, however, been criticized as being immoral, and playing God. Some of these arguments are very similar to those against cloning, with the fact that humans are dabbling with the laws of nature being one common reasons cited. However, what must be noticed is that spaying not only prevents dogs from having puppies, but also curbs their migration tendencies. “When dogs are spayed, they become more territorial. They rarely leave their areas, which mean they have lesser chances of meeting other strays, and this reduces the spread of rabies, mange, and other diseases,” says Salter.

However, much can still be done. “In other parts of the world, most notably in Sikkim, India, the state government is wholly responsible for something on this scale,” says Salter, “If we receive more help from the government, and even from private sponsors, we could do a lot more.”

What spaying intends to achieve is a far more compassionate control of the street dog population than Nepal’s technique of poisoning them. Though poisoning occurs far less than a few years ago, it still continues. “What we do is more humane, and preferable,” says Piya.

 

Posted on: 2010-05-01 09:28

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