An Overview of Adopt a Dog in Sri Lanka and Its Projects

Adopt a dog in Sri Lanka (ADSL)is a Facebook and internet based animal welfare group that help unite rescued stray puppies with families who are willing to give them a kind, loving home and a safe environment to grow. The group, consisting of young professionals who share the same passion to make the lives of street dogs a better one have so far managed to unite 1200 rescued puppies with kind families in a very short period of 2 and half years . We use our Facebook group page as a platform for potential adopters to view the puppies that are up for adoption and once a pup is selected, a short telephone interview is conducted between a group member and the potential owner to ensure that the selected pup fits the new family well and that the new owners are made aware of the responsibilities that come with the new addition of a pet and advice is also given on how to take care of a puppy and medical needs etc, where required. Also the details of the owners will be listed for future reference and details of transporting the puppy of pick up will be discussed as well. While rehoming puppies is our main aim, it is not the only project we do. We also try to help adult stray dogs on the road too. One of the major issues we try to tackle is the ever increasing stray dog population. We conduct sterilization camps, using an expert team of vets in rural areas in the country in order to help prevent the stray dog population. The main reason in choosing a rural area is that there are so many animal welfare groups concentrating around cities that rural areas of the country are practically ignored. Plus proper vet services are very hard to come by. The area we chose to do our sterilization camps is Katharagama and Sella Katharagama in the Monaragala district. Aside from the above mentioned reasons, another major reason to choose Katharagama is the fact that it is considered a holy, sacred ground and people had made a habit of dumping their unwanted puppies in the kovil complex and temple grounds. So far we have conducted 5 sterilization camps (one every three months) and 700 successful sterilizations. We are seeing a noticeable reduction of the stray population in the area and an increased awareness of the people in the area about sterilization and proper vet care of their own pets. Not only do we sterilize the stray dogs that we catch or dogs that are brought to us during camp, we also treat them for any wounds, infections or mange that we find on them. On average we manage to sterilize about 100 dogs per camp but on our third sterilization camp we managed to sterilize a record 210 stray and owned dogs in the area. We have sterilized over 400 dogs in colombo and 700 in Kathrgama, with a total of 1100 Sterilizations. Another aspect of ADSL is rescues. When a wounded or sick dog is brought to our attention we put up their rescue story along with a plea for help with funds on our rescue section and admit the poor soul to a vet hospital and treat them and eventually try to rehome them rather than releasing them back on to the road. So far we have managed to rescue over 136 heartwarming cases. We make sure to provide regular updates to all the sponsors and finally when the bills are paid to sent a copy of the bills and expenses by email and posts them on the group page so everyone may see them. This same process is done with sterilization camp bills or for any other expenses where we ask for funds from the public. Our latest project is the Feeding program. We have joined hands with Mr. Nihal, a veteran animal lover who has been feeding around 125 stray dogs in the Batttaramulla-Malabe area for a long time. He contacted us because it was very hard for him to continue feeding the dogs on his own finances and we joined forces and streamlined the process. It costs an estimated Rs.3500/= per day to feed the doggies and the feeding is carried out every other day. Sponsors have the choice of either donating the money or donating provisions for the number of feedings they choose to sponsor for. And at the end of each month all the expenses and bills will be posted to the sponsors.