By Fr J.C. Pieris –

Fr Chryso Pieris SJ

Stray dogs in hospitals.

The Daily Mirror of 14 October 25 carried an article “Stray dogs take over Karapitiya Hospital, posing serious health risk” by Sirangika Lokukravita. Unbelievable, but the article mentioned that dogs were sleeping on patients’ beds. It is not only Karapitiya Hospital but many a government hospital has been taken over by ownerless stray dogs. My personal experience at the Thanamalwila Hospital is a dog barking so oud and persistently inside the hospital that we could not hear the nurses calling numbers of the patients. The previous DMO of the Wellawaya hospital said he got nearly forty of them Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy (TLH) done. He also told me that in another hospital they caught all of them and freed them far away from the hospital only to be taken to courts by some animal welfare organization for ill-treating dogs!

Stray dogs on the roads.

I have just heard one too many dog accidents. A young mother taking her two children to school on her scooter knocked against a stray dog on the road and had a spill. The children were OK but the mother broke her arm, a compound fracture. Before that another family known to me was taking their little son to hospital on the motor cycle when a dog rushed into their lane and they had a spill and all of them had to be taken to hospital, mother father and the son. Many dog accidents are never recorded. I am much affected by these incidents because I too am a motor cyclist.

My companion driving in the morning from Thanamalwila to Hambegamuwa, 35 Kms, counted 98 dogs on the road. That is on the average 3 dogs per Km. And they do not move away. They brazenly expect us to slow down and go round them.  A few of them begin to chase the bike barking their heads off, as if we are pickpockets or burglars. It is a bit embarrassing. But the most fearful danger is for the pedestrians who could be victims of rabid dogs. I have seen a small boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog and since it didn’t hurt much, he kept quiet, dying in the mother’s arms asking again and again “Amma, am I going to die?” It was heart rending.

Animal welfare societies.

Culturally our country has a golden trait of being very kind to animals. We are proud to have such a culture. But let us be realistic. If putting an ownerless stray dog to sleep is bad what about butchering thousands of chickens? Aren’t they too living beings? It is torturing animals that is bad. Allowing the stray dog population to freely roam the roads and hospitals is certainly not to their welfare for they have neither enough to eat, nor shelter nor health care. It is a kind of torture of the dogs apart from being a veritable menace to human health and safety.

Solutions to the problem.

Once upon a time I remember there were dog vans that caught them and put them to sleep. Then our towns were much safer than now. Abroad, in developed countries, you will never see a stray dog on the street. You can only walk your dog on a leash with a small spade and a bag for collecting its excreta. Such laws and regulations must be enacted as part of “Clean Sri Lanka” policy and project. There should not be any ownerless dog in the island.

This is really the responsibility of the MOH, the Public Health arm of the Ministry of Health. The responsibility of implementing the TLH was handed over to the Government Veterinary Services, but it was a failure. Now again the MOH is given back the task. I plead with the public and the animal welfare groups; please allow the MOH to do their job thoroughly and meaningfully.

The Message and the Request to the Government

The message is clear: As part of the “Clean Sri Lanka” project, all ownerless stray dogs must be completely eradicated from the hospitals, bus stands, train stations and from the roads. Enact the laws and implement them. Thank you.