Tree Of Life For Animals

Neutering (Animal Birth Control) and Rabies eradication project

India has the highest human death rate from rabies of anywhere in the world. Exposure to rabid stray dogs contributes to 99% of the deaths every year. According to the state of Rajasthans Animal Husbandry Dept, the stray dog population has increased by an incredible 42% in the last 6 years which poses as a constant threat of a rabies outbreak.

In Ajmer alone, one of the cities covered by T.O.L.F.A, it is estimated that there are about 15,000 stray dogs that live on the streets and large numbers of people visit the local hospital suffering from dog bites.

Following the World Health Organizations guidelines, T.O.L.F.A is undertaking a combined animal birth control and rabies vaccination programme. Only by reducing the number of dogs by humane methods such as sterilization, can the rabies threat be eradicated. The previously inhumane method of poisoning the dogs or leaving the dogs in the jungle that the municipalities followed has been proven to be unsuccessful.

Annu and Sitaram preparing a dog for sterilisation surgery

In September 2007, TOLFA signed a landmark agreement with the Ajmer Municipality allowing them to catch, sterilize, vaccinate and treat 20 stray dogs per day, in an effort to humanely reduce the population. TOLFA was obviously delighted to be recognized and supported by the local Indian government in this way.

The spaying operation is performed on the flank to help prevent post op infections and a notch is cauterized into their left ear so that in the future they can be identified as having passed through the programme. The operation itself is almost keyhole, leaving a wound no bigger that a couple of centimetres. Due to the large population of flies found in Indian conditions, there is a higher possibility of post operative infections.

Dr Irshad and Manoj performing a sterilisation operation

The dogs are kept for 3 days or longer to monitor their post operative recovery before being released to the exact same territory from where they were caught. An emphasis is made on catching the female dogs that breed prolifically during the 6 month breeding season and can produce up to 16 puppies per year.

Sterilizing the stray dogs has proven beneficial in so many ways, not only in the obvious way of reducing the amount of puppies but also in improving the dogs health and promoting weight gain, preventing the numerous dog fights and also there is a huge reduction in the sexually transmitted tumours that are very common in the street dogs.

Praveen performing the all important Rabies vaccination