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Sherry's Diary

Rebuilding the Animal Shelter

Operating on an injured dog

 

[note: Sherry is on the the eastern costal city of Visakha, India.  The city and the surrounding areas were wiped out in a cyclone (or hurricane) that swept through the area in mid-October.  She is there assisting the Visakha SPCA (VSPCA) and its president, Pradeep Nath.  The VSPCA cares for over 700 animals including dogs and farm animals.  Their shelter and facilities were wiped out in the Cyclone and HSI has funded rebuilding the animal shelters and caring for the injured animals.  Sherry is there to oversee the project and offer what aid HSI can.  For assistance, she has called upon the HSI supported teams from the Yudisthira Bali Street Dog Foundation and the Sri Lankan Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust (TMAWT).  Both groups have sent veterinarian teams to help with the work.  The effort is also being assisted by the animal welfare groups AHEAD, from Ahmedabad, India, and Animal Aid, from Udiapor, India.]

 

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Sherry Grant

Visakha, India

Friday 28 October 2005

The day was threatening rain.  Pradeep made his first appearance at the his "real" job at the bank…..though I know he would have preferred to be with us.  I teased him that he doesn’t really have a job.  He manages to find a sense of humor and throughout the day we find quirky opportunities to garner  little laughs.  Generally laughs come from Skyler and Rahul Segal, of Animal Help Foundation (AHF), but none the less we can still find some humor in each day.

We have ordered up an excavator to clear out the dung and mud in the back cattle shed.  The loader couldn’t fit, but it didn’t matter.  There was enough work for both pieces of equipment.  Today the lorry came with the excavator so we are making progress on how we want things to work on the VSPCA job site. 

Pradeep is a task master and I think at times the most valuable thing I provide for him is a sounding board and different perspective.  He is willing to take new ideas on board and together I believe new things will evolve from all of this.  What has evolved is his desire to use the veterinary skills provided by the Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust (TMAWT) to assess what can be improved in his shelter to assist the asepsis and surgery techniques.

He also wants to develop his own CNVR (catch-neuter-vaccinate and release) same day release program.  They are skeptical at the VSPCA but there is a 100% shift of  thinking after hours of video, and the sharing of photos and first hand knowledge by  Dr. Dananjaya and Dr. Telusha about their own field clinic and same day release program in Sri Lanka. We talked about the opposition Pradeep will get.  He said, “I have been always fighting for the animals, you know   What does it matter if I fight for one more thing.  I am convinced about the same day release.  Let people argue with me”.  Pradeep is a real warrior for animals. 

Pradeep came from the bank directly to the VSPCA site and the equipment worked late into the night.  We made a list of things that perhaps I can help with by fundraising.  We prioritized them.  It is not his wish list -- that will have to be put on the back burner.  They are simply things that need to be done for the welfare of the animals - repair the three wells, build the monkey enclosure to get them out of the tiny temporary cages, rebuild the vermicompost project; the puppy shelter, and of course a couple more cow sheds as the government funds won’t cover all of them. 

I became tired just thinking of what it will take to fix India’s model Gosha.  It was late, I needed to get back to the team  I left him doing his tireless rounds. The clouds were getting ready to burst.  We want to bring in gravel tomorrow.

This is his sanctuary even in its ruined state.  The VSPCA is where Pradeep finds his calm and it is here that he regroups to take on the myriad of other animal welfare challenges that are in the forefront of his mind.  The bank is just a front…..a job he does to sustain his family……he is not a banker at heart……he is a servant to Vizag’s animals.

 

 

Click here for the VSPCA Website: www.VisakhaSPCA.org

 

 

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