Deer Park Thimphu Group arrive at Serbithang 10:30 7-6-08. The shelter is supported by Thimphu Municipality who provide a significant budget for care and food.
Lama Kunzang Dorjee works to improve the awareness of Thimphu residents about the issues of sustainability of the current approaches to the problem of strays. It is a familiar task for the founder of The Jangsa Animal Saving Trust, a non-profit charitable trust engaged in "Tsethar" - the Buddhist act of saving and preserving animal lives. The trust was established after a personal experience in the monastery where he lived. Five bulls forced their way in after escaping the slaughterhouse and refused to leave!!
About 400 animals currently live here - 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. More are coming daily.
Currently the dogs seem reasonably well fed and sit together in large groups.
They watch the visitors and alternately wag their tails and bark. It's part of what dogs like to do, right?
We spent some time preparing to go into the enclosure. It's dirty and it's hard to turn pity into action.
We learn they are fed twice a day currently - with cooked rice and a variety of other proteins including some meat and...
... dry fish or soya chunks are added for protein. Lama Kinzang is approaching restaurants in the city to save food scraps as a dharma practice, separated from glass and plastics.
Many of the workers are monks from one of Lama's monestries in Kalimpong. Being here is an intensive compassion practice.
Each day a few more strays arrive, having been nettted in the town. Thimphu dogs are now very aware of this attention and give the Municipality employees an increasingly wide birth.
The dogs arriving today are small.
It's the Environment Section of the City that has the dual task of increasing health and safety in the town and treating the animals with the respect they deserve. It's a job that demands patience, kindness and compassion. An opportunity for right livelihood to arise.
Like many public service workers who strive to work mindfully, they find themselves between several hard to balance realities - the need to respond to the ever increasing stray population, the dearth of resources and a lack of public awareness of the need for sustainable humane solutions to the plight of Thimphu's strays.
Do you know that in 6 years, one female dog and her offspring can be the source of 67,000 puppies!!! (Quoted on: http://www.dogsonly.org/DogPopulation.html).
This little one must now fit in to a new environment.
The door invites reflection on the nature of time for all of us. For the humans, we can exit this door at will.
The Deer Park volunteers are among an increasingly large group of Thimphu residents concerned about conditions on the streets and in the Shelter. Finally, we grit our teeth we enter. It's now and we are here.
Many of the dogs are in poor condition and have serious skin conditions - testimony to the lack of care they can get on the city streets.
The budget and facilities are insufficient to provide more than the current basic shelter and food.
Three volunteers clean the feces. An opportunity to contemplate our shared characteristics and needs with the dogs.
There are not many tools available to help clean the site. The smell is unique.
The shelter is on quite sloping ground in about 1 acre of fenced land under pine.
It is very cold here in the winter months and not many visitors come then.
This dog has a horrible case of raw and bleeding mange that covers nearly 12 sq inches on its back. The suffering of the itching is very apparent.
This bright eyed dog has one brown and one blue eye and was very shy to have its picture taken.
The monks examine the dogs looking for signs of injury and checking for he ear tatoos identifying the animals involved in earlier neutering campaigns. They are placed in a separate, contiguous compound in preparation for a second neutering effort.
Neutering is a part of population control in most cities in the world.
Under the simple roof, a small family of dogs finds a bit of quiet away from the larger adults.
A group of Motithang secondary students heard of the place in the local papers and wanted to come and see for themselves. Very admirable, don't you think?
Their teacher helps organize the assistance...
... and they also enter the enclosure to help clean up.
While we were there a distinguished looking man came to look for his dog... and found it much to their mutural joy. Perhaps he will keep it more safely in the future?
A pit is dug to bury the feces.
There are many improvements that need to be made here and lessons learned for a move to a more sustainable and humane relationship between Bhutan's dogs and its human population.
Work on the inside. Work on the outside.
Lama Shenphen gets into it!! The Zen of poop!
Many of the dogs seem to show signs they miss human contact and, like all sentient beings, they respond quickly to the touch and kindly interest of others.
The compassion welled up and the tears flowed freely. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Ths high school students carry feces to the pit.
The shelter is very simple and although small, is not too bad in this season. But this place is very cold and very windy in winter and gets only one hour of sun. An alternative is being sought with the Municipality who are very much aware of the need for a more sustainable solution.
There are many dogs in the area who appear and hang around as well. They are also fed along with their incarcerated cousins.
Like all simple containers, this feeding trough awaits its time to be useful.
Feeding time is a challenge as the bigger and heavier dogs crowd in. There is no queue here and basic "me first" reigns supreme.
Please see: http://www.vetwork.org.uk/abc.htm STREET DOG' POPULATION CONTROL - by Kathy Nolan BVM&S, CertWEL, MRCVS (Case study prepared as part of examination for Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (UK) Certificate in Welfare. Based on experience while working at the Help in Suffering Sanctuary in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.)
A few puppies get an unexpected snuggle for a few minutes.
The dogs will wait - if they do not meditate - for the next meal and signs of interest from their human benefactors.
Meanwhile Lama Kunzang and his supporters contemplate "dog daze" in Bhutan. May we all be well and happy and find our way out of this and all suffering.
Please see http://www.animalsavingtrust.org/ and the links provided there. Jangsa Animal Saving Trust, P.O. Box 314, Thimphu, Bhutan Tel: ++975 (2) 323949 or 325157 or 323587 or 323893 or 321177; Fax: ++975 (2) 324619; mail: office@animalsavingtrust.org
