Rescue and Managing Street Animals in Nepal

Dear friends, donors, and interested people,

I recently had a call with Khageshwaar, a project leader on the ground in Pokhara, where I learned about some of the history surrounding this project. The government used to mass-poison street dogs in order to control the population; this is an insensitive, brutal method which thankfully has declined recently and is being gradually replaced with more humane methods such as this project's sterilisation-vaccination programs which allow innocent street dogs to continue their lives peacefully.

A new venture for the clinic is education: whilst many Asian countries have eradicated rabies, it continues to be endemic in Nepal. To tackle this, Khageshwaar and his colleagues are expanding into education by going into local schools and increasing awareness of how to protect yourself from animals with rabies or what to do if you get bitten. As a result local people can be safer and hopefully inspired to join the rabies eradication fight.

Coinciding with the new government, more animal welfare policies have been introduced. This is fantastic for Nepal, however, most of these policies are aimed at farm livestock rather than the street animals which this project focuses on. Whilst appeals to the government have been made, this means the project still needs help as much as ever. Despite the underwhelming nature of these new policies, they do represent a shift in the political landscape of attitudes to animal welfare which hopefully indicates a brighter future for animals across Nepal.

Thank you so much for your continued support and taking the time to read this report.