Rescue, Re-home and Manage Stray Animals in Nepal

Dear Supporters,

The rains have continued later than usual this year, making conditions more difficult. Landslides are a sad but common news feature here in Nepal. Due to this, our expansion into outlying wards has been slow but we have been able to keep the clinic open so we have been able to receive animals in need of care.  

Here are some of the highlights of what we have been up to in the past couple of months.

World Rabies Day

To mark World Rabies Day, which was on 28th September, the Bharatpur team held a five-day mass vaccination project in Sauraha.

Suitable rooms were provided by the Hotel Association and local resident, Martina Manders, is helping ensure that as many as possible of the dogs in the town are vaccinated. We also used this opportunity to note any un-spayed animals and will make a plan to return at a later date to sterilise these animals.

We would also like to thank IVSA and Rotary Club for their collaboration 

As part of the rabies drive, we have been visiting schools to give students information about the disease, avoiding rabies and dog bites in general. So far two schools have been visited and around 200 students reached.

Expanding our reach

In addition to the outlying wards of Pokhara, HART has now started programmes in the adjoining Municipality of Lekhnath. This is a town of 18 wards, known as 'The City of Seven Lakes', which connects to Pokhara along the Prithivee Highway. This town has had to deal with sporadic rabies outbreaks over the years and there has been no sustained vaccination or sterilisation programmes implemented.

As this town is much smaller and less urbanised than Pokhara it was decided to obtain an estimate of the dog population by the use of door-to-door surveys. 100 householders were surveyed in each ward using a smartphone app developed for the purpose.

A series of meetings with Lekhnath Municipality CEO, Mr Lok Bahadur Bhandari, were held to discuss extending programmes into his Municipality. He arranged a presentation day with the Ward Secretaries and Tole Line Organisations from the 18 wards. With the help of these TLO representatives, the work in Lekhnath has now begun.

Thank you for your continued support!

With Gratitude,
HART