Rescue,Love,Save-1000's of Suffering Animals.India

Hello Dear People,

It's mid-morning. Tiruvannamalai. I'm sitting in the Geman Bakery. Healthy food. "Killer" baked goods.

Got to sleep late last night. Just as I was starting on my "night feeding run"(I feed 20 to 30 dogs--Pedigree/hard baked biscuits,specially made--anywhere from a snack to a light meal, depending) on my Honda Activa, my rear tire blew. So I got a real late start. It's not a Shelter thing. It's a personal thing. Just feels good. I go part of the way around the mountain.

Haven't written in a while, almost three months. We've been busy. Very busy. Many of you know that the activity these last 2 1/2 years has increased exponentially. The average number of monthly visits to the clinic have increased from 340 to over 700 (ranging now from 500 to 750)...The average number of monthly rescues has increased from 40 to over 100. (These are cases above and beyond the clinic cases. They are almost all serious. And in almost all instances we go out to get them. Most are during the day, but a number are at night)...The number of monthly in-patient treatments has increased from 1100 to 1500.

• The steady, strong increase in clinic visits is auspicious. It is a heartening reflection that people are opening their Hearts more and more to the Voiceless Ones, becoming more aware of, and caring more for them.
• The strong increase in emergency rescues is ominous. Most of it is traffic-related. Tiruvannamalai has an almost unique traffic configuration that is increasing in intensity. And it is immensely dangerous and harmful for animals.

The amazing thing is that to walk around the streets, ours is probably one of the best scenes in the Country. And it visibly improves each year. However, lying underneath is one of the most severe traffic patterns for animals, not to mention people. And if the Shelter's services should stop at anytime, a floodgate would fill the streets with an unimaginable number of dying and suffering animals, numbering well over a thousand a year--not bringing it back to the awful situation that existed in 2007 when we opened, but to an almost unimaginable scene.

Also, as many of you know, that because of the increased activity, we need a much larger facility. It's amazing to me that the Shelter is crowded and yet is going so well. The energy inside feels so good, and the Voiceless Ones clearly feel safe, protected, and cared for...and are happy. I bow to our devoted Staff.

This is the mating season, so there are a lot of Little Ones. To reduce the Shelter population, we're considering renting a facility for a short while and using it for a foster home for twenty or thirty puppies. At our last Monday morning breakfast Staff meeting, I told Vishwa to increase the adoption activity. He has several college students who are trained to go out up to 100 kms looking for good homes for our Little Ones. He then goes to check them--the circumstances, the people, their motivation for wanting a pup. About fifty percent of them turn out to be good. The students are supposed to get 500 rupees for each puppy that is placed. He miraculously, in the last two days, has found homes for seven pups. (Sometimes, even with full effort, we'll only find four or five in a month!) Somehow we got into an exchange about the money involved. And Vishwa told me they won't take money from him, only expense reimbursement. He said they are doing it as a service and don't want the money. I was deeply moved. I told Vishwa to include them in the annual Diwali bonuses that are being given this week. Om Naman Shivaya.

And miracle of miracles...Historically there have been two major killers of our Precious Ones--parvovirus, and distemper.

• Parvovirus had an overwhelming mortality, especially with young pups. There'd be no lead symptoms. Then one day they’d stop eating. The next day they died…Dr. Raja had a breakthrough about four or five years ago. There were two immunoglobulins developed in the West that were powerfully effective. It ended the threat. We now give a cocktail of the two to all incoming puppies as a prophylactic, which takes care of the problem. Only one injection! For the few cases that we get for treatment. An injection for three consecutive days is almost one hundred percent effective. 
• But it is distemper that is the real biggie. It's a deadly viral disease (gastrointestinal, respiratory, central nervous system, and then brain) for which there is no generally known treatment. It is so contagious (can even be transferred thru the air) that during the distemper season, we treated our distemper cases in a totally separate foster facility. It was a long, involved treatment lasting four, five or six months. (I know of some facilities that didn’t even try treating but euthanized distemper cases because there was no treatment-only supportive therapies, and it was such an awful death.) We were in contact with several major veterinary colleges in the U.S. There was nothing promising being researched. Europe was the same. Just nothing. Dr. Raja tried dozens and dozens of things over the last six years. Some helped, marginally. He had developed a complex treatment regimen: Immunoglobulin, i.v.’s when needed, several homeopathic medicines, a strong ayurvedic immune system booster, Neurobion for nutrition plus mega doses of vitamin C, and anti-biotics for secondary infections…and, of course, a lot of loving. With all that care, almost all the young puppies still died, and he was only able to save 60 to 70 percent of the others. Fortunately he was able to keep them all comfortable….NOW…BLESSING OF BLESSINGS…FOR THE LAST TWO MONTHS (He had to wait this long to make sure the initial ten cases were symptom free.) HE FOUND A "SUPER-EFFECTIVE TREATMENT THAT WAS BURIED IN THE INTERNET. It involves the use of a vaccine made for Newcastle disease. He used it, at this point, on four adults and thirteen puppies. In cases where the disease has reached the central nervous system (there’s twitching like jerking) he gives them one injection directly in the spine--one mind you!!!—the very next day the twitching reduces 60 to 70 percent, and all other symptoms stop. For cases that have not yet reached the central nervous system he gives them two i.v.’s within 24 hours. The symptoms stop the day after the first i.v...THIS IS MAJOR…WE HAVE TO GO ABOUT SOLIDLY DOCUMENTING EVERYTHING…I told Dr. Raja to get “distemper kits” that can objectively establish distemper (because people could say, “Oh, they really didn’t have distemper”.)…And to take videos…THE REASON IT’S SO IMPORTANT TO DOCUMENT IS THAT IF IT’S GIVEN FULL CREDIBILITY AND ADOPTED BY VETERINARIANS AND SHELTERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY…IT CAN LIFT AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF SUFFERING AND SAVE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF LIVES…The people who actually discovered the treatment don't have the necessary credibility, so it's not been broadly adopted. Om Namah Shivaya.

Well that’s it for this report Dear People…Leslie, The Ageing Expatriate Warrior, signing off...

With blessings and wishes for everything, good...May we all be showered with compassionate understanding...May we all be gentler and kinder to each other.