Dear HART Supporter,
The monsoon is in full swing and the heat and humidity make working difficult, so many programmes are carried out in the early mornings.
Political quarrels continue to dominate headlines while the population gets on with reconstruction.
HART has focussed effort on maintaining the clinics and expanding programmes around Pokhara and Bharatpur.
News from Pokhara
Programmes are now complete in five of the 10 wards recently added as 19-28 to Pokhara Municipality's jurisdiction. See map above.
It is not always possible to get to the remoter areas during the monsoon so progress will be slow in some areas.
Many roads do not have a tarmac surface and become impossible to use even with the most robust vehicles. Large parts of the new wards are accessible only on foot.
As noted in previous newsletters many of the people live as subsistence farmers and their customs and lifestyles have not altered for centuries.
They control their dog populations by retaining only one or two pups per litter and destroying the rest, as is the norm in many rural societies throughout the world.
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News from Bharatpur
Just ahead of the monsoon the Bharatpur team, led by Chandra Rai, managed to complete the vaccination of 78% of the dog population.
This was the fifth annual round in the core 14 wards of the town.
The additional ten wards recently added to the town are being gradually taken into HART's programmes as resources allow.
The specially designed HART mobile phone app was used. This provides accurate data recording of all injections given and has the facility to calculate overall dog population numbers to ensure that the recommended minimum of 70% are immunised.
The current calculated dog population is 1560 and 1218 (78%) were vaccinated during the programme. In 2015, the calculated population was 1787 and 1299 (72%) were vaccinated.
This year the team used a Datamars medium-range microchip scanner to record the microchip number of previously neutered dogs as they were being vaccinated and recorded. The purpose of doing this is to build a picture about how long the street dogs live as this has been a difficult area for scientists to study. Without accurate knowledge of the lives of community animals it is difficult to design effective programmes for their management.
Thanks to Khim Bahadur Ale (HART's first scholarship student at AFU, Rampur) for assisting the team during the programme.
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Hetauda visit
Hetauda is a developing town situated some 75km ESE of Bharatpur. It has recently been extended from 11 to 29 wards.
It is mainly industrial but surrounded by forested hills and so the weather is slightly cooler. As this is the monsoon season there is rain most mornings and evenings, and sometimes during the day.
Dr Thakur of Hetauda DLSO contacted HART vet Dr Sanjiv to request a camp. Hetauda has suffered annual rabies outbreaks but the vet officers did not want to poison dogs.
Although not an ideal time for a camp the local DLSO felt that situation could not wait any longer and so, despite the monsoon, it was decided to go ahead.
The head of the Hetauda DLSO, Dr Ram Prakash Pradhan, persuaded the Municipal authorities to join the DLSO in funding a camp between 26th June and 1st July. They contributed by providing our staff with their food & accommodation, plus the bulk of the necessary veterinary supplies.
A total of 74 dogs were neutered and vaccinated against rabies.
HART's Chandra Rai, who led the camp, commented:
"Despite the difficult weather conditions we have made a good start in changing dog population control in Hetauda by working in conjunction with progressive local authorities who understand new solutions to old problems"
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Tale of Kali
Below a short piece, written by Dr Rodrigo, a visiting Spanish vet volunteer:
Dear friends of HART,
Rod writing, a veterinary volunteer spending a 5 months stay in the fabulous Nepal. Once introduced, let me tell you a story of one of the many dogs the amazing HART staff has helped lately.
Not long ago, the Pokhara staff rescued a huge black Tibetan dog in Lakeside. For us, he's "Kali", due to his colour. His presence scares, but in reality, Kali is as tame and good as big.
But Kali, the goodie, had been suffering from a bad wound in his neck that was making him upset. Perhaps a bite from another dog, fighting for territory in the "outlaw" streets of Pokhara.
For several days, we had been looking for him without success; maybe he hid, behaviour shown by many animals when they feel unwell. But at last, we found him and caught him, which wasn't easy, as Kali is a smart dog.
We took him to the clinic in our 4x4 and straight away we treated him. First, sedation; then, a thorough dressing of the wound; and finally, surgery, decision made based on the bad aspect of the wound, old, fibrotic and full of dead material.
The surgery was long and consisted in removing the dead tissue, to later suture the edges, leaving a temporary drainage.
My goodness!, the surgeon Dr Bharat did a good job! Now Kali is still recovering, on painkillers, but much better than he was. Soon, he will be ready to be released and get back home, his territory in Lakeside.
Hoping you have enjoyed the story. Looking forward to sharing more with you all, animal lovers, in a near future and this way keeping you updated.
A toast to HART and... to Kali!
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Thanks to Dr Katie Wolf
A belated thank you to Dr Katie Wolf for the very welcome supplies all the way from the US.
And congratulations to Dr Wolf in managing to get the consignment safely to Nepal.
As you can see in the photo here, the unpacking was lots of fun for the staff!
Your support is greatly appreciated Dr Katie.
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JustTextGiving
JustGiving and Vodafone have kindly provided us with a JustTextGiving facility.
This enables you to make a text message donation of £2, £5 or £10 to HART, directly from your mobile phone.
Just send a text to 70070 saying HART01 plus your chosen amount of £2, £5 or £10 eg HART01 £5
All text donations are free, and won't come out of any inclusive texts you have as part of your price plan - even if you're not with Vodafone. You just pay the cost of your donation.
-oOo-
Or, if you have a QR reader, simply scan this QR code to prepare your phone for sending £5 to HART.
A little goes a long way in Nepal. For example, your £5 would provide anti-rabies vaccines to protect more than 10 dogs for a whole year.
Please help if you can.
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Very many thanks for your continued support
www.hartnepal.org
If you would like more information about our work, please visit our website or contact our Director, Mr Khageshwaar Sharma, at k.sharma@hartnepal.org
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