Street Dogs to find Sanctuary in Sri Lanka

Remember this poor fellow? In 2019, a group of AAA supporters, led by our founder Janet, were touring Sri Lanka primarily to visit Bridging Lanka's Donkey Clinic and Education Centre. What they weren't expecting was to be blown away by the endless number of dogs in Mannar wandering the streets in dire states. They came across this particular street dog who was in an appalling condition, encrusted with mange, riddled with scabies, weak, malnourished and hardly able to move. Janet and her group were shocked to discover that these stray animals received no assistance or care whatsoever. Although street animals are not usually AAA's focus, we simply could not turn away from the immense suffering faced by thousands of dogs. Therefore, we were inspired to work with our partner group, Bridging Lanka, to construct the Hendro Animal Rescue Centre (HARC) in Mannar.

Unbelievably, there are nearly 6000 street dogs in Mannar and this new centre will focus on sterilisation and rabies vaccinations programs, as well as rescuing street dogs in desperate need. AAA has pledged $50,000 to build dog kennels and a small clinic for these purposes. Janet and Jack’s Walk Across Australia helped raise these essential funds for development of the rescue centre.

Although the Bridging Lanka team have been impatiently waiting to commence construction of the dog kennels, the only block has been the weather! They are now at the tail end of the wet season, which has continued for three long months and been more severe than usual this year. Constant rain, floods and cyclones have thwarted construction efforts thus far, however, Bridging Lanka are hopeful that building can get underway as soon as the wet season eases up.

The plan is firstly to build an access road into the site, since the sandy soil cannot support delivery trucks, then they will order all the essential building materials. Once these have been received, excavation can commence and the foundations laid. Constructing the kennels can then begin, with the hope that the kennel block will be completed by the end of February. The team are hopeful they can complete all of this hard work in one month and are up for the challenge!

Despite these delays in construction work, Bridging Lanka have still been extremely busy undertaking a vaccination program for dogs during September and are planning another sterilisation and rabies vaccination program. Since “rabies protection” is under the purview of the Regional Director of Health Services, Bridging Lanka have regularly been liaising with government officials to develop the most effective approach and encourage ongoing support for the HARC activities.

We will continue to keep you updated on the development of the Hendro Animal Rescue Centre.