StrayAssist:

StrayAssist aims to broaden the welfare and acceptability of stray animals by:

- providing information
- promoting sterilisation and vaccination
- promoting adoption of stray animals
- assisting with finding adoption homes

As we are based in North Goa, India most of our efforts take effect here. StrayAssist is a private initiative run and financed by a handful of people.

If you need help with sterilisation, adoption or vaccination of a stray animal do let us know via StrayAssist@vsnl.net. Please do note that we do not have lots of adoption homes available but can give suggestions on how to find one.

Lost lives

This is an image few of us see but which is a daily reality for those working in animals shelters. In Goa, some shelters have to euthanise about 250 pups every month!

Many are not outright euthanised but staying in a shelter is unhealthy as there are always lots of viruses around. Pups and weak animals are very vulnerable to get infected and once they fall ill, the shelter generally, has not sufficient resources to sustain them.

So, if you ask a shelter whether they euthanise they will often reply "No only is a case is hopeless." but many cases become hopeless simply by staying too long in the shelter. The shelters do their best, but with the enormous number of animals admitted, this is something they can hardly avoid.

By fostering shelter pups and kittens, we can deal with any infections they may have picked up and will make they strong, healthy and beautiful, before we give them away for adoption. All our fosters are followed up with a vaccination programme and, at seven months, sterilisation. This way those who adopt a animal through us get a healthy dog/cat which will give them lots of pleasure without hassle of going to the vet.

Of course, we can save only a handful every year but each life is worth it.

None sterilised animals and breeders contributes to animal cruelty

The not sterilising of animals inevitably leads to animal cruelty because every animal born -on purpose or by accident- fills a home that could have been taken by a dog or cat that is born of the street or is put to death in a shelter. Animal shelters across the world have to kill many thousands of healthy, social and loveable puppies and kittens simply because there are too many animals and not enough adoption homes.

Breeders and buyers kill
Breeding and buying of (pedigree) animals constitutes to animal cruelty as it directly contribute to the over-population of animals and thus to their deaths. There is no such thing as a 'responsible breeder' as long as dogs and cats are dying in shelters because of a lack of homes, no breeding is 'responsible'.

Unsterilised pets kill too
In Goa many unsterilised pet animals, especially male dogs, roam around freely. These animals are responsible for a lot of pregancies among the stray populations. Most pups and kittens born of the street live a short and miserable life or end up in a shelter where they are euthanised.

Ideas we support

1. Every state should offer free spaying/neutering services. Cost should never be a reason not to spay or neuter an animal so these services should be offered for free to everybody. The cost of this are far out-weighted by the cost incurred of more new born animals.

2. To avoid breeding, no household should be allowed to have more than 1 unspayed dog or cat under the age of seven months. People that want to breed dogs or cats will have to apply for an expensive yearly renewable permit and their facilities will be controlled every year by the local animal welfare organisation.

2. It should be mandatory for all animals which receive medical consultations or treatments at shelters to be spayed or neutered before they leave the shelter. This should not only pertain to stray animals but especially include owner dogs because many owner dogs running around lose are responsible for pregnancies among the stray population. People who are not willing to have their animal sterilized should make use of private vets.

3. Mobile spaying/neutering clinic. These are vans which are inside refurbished so spaying and neutering operations can be executed. These vans should move from village to village in each district. This way spaying and neutering would become more efficient and more wide-spread.

Mange; rarely hopeless

One of the things we see most often is stray dogs with mange, often severe. Many people believe that it is contagious to humans or their dogs but this is not always the case. There are two types of mange and the non-contagious form is the one that infects most stray dogs in India.

To treat mange is simple and cheap but as it gets rarely done and, as a consequence, many stray dogs die, mostly of secondary infections. It took only 3 hours over a period of six weeks to treat the dog in the foto below. And as you can see it is worth treating :-).

Animal Rights in India

Delhi stray dog feeders are protected by law

Mrs. Mita Das Gupta feeds street dogs in Delhi much to the annoyance of her neighbours who started to harass her and threatened to harm the dogs.

Mrs. Das Gupta did not take this lightly and went to court. Subsequently the court provided an order from the Metropolitan magistrate Ms. Kamini Lau, which not only provided protection and immunity to dogs and the feeders/ caretakers but also directed the Delhi Police to protect dogs (see attached).

It was a historic judgement which offers protection to people Delhi who feeds dogs. With the Delhi order as a precedent, people in other cities are likely to get similar orders if they need to.