Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs......

Hello again,

In many parts of the world there is an abundance of dogs. In Sri Lanka for example there is one dog for every 8 people. A sustainable ratio is 20:1 and we are way beyond that number. It's an interesting relationship that people have here with dogs.....it's mostly just co-existance. Many people don't seem to have much of an emotional connection to dogs and you see the whole spectrum. Occasionally there are healthy dogs with a collar and then you see starving, mange infested dogs sleeping on the street in the middle of a busy intersection.
The other major problem is that almost no one fixes dogs here. Of course the cost is a barrier for most people. This leads to dogs and puppies everywhere, including here at Rocky Point. When dogs go into heat they make a ton of noise and the whole neighborhood is kept up.
So, the other day we found a solution. We finally found a vet on the island who has a team of people who travel around and fix dogs. They have done 300,000 so far and want to do 1,000,000. We hired them to come here and help our neighborhood. We had no idea how many dogs would show up, but when the word got out, people kept bringing them. In the end we did 28 operations.
It was really great to see a positive solution and they will come back anytime. If we get at least 20 dogs it only costs about $10 a dog to get them fixed, have a rabies shot, and mange shot.
Lets hope that this puts dent in the dog population around here. Have a great day and as Bob Barker always said on THE PRICE IS RIGHT, "remember, also neuter your pets."