Lucas Helps Dogs recently completed a six-week mission in Sri Lanka, conducting spay and neuter clinics and administering vaccinations against rabies. We have also become a member of Global Alliance for rabies control and we are on the mission to help eradicate rabies world wide (Lucas Helps Dogs founder Alena would tell you all in details how it feels being bitten by a dog with suspected rabies). During our time in Sri Lanka we run 5 days of pop-up clinics in 3 different locations.
The first clinic, held in Ahangama in January 2023, saw us collaborating with a team of experienced animal welfare volunteers who hold independent clinics in the area monthly. Together, we spayed and neutered and vaccinated 30 dogs. We also provided some dogs with skin treatment, one dog got second round of chemotherapy for TVT cancer and we removed around 1.3 million ticks.
The second clinic, a mass spay and neuter event held over three days in February in a mountain town of Ella saw us sterilize 90 dogs and cats and provide almost 100 rabies vaccinations to street and owned dogs. We worked with a local charity to leverage their knowledge of the area and contacts among locals. Unfortunately the weather was against us and we were not able to achieve the desired number of 200 dogs in 3 days.
The third clinic was held in Hikkaduwa, where we spayed and neutered 17 animals. These dogs and cats are regularly fed by two local men and the whole clinic was organized by two ladies from the UK who were helping to look after those animals for months.
We faced some challenges during the clinics, however we are happy to say that the local community responded well, with many bringing their dogs and cats to be spayed and neutered and even bringing their neighbours’ dogs and street dogs to our clinics. (our trustee Laura was called an ‘auntie’ by a local dog owner and she still giggles about it)
We have also started a collaboration with another charity called Mission Strays, based in Hikkaduwa. We are proud to pay for the spay, neuter, and vaccination of seven dogs and cats per month.
Your donations make a significant impact on the lives of these animals, helping us to continue our work and achieve even greater success in the future. Please consider donating to Lucas Helps Dogs and be a part of our mission to improve animal welfare in Sri Lanka. We can’t do it without you.
