A DOG CALLED LITTLE BO

Our next project is to build a facility in Sri Lanka where we can increase our sterilization and rabies vaccination programme for Sri Lanka’s abandoned street animals. 
Vaccination helps to control the spread of rabies making a safer environment for both people and animals in Sri Lanka.  It only costs £6 to sterilize a dog and £1.50 to vaccinate against rabies.  Two dogs and their offspring, in their lifetime are capable of producing thousands of unwanted puppies on the streets of Sri Lanka.  So £7.50 goes an incredibly long way and stops thousands from having to be subjected to a life of hell just as Little Bo began hers.

Little Bo was a Sri Lankan street dog. She had been left to die in a foul drainage ditch by the side of a busy dusty road in Sri Lanka, Christmas 2003.  Her eyes looked into mine and from that moment my life changed completely. I could not walk on by, as so many people were, she was dying.  After what seemed like endless negotiations, red tape and heartache I finally managed to get Little Bo fit and well and flown to the UK where she now lives with me.  I could not stop there though as there are thousands that need help just like Bo.

Life as a street dog offers nothing. Classed as vermin by some people they are either born or abandoned on the streets. They survive by eating from garbage left on the road side. Lack of food and water leads to skin disease and mange; secondary infections include ulcerations of the eyes, then blindness.  Infected wounds caused by constant scratching leads to septicaemia and open wounds are easily infected with maggots because of the heat. They are beaten, stoned, poisoned, have boiling water thrown over them, and are hit by vehicles and left to die screaming by the side of the road. There are no animal organizations that can be called to help this situation.   

After so many disasters affecting people in the world today animals are always at the end of a very long list but they are living beings as you and I. They are just as capable of feeling pain, fear, hunger and thirst.  Little Bo’s Animal Welfare believes that it is not acceptable for any living being to be deprived of the basics of life and that there never is, and never will be, any excuse for cruelty.  We have many obstacles to over come in Sri Lanka, language, war, corruption, resistance against sterilization, lack of education on animal welfare, and limited veterinary facilities.  Most vets do not even have an X ray machine, or post operative care. Many are fearful of treating street dogs as they will loose rich clients.  Our challenge is set and no one ever said it was going to be easy but with the continued commitment from our volunteers both in Sri Lanka and the UK and the inspiration of Little Bo we will continue to strive forward until we have made a difference.
It is important to note that we are not highlighting a problem but addressing a situation and we are endeavoring to make much needed change. Our approach is to show a different way.  Sterilization, vaccination, education is the way forward. Every dog we sterilize and vaccinate takes us one step nearer to our goal which is to  
STOP THE SUFFERING

 

 

 

 

 

Registered in Sri Lanka  No.1352.  Registered Office 282/23 Dam Street, Colombo 12, Sri Lanka
President: Sandra Marie Noon