“Addis
Ababa is a dog city, full of pedigreed dogs running wild, vermin-eaten,
with malaria and tangled hair,” wrote journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski
almost thirty years ago. Times have not changed.
Today’s canine population is estimated at around half a million, staking
territory throughout the city of a quoted 3.5 million human beings.
According to the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Institute, 500 Addis
residents are known to have died from rabies this year alone, while the
World Health Organization cites 10,000 official rabies cases in
Ethiopia. The routine governmental response to the high figures is to
try and control the disease and dog population through targeted
poisoning campaigns. However, the lone voice of the Addis-based Homeless
Animals Protection Society (HAPS) is arguing against this violent method
of animal control. Promoting animal rights and welfare, HAPS is
fighting to implement an innovative cruelty-free neuter (sterilize) and
vaccination program citywide – one they say will control population
growth and disease among homeless dogs much more effectively, as well as
protect
man’s
best friend.
The HAPS compound can be found far behind the ring road’s Imperial
Hotel. The large grass yard boasts a kennel holding five dogs and two
yapping pups awaiting or recuperating from surgery, a stand-alone
operating room and HAPS chairman Efrem Legesse’s office, whose table is
overflowing with informational brochures and veterinary books. Efrem
and Hana Kifle run this low budget program, established in 2001, along
with a veterinary surgeon and a couple dedicated volunteers.
They had their start in the Bale Mountain National Park, employed to
protect the indigenous Ethiopian wolf from the danger of rabies and
hybridization with the area’s stray dogs. However, after speaking out
against the park authority’s cruel shooting program to eradicate the
canines, they lost their jobs but discovered a love for animals, and a
cause. When asked if people respond receptively to HAPS in Ethiopia,
where poverty has produced thousands of homeless children and induced
disease, Efrem responds, “People do ask, ‘why are you trying to protect
this dog? But we try and convince them. We will try to prevent rabies
cases, protect the population,
and
protect the animals.”
HAPS provides a fascinating explanation for the city’s increasing dog
population despite the poisoning campaigns. “After killing some dogs or
even most dogs, the remaining dogs gain wider territory and more food
resources which allow them to reproduce better and ensure their
survival,” their website states. “Also, even if the killing might have
impacted by reducing the dog population, without vaccination, the
remaining dogs might still carry the rabies disease.”
HAPS has adopted an Animal Birth Control pilot program (ABC), practiced
successfully in cities throughout Europe and the US, like New York, to
ensure a healthy human population and protect animal welfare. With a
yearlong mandate to neuter and vaccinate 600 dogs in the Bole area,
every week they capture a few dogs to operate on and put up for adoption
over a five-day period. If not claimed, the canines are then released
back into their familiar neighborhood, a yellow tag affixed to their ear
identifying their treatment.
“We go into schools, city squares, markets, exhibitions – and tell them
about our project, talk about how dogs are man’s best friend,” says
Efrem about the organization’s advocacy program. “Children especially
love animals, including my son who loves dogs and spends all his time
here.” Efrem says many dogs have been adopted from HAPS, especially
puppies. However, he cautions, “We do not accept dogs people just bring
in. Otherwise people will bring their six or eight puppies here – it
would be too difficult for us. We want to solve the problem at the
root.” What they
do
encourage is for people to foster abandoned pups as house pets, taking
care of their health and wellbeing.
The fundamental obstacle HAPS has is funding. Only partially supported
by international sources like Animal People USA, they scrimp together
gas money for weekly trips in the truck to capture dogs or to feed the
hungry hounds in their yard. Having successfully completed their first
fundraiser at the International Community School around Old Airport last
spring, they are now trying to enlist more NGOs to help. For their
methodical plan to neuter and vaccinate the city’s dogs, block by block,
is ambitious as it is commendable, and benefits both humans and animals
making up our community-at-large.
HAPS can be contacted at 251-(0)11-654-4756
By Rebecca Murray
Posted
on Saturday, August 26 @ 02:10:38 MST by
staff
