On 11^th August, 2018 Kalimpong Animal Shelter conducted an Animal Birth Control camp at the request of a local village coordinator Nigam from Chibbo Busty. The camp was held in a community hall at Chibbo Busty where such ABC camps were held previously.  Year after year, such a camp is conducted to help worried owners about dog menace, dog fights and animal abuse in the community. Thus, ABC is an important tool to deal with such atrocities. After years of awareness generation camps owners now are aware of the need and importance of ABC and are always looking forward to such camps where they could bring their pet animals to a makeshift ABC camp in villages conducted by Kalimpong Animal Shelter and also get them vaccinated against rabies.

The main purpose of village camp is to help the community sustain well
without any fear of rabid dogs or dog menace. On the other hand, it is to help pet animals live long and a healthy life. The life in a remote village in Kalimpong is something different than usual and people there don’t have enough facilities or good roads to travel long distance to bring animals for operation. So, Kalimpong Animal Shelter travels far and wide at the request of people from villages to conduct ABC.

When conducting ABC camps, locals even bring their other domestic
animals like goats, chickens or request the shelter staff members to treat their ailing animals or do their general check-up by making home visits close by the camp venue. Therefore, by conducting Animal Birth Control camps, many lives of animals can be saved not only that, it also helps maintain a human and animal friendly society.

KAS Vet, Dr. D.P.Pandey assisted by compounders Sanjeev, and Lil
operated 8 dogs and 2 cats and vaccinated 70 dogs against rabies.

Every year, Anti-rabies and Animal Birth Control camps are organised by Kalimpong Animal Shelter. Such camps are carried out with the help of a village local person who further coordinates with KAS. Animal Birth Control camps play a pivotal role in the life of animals and provide a good learning experience to locals about the well-being of animals and the importance of spay-neuter programme.

KAS has so far conducted more than 300 camps in outlying villages in Kalimpong. To update yearly on rabies vaccination and also spaying on new bitches in the locality, KAS conducts camps in those previous village camp venues. Due to spay and neuter programme of Kalimpong Animal Shelter, it has become easier for people in town and village areas to neuter their pets. Not only that, KAS also provides outreach to the locals about giving first –aid to their pets at the time of emergency, keeping their dogs healthy, de-wormed and vaccinated and about being a responsible pet owner.

 On November 14^th, 2018 KAS conducted its fifth camp in a far off village called, Santook in Kalimpong. The team was led by Dr. D.P.Pandey, and compounders, Lil, Mahesh and Sanjeev.  KAS was also pleased to welcome one of the Vets from the U.K. who wanted to give his spare hands to KAS at Santook camp. Dr. Mark was excellent with his sheer dexterity like the Shelter, Vet.in.charge, Dr. D.P. Pandey.  Both Vets enjoyed thoroughly and exchanged their invaluable knowledge with each other. They drove to the village carrying their autoclave, sterilised equipments and a trunk of first aid and shaving kit for the makeshift camp. Every camp in village area is a makeshift camp that is prepared by Kalimpong Animal Shelter team. And for Dr. Mark, it was a new experience to take back home. The camp gave him an insight of Village life and the people there living in solidarity with animals. The locals attended the camp with their cats and dogs for spaying and vaccinations. Many new bitches were brought for the same to camp.  On that day, Dr. D. Pandey and team spayed 14 dogs and 2 cats and vaccinated 50 dogs against rabies. All owners and dog feeders from the community were given vaccination cards for yearly record of their dogs’ vaccination. All spay and vaccinations were done taking very less from owners and totally free for community dogs.

 Dr. Mark shared his joys with KAS team on his first trial on open flank spay in Santook Village and thanked the villagers and Kalimpong Animal Shelter team for their wonderful hospitality.

Special thanks to Animal Protection Network for their generous donation that helps in successful   implementation of Village camps and Cat ABC at KAS DGAS. We at KAS & DGAS are highly indebted to you for your constant support.

 It’s that time of year where India celebrates National Animal Week all around the country. This National Week is colloquially termed as ‘Prani Saptah’. This Animal week falls on November every year and is hugely celebrated by the Govt. Veterinary Department nationally.

The purpose of this event is to ainly create awareness amongst the locals and farmers to help them generate more income by rearing livestock and poultry. In a developing country like India, where 70% of the population is still dependent on agriculture, it becomes important to educate the locals about new schemes and subsidies provided by the Govt. to farmers. Thus, the Veterinary department in kalimpong also organises such an event in villages for three days.

In this event, kalimpong Animal Shelter is requested every year by the Govt. veterinary wing for Animal Birth Control camps. Due to numerous accomplishments by Kalimpong Animal Shelter over the past years on eradicating rabies and helping with the stray dog population in this small town, KAS is honoured by the Veterinary Department to be part of this event year after year.

As KAS specialises in Animal
Birth Control, KAS Vet, Dr. D. P.Pandey with the help of his team members
conduct open flank spay at the event. Owners are always given prior notice to
camps so that they could bring their ailing dogs for treatment or cats/dogs for
spaying. Students from the village Primary School also visit during the event
to learn about ‘Animal Welfare’ and ‘humane education’.

Children get excited to see the spay/neuter prorgramme conducted by Kalimpong Animal Shelter and they watch in awe. They’re even sensitised about rabies, animal birth control, adoption, etc when they visit KAS stall during such events. It becomes ideal for children to learn more along with the practical knowledge which KAS instills on them. Seeing such performance by KAS team, some children also aspire to become Veterinarians in future and thus, save lives of animals.

This year, Prani Saptaph was held in Pedong and Darjeeling where KAS actively participated and enlightened the crowd. On November, 17th, 2018 the first event was celebrated in Dungra, Kalimpong by the Govt. Veterinary Bloc. The event started by 9 till 5 in the evening with some refreshments and musical performance. The locals had brought in their cats and dogs for vaccination against rabies and some for spaying. On that day, Kas operated on 17 dogs and 1 cat with total vaccination on 43 cats and dogs.

Subsequently, on 18^th and 19^th November, Prani Sapta event was held on the outskirts of Darjeeling, Sukya and Takdah. Kalimpong Animal Shelter team then left for ABC camps in Darjeeling early in the morning. It was a cold day with a little bit of sunshine. But to help the dogs, KAS managed some heaters to keep the dogs warm during the ongoing spay thereafter, guided them about the post-operative care for their dogs. Community dogs were also caught, spayed and vaccinated. Despite the cold, KAS team operated on 14 dogs and vaccinated 10 dogs against rabies.

 On the third day mainly the last day of camp in Takdah, KAS operated on 21 owner dogs and 1 cat. Thirty five cats/dogs were also vaccinated against rabies. Altogether; it was a successful camp for KAS.  The govt. Veterinary Bloc felicitated KAS with a token of appreciation for offering help to the locals and for reconnecting the bond between humans and animals.

It was a very good end to 2018 with a lot of fond memories. It was even more meaningful when Sampten Gompa, a Buddhist monastery in Darjeeling sitting atop a hill in a very beautiful location called Rimbik, Darjeeling invited Darjeeling Goodwill Animal Shelter for a visit and to conduct spay-neuter programme on 30^th December, 2018.

Samten Gompa like any other monastery has been very kind to dogs. They have over the past years also taken care of numerous dogs and helped them live a healthy life by getting them neutered. The Buddhist monks are great spiritual leaders with kindness in them. As they believe in Ahimsa meaning Non-violence, they are quite a blessing to animals.

When small animals like cats/ dogs or sometimes birds fall sick, they quickly inform Darjeeling Animal Shelter about giving them first-aid.  And on many occasions, the monks travel to the Shelter and get their dogs treated in Lebong. There’s no doubt that the Animal Shelter in Darjeeling has always been of great help to the locals and the monks everywhere.

On 30^th December, 2018 the Shelter team left for Sampten Gompa early in the morning. It was a frosty day and Darjeeling had just soaked in snow. Indeed, a chilly morning but a refreshing one and with so much excitement in everybody at the thought of visiting the monastery and operating dogs there. It was a perfect way to end the year by serving man’s best friend.

The Animal Shelter team was welcomed by the monks from Sampten monastery. They were very pleased to see great concern of all the Shelter team members for the dogs at Sampten Gompa. The camp was held on the front yard of the monastery.  It was a makeshift camp. Many locals had even come for vaccination of their pet dogs.

Dr.  Mihir, a new Vet at Darjeeling Animal Shelter was more than happy to try his hands on spay. To him it was a new experience to participate in a village camp and see the local life there and dogs waiting in a queue for operation. He was assisted by the Shelter compounders, Naren and Prem. One of the Shelter Volunteer Vets, Dr. Sameer was also present at camp. Dr. Mihir operated 12 dogs smoothly whereas Dr. Sameer helped the team with vaccination of dogs against
rabies.  He and team vaccinated 32 dogs from the monastery and the local community there.

All of the local dogs there were spayed and vaccinated on that day. Now the monks wouldn’t have to   worry about the dogs turning aggressive during the mating season. And also the visitors and worshippers need not have to worry about the new litter of puppies or getting bitten by dogs in the monastery.

The camp was delightful. Happy monks and their hospitality made the camp even more worthwhile.

Kalimpong Animal Shelter has been the one and only organisation working for the voiceless in Kalimpong for several years with the main objective to sterilize and vaccinate street dogs in order to stabilise the stray dog population.

Henceforth, animal birth control gradually spread across small hamlets located in far-flung areas of Kalimpong where the community hardly knew about the process of sterilisation and its importance. Year after year, KAS reached out to far flung villages to sensitise the community about the dreadful disease rabies, dog bite do’s and don’ts, vaccine available to treat rabies and viral diseases in dogs, cruelty cases and neutering of dogs.

After years of outreach on the welfare of animals, people eventually realised the importance of animal birth control and supported the cause by bringing their pets to the shelter for spay. But KAS discovered that it was difficult for people to travel to the shelter so, KAS commenced village camps with the help of the community co-ordinator who organises a small place for KAS to perform open flank spay.

It has now been almost 20 years that KAS has been serving the community and animals at large backed up by locals from the community who approach KAS for yearly ABC camps.
The outlying villages where animals suffered greatly are now relieved because of KAS initiative to conduct village camps which at times are in conjunction with the govt.Veterinary Bloc II that supplies free medicine for large animals like cattle, goats, pigs, etc. When ABC camps are conducted, all those small animals such as cat and dogs are also vaccinated against rabies prior to their spay. Owners also receive vaccination record cards for yearly vaccine updates of their pets.  All vaccination and neuter of cat and dogs are done by KAS at a very minimal cost.

This year again in 2018, animal birth control camps were organised in conjunction with the govt. Vet Bloc in those outlying villages where KAS has been conducting camps yearly.

In the month of May, KAS along with the Vet Bloc covered multiple villages and conducted animal birth control camps as usual but this time on new dogs that were awaiting sterilisation and vaccination. And it was so good to hear from the community people that rabies had come to a halt there, and people were no longer hurling stones or beating dogs cruelly.

The community thanks KAS every year for their dedication towards the voiceless and in making a rabies free community for both humans and animals.

Following are the village camps conducted by KAS in 2018: