Animals Need Love Too

by Nilma Dole

The first step when confronting a dog or any other animal on the street is to overcome the fear that it will attack you. Just stand still and do not hit them because when they are attacked they will obviously defend themselves. Many do not realise how much animals are afraid of us.

However, just like all humans need love, animals need love too and with this love, a relationship with our best friend will last a lifetime.

Today, there are various projects around the island that are preventing cruelty to animals with sterilisation programs to help stop rabies and other nuisance problems in association with the local Municipal Councils.

The Colombo Municipal Council has been consistent in eradicating rabies and asking people to come forward to get even community dogs sterilised. Community dogs around should be sterilised the most because the population is uncontrolled posing health risks and nuisances for people around.

The youth can volunteer for the Tsunami Animal People’s Alliance (TAPA) at various camps to help sterilise and vaccinate dogs. They are given individual training which is not difficult and they learn how to sterilise animals, the proper way.

The best way to help the community is to adopt a sterilised animal to enrich and protect your life as well the lives of others. Odel’s Embark project just completed one year and have done four successful campaigns that have sterilised more than a 1000 stray dogs.

The Animal Welfare Shelter is the oldest animal shelter in the country and has taken a ‘Responsible Pet Ownership’ project to many schools.

The Blue Paw trust and the Sathva Mitra have also come together to find homes for animals which are also successful.

By opening our eyes to the plight of animals around the city and by stopping the cruelty done to them, start overcoming your fears first. Learning to love animals and giving them a good home is the best thing the youth can do.