Vets Beyond Borders Australia

Published 04 Aug 2008

To assist the Ladakh Street Dog programme, wildlife veterinarian Dr Mark Johnson DVM who has many years experience in catching and handling wolves and other wild animals, volunteered 3 weeks of his time to help the Leh street dog sterilization programme. Dr Johnson's experience and skills were sought to introduce new methods of capturing and handling the Leh street dogs since many of these were proving too difficult to catch and manage using previous measures.

The 3 day Dog Capture and Handling Workshop was held at the house of Ladakh Animal Care Society president, Kunzang Namgyal, and at the LACS clinic in the village of Saboo. The workshop was attended by staff and representatives of LACS, Help in Suffering (Jaipur), the SARAH programme (Sikkim), Welfare of Stray Dogs (Mumbai) and the Snow leopard Conservancy (Leh), as well as VBB volunteer vets.

Dr Johnson started the programme with an overview of what the project's philosophies, perspectives and goals might be. For the purpose of dog catching, the goal was defined as being to "successfully capture any dog sought with confidence, calmness and compassion in a way that is safe for people and for the animal". With every procedure the priorities are, the humane handling for the animal and the safety of the handler. Dr Johnson also stressed the importance of "connecting" with the dog, including keeping one's attention on the dog at all times, and realizing that our energy affects the dog, and that the handler should always seek to calm a situation.

The knowledge and skills gained by everyone from the workshop were of great value, but of seemingly equal importance was the opportunity provided by the workshop for the coming together of people from similar organizations throughout India. It was a chance to share and discuss different methods and ideas of operation, and to cement relationships and support between like minded groups. We would like to thank Dr Mark Johnson for sharing his knowledge and expertise with all of us.