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Pet dog stock images can mislead audience in roaming dog issues
The original images in this post are by the author or by WVS India employees / photographers documenting WVS work in India. All things stray dogs have been again getting lot of media attention. News clips are getting space and going viral across Whatsapp groups and other social media. Humane dog population management is a…
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Owned dogs – the low-hanging but ignored fruit in ABC-programs?
ABC-programs in India – short history The history of ABC (animal birth control, i.e. surgical sterilization) programs in India goes all the way back to the late 1960’s. This is when Blue Cross of India in Chennai (then Madras) first begun this program to humanely control the roaming street dog population. After 40 years of…
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About horse rescue, horse sanctuaries and quality of life
It is not only about the transport Having a suitable, ideally purpose-built, and affordable vehicle available to safely transport an injured horse to a safer location for further care and treatment is a luxury that is often not available. This is especially true in situations concerning horses belonging to the unorganized sector. This means tourist…
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IPAN & Hill View Farm Animal Refuge
Past and Present – in brief Past India Project for Animals and Nature (IPAN) was registered and recognized by AWBI in 2002 to run the animal sanctuary based at the Hill View Farm in Mavanalla village, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. What begun as mainly an animal refuge, over the years developed into a base from where…
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Hill View Farm vermicompost and no-dig garden
A big part of the life at the Hill View Farm revolves around cleaning animal sheds, stalls and enclosures. With over 200 resident animals, most of them horses/ponies/donkeys or cattle/buffaloes/goats, there is A LOT of manure being produced on a daily basis. And all this manure has to be taken somewhere after it has been…
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What is an OT?
This post continues from the series of posts regarding access to veterinary care that I have published earlier here and here. One of the barriers for accessible veterinary surgery services, from the veterinarian’s point of view, is the available infrastructure and facilities and the perception of what facilities are required to provide basic care or…
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Animal hospital, shelter or sanctuary?
Animal shelter is a very commonly used word in India to describe a various set ups providing housing and veterinary care usually for street dogs as well as for any abandoned and rescued animals of different species. Every now and then in newspapers you also read about plans to establish big shelters to round up…
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Barriers to accessible veterinary care
In my earlier post I begun on this topic of access to veterinary care and how lack of it is impacting the ownerless street dog population growth in India. An excellent article from Michelle Lem (2019), Barriers to accessible veterinary care, published in Canadian Veterinary Journal, summarizes the current research in this topic both from…
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Access to veterinary care
Last year I was invited to speak at the International Companion Animal Welfare Conference in Bulgaria (ICAWC 2022) about the trials and tribulations of the WVS India International Training Center during its first 12 years in action. My biggest take-away-home inspiration from the conference came from a Canadian vet who presented about his work in…