India has the highest population of stray dogs than anywhere else in the world – approximately 19 million.
They are in very poor condition and constantly producing offspring, as former Shrewsbury resident Anna Wells discovered when she made her first trip to Goa in 1997 as part of a back-packing trip.
“I was really horrified to see the condition of some of the dogs here with health conditions and starvation that we rarely see in the UK,” she said.
Anna cuddles a puppy
“So many of the dogs had severe mange (a contagious skin disease) leaving them with no hair at all, ulcerated and with bleeding skin and extremely thin. Some of them had huge wounds full of maggots where they slowly get eaten alive.
“For me, the hardest part was seeing the puppies and so during my first trip I started taking sick puppies back to my guest house to try to nurse them with no experience or veterinary knowledge at all. Sadly some of them died as they were really just hours away from death when I had found them. These experiences were deeply moving having never witnessed suffering on such a huge scale before.”
Anna was just 20 years old at the time and during her next few trips to India she discovered that many non-governmental organisations operating there were running animal birth control programmes where they treat, neuter and vaccinate stray dogs before re-releasing them back onto the streets.
The number of offspring that can be produced from one unsterilised female dog is 62,000 in seven years.
For the past decade, Anna, now 33, has worked for various non-governmental organisations in the Goa area primarily looking after puppies that are brought into rescue centres. But it is not all happy endings.
The puppies that are brought in cannot be re-released as they are too young to be sterilised so they go up for adoption. But, as the former Meole Brace School pupil explains, the numbers far exceed the amount of homes available and many of the unadopted ones tend to contract viruses. It also makes for shocking statistics.
“Eighty per cent of puppies in India die before they are one year old,” said Anna.
“I don’t have any veterinary experience, most non-governmental organisations I have worked for have very well trained local vets and nurses, so volunteers work on the TLC side of things. We walk the dogs and puppies, play with cats, wash and bathe them and try to spend time comforting them.
“For most, it is the first time they have ever been confined in their lives and so it can be a traumatic experience. Without the volunteers their experience would be much harder,” she added.
At present Anna is working with the Goa Dog Trust which aims to rid the area’s beach dogs and cats of all unnecessary suffering.
It is also the only charity feeding stray dogs throughout the monsoon when all the tourists have gone home.
She spends up to nine months a year in Goa before returning to Shrewsbury to work on a casual basis to raise funds for her next trip.
“Without the Goa Dog Trust these beach dogs are left to starve from May to October,” said Anna.
“The trust is hoping to raise funds to expand the feeding programme further up the coast and we also require a full-time vet so we can operate mobile sterilisation camps on some of the more northern beaches.”
To find out more about the trust or to donate visit www.goadogtrust.com
By Charlotte Hester