Today is the World Kindness Day. But we want to make a full week out of it!
In this kindness week we decided to help with another huge problem that Lombok has to deal with. In this case more specifically in the area of Kuta, South of Lombok. This problem is the hard time that dogs are facing here everyday! The population is so big that daily fights over food and territory result in many injured dogs and that there is simply not enough food and water around.
The many females that have had a lot of puppies over and over again just don't have the strength to take care of their pups and, due to the culture on the island, adoption isn't really an option to local people.
During this week we will donate 10% of ALL OUR SALES to the amazing NGO called “Kuta Lombok Dogs”. It was created by Isabelle from Sweden, and Elfi from Belgium. They work together with a local vet named Dr. Nurul, and weekly they visit the street dogs of different areas from Kuta.
Their main goal is to sterilize as many females as possible, to gradually bring the population down. They focus on sterilizations, because they believe that this is the only real solution to this problem. With the support of a local vet they try to help wherever they find injured dogs.
We honestly think that the expats and the vet Nurul are doing a great job and we want to raise awareness for their project and their hard work here in Kuta, Lombok. We asked them some questions about the project:
What is the biggest Problem Kuta has regarding the dogs?
„There are so many stray dogs, and the overpopulation is the biggest problem and as a result of overpopulation you have many puppies that are getting dumped on the streets, sick dogs, injured dogs and the born female dogs will get pregnant again. And the whole circle continues“
How are you trying to solve that problem?
„We have our vet Nurul that comes to Kuta once or twice a week and she helps by catching and sterilizing the female dogs. Sometimes if we see injured dogs, she also tries to treat them. Her assistants go out with a blow pipe to sedate the dog. Then they wait until it falls asleep and then they bring the dog to the pet shop for the treatment.
We are basically trying to control the overpopulation of stray dogs by sterilizing all the female. We focus in the females because it’s way more effective than sterilizing only males. If there is one male dog left, he can still make all the females pregnant. But of course if we get a male dog, we will always sterilize them too.
On the sterilization all the females also get a small cut out in their right ear, so we know already which ones we sterilized. We only do the cut out with the female dogs because for the male we can clearly see on their genitals if they are sterilized or not.“
How about the costs for all of that? How do you finance yourself?
„One sterilization costs 650 thousand IDR which is more or less 40 USD. This pays basically for the costs of Nurul, the stitches and the anesthetic. Kuta Lombok Dogs has always relied on donations from our website, our Gofundme site but also on donations from tourists.
Sometimes we also get donations in sort of medicine. You can basically donate what you have. We are happy to get any sort of dogs medicine. A lot of supplies are very hard to get in Indonesia. For example for the stitching Nurul uses a special dissolvable stitching, that is very good for stray dogs. Because once you treated and stitched up the wound you can’t get the dog back to remove the stitches. You can’t get that here, so usually a friend from Australia asks her Vet to donate some supplies whenever she comes over. Usually it’s supplies that have just expired but that are still perfectly fine to use.
Another thing are the sedation darts for the blow pipe that are really hard to get here. The ones we ordered are not working well. Once we had a Balinese Vet coming over and bringing some from Bali. Then they realized that the amount of anesthetic was not enough. The local dogs they are just too strong here. So we need special ones with a higher dose that we usually only get from Germany."
How are the people here living with the dogs?
„It’s hard because of their culture. They are not used to being with dogs or even keeping them as their pet. It’s completely different than in Europe and other western countries. Here they don’t really take care of them. Many people treat the dogs very bad because there are so many of them and some try to steal their food. So no one really wants them.
The younger generation is changing now, since they are more exposed to tourists and western people. They start understanding to have a dog as a security or just as nice company. But it’s hard to see how the main part of the locals is treating them. That’s another reason why we try to reduce the population of dogs here.“
What advise can you give anyone that travels to countries that are facing the same problems with stray dogs?
„Many people want to help the stray dogs by themselves and often take small puppies home or away from the place they found them. Please leave the dogs where you found them. Many times the puppies are still with their mother, that maybe went trying to find food. Also as soon as you take dogs from the street they will not be able to be put back on the street again. They will not survive or not be accepted by the pack anymore. You can leave them there, go visit them and give some food.
Anytime you find puppies, weak or injured dogs, you can take a photo and contact an organization like us or a local vet. Usually they know the puppy already or can help you. In any time all kind of organizations are always very happy to get donations."
Where can the people donate?
For Kuta Lombok Dogs you can donate here https://www.gofundme.com/f/
Also follow their amazing journey on:
Instragram - https://www.instagram.com/kutalombokdogs/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/KutaLombokDogs
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