Gone to the Dogs
on Margaret Campbell's Rambles (India), 18/Aug/2009 05:45, 34 days ago
 I'm dotty over dogs, and I'm getting worse every year. A couple of months ago I noticed a LinkedIn group for SPCA India and joined in order to find out more about animal welfare here. Soon, I got two invitations from gentlemen in Delhi and Mumbai to visit their shelters. Today I spent a rainy afternoon visiting about 100 pooches (I SWEAR they were all vaccinated, Jan!) some cows and a few donkeys at SPCA Delhi and came away day with a deep regard for what a few dedicated people have done with little more than simple devotion.  This little NGO does three things. They capture, vaccinate, neuter and"repatriate" street dogs in order to combat rabies and overpopulation. They provide outpatient veterinary services to local residents for a fee, and they operate a sanctuary for animals recovering from trauma or starvation, or which are permanently disabled. Do they seek to"adopt out" suitable animals? Well, yes, but as a rule India is not a dog-loving nation. I often see middle class Indians or white people in the better suburbs walking purebred dogs, but I have never seen anyone with a mutt on a leash. Not sure what a landlord would think about that. This shelter is not like any humane societyI have ever seen. Located just outside a high tech sector in a prosperous suburb of Delhi, the site occupies perhaps 4 acres of land and features several buildings built by the cook for procedure rooms, staff housing, storing and preparing food, shelter from rain, and some kennels. Nearly all of the dogs are free to roam the grounds, dig foxholes in the dirt for cool dens, dive into the cattle's watering trough, chase birds and generally comport themselves as you would imagine dogs would ideally like to do. Many are disfigured from accidents and get around on three or even two legs, but all are known by their names, receive affection and care from the staff, and wiggle up for a scratch under the ears if given the chance. It's hard to imagine that these are not lives worth living, in a doggy way. The way this little NGO is making things happen despite overwhelming odds brought to mind the book I finished last night, Atul Gawande's"Better" which addresses performance and how to improve it, using medicine and public health as the context. Gawande is a surgeon at Mass General, a staff writer for The New Yorker, a professor at Harvard and an advisor on public health to the federal government. Several chapters are about India, including the final one, from which this section is drawn. This passage describes a trip Gawande made as a visiting surgeon to various hospitals and clinics around India, from the smallest villages to the capital city. The clinics at Nanded were like those I found elsewhere in India. They wereovens in the heat of the summer. The paint flaked off the walls in jagged strips. The sinkswere stained brown and the faucets didn't work. Each room had a metal desk, somechairs, a whirring ceiling fan, torn squares of blank paper under a stone for writingprescriptions, and at any given moment four, six, sometimes eight patients jockeyingfor attention. Examinations took place behind a thin rag curtain with gaping holes in it.…Yet, despite the conditions, the surgeons have developed abilities that were amarvel to witness. I had gone there thinking that, as an American-trained surgeon, Imight have a thing or two I could teach them. But the abilities of an average Indiansurgeon outstripped those of any Western surgeon I know."What is your preferred technique for removing bladder stones?" one surgeonin the city of Nagpur asked me."My technique is to call a urologist," I said. I joked about the stacks of used medical textbooks I saw for sale on the sidewalks of Old Delhi."Hmmm, self-help surgery," I laughed to my friend. But self-help is exactly how they learn. India is nothing if not ingenuity, writ large.