Street dogs

There are a lot of dogs in Sri Lanka. Some of them belong to loving families.  Some are owned by families, but are used mostly as security guards and receive little affection. Many are on the streets.

Google says there were about 3 million street dogs in Sri Lanka in 2018.  Based on what I’ve seen that seems possible.  You can't walk more than 10 feet without seeing one.  Often you see 2-3 of them at a time.  

Most street dogs only pay attention to people if the people have food. We don't feed them.  Occasionally, a street dog will seem a little angry.  We walk around them, giving them as much space as possible.  On the beach, the street dogs do something very smart.  They dig holes and nest in the coolness of the wet sand. 

Many of the dogs seem healthy enough.  But some, not so much.  They’re very thin.  Have damaged coats and skin.  And visible scars/injuries.  That part is very sad.  

Happily, the situation for street dogs in Sri Lanka  has been improving in the last few years.  There are organizations that capture them to give them care, vaccinate for rabies (not a huge problem here, but maybe a bit more than Canada?) and spay/neuter.  DogStar is one such organization.  They release the dogs after their treatments.  This mostly makes sense to me.  They’re kinda wild, and the streets are their comfort zone.   

Animal SOS is another organization.  They don't release the dogs after treating them. They have a property with about 1,800 dogs in their care.  That’s a big yard!  And a lot of poop! 

Sri Lanka does not euthanize animals.  It’s against the Buddhist way.  For better and maybe less better…

Pictures

1- Toby with Annie, Tom's dog.  It took her several days to let us pet her.  She's still nervous.  But she's definitely enjoying our affections. She is sooooo adorable
2- Toby with Tigre.  Tom's cat. He's adorable too! 

3- Two beach dogs enjoying their cool hole in the sand.

4- One of the more rough looking dogs on the beach.

5- Toby taking a picture of a beach dog in a cool sand hole.

6- Many houses have a bottle of water at their front gate.  This very fancy house has 4.  Apparently, the bottles of water keep the street dogs from peeing on the gates.  Really???  How does that work???  But.  I admit.  Ive not seen a dog peeing on a gate yet...

7-  The writing on this wall, which is facing an empty lot says...."only dogs should put dirt here".  OK.....