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Who cares about the animals?

A St. Pete High graduate and like-minded activists do. Their solution after the Sri Lanka tsunami would benefit both animal and human.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published July 17, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - The tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26 killed more than 176,000 people in 11 countries and left thousands homeless.

While much of the world rushed to aid the human victims, animal welfare activists were also concerned about the dogs and cats that lost owners and homes. Ministering to the animals, they determined, would also assist humans reeling from the catastrophe.

Robert Blumberg, 54, a St. Petersburg native who lives and works in Sri Lanka, was at the forefront of the effort. Initially he helped to organize a group to assess, vaccinate and treat animals affected by the disaster in Sri Lanka. Early this year he helped to start the more permanent Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust.

"We saw there was lots of help for people, but no one was helping animals. And there was lots of fear of rabies and dog bites," he said. "We had about 100,000 dogs displaced all of a sudden."

Among the displaced animals, said Blumberg, who was in St. Petersburg for a short visit, were the so-called community dogs. These animals were not individually owned but cared for by residents in the community where they lived, he said.

The situation was fraught with danger for both humans and animals, Blumberg said.

Two hundred dog bites a day and 90 cases of human rabies a year were reported in Sri Lanka - a country of about 20-million people - before the tsunami, he said.

In the storm's aftermath, residents feared an epidemic of rabid animals.

The animals' erratic behavior and appearance were generally because of starvation and thirst, Blumberg said. The shortage of food caused dogs to fight for something to eat. Because they were forced to drink salty ocean water, they foamed at the mouth. To frightened residents, that was more evidence that the animals were rabid, Blumberg said.

Local government officials responded by planning mass killings, but animal welfare activists like Blumberg were able to convince them that such action would be futile. They explained that fewer dogs competing for food and mates would only make the population grow. Further, dogs from other communities would soon move in to claim the vacated territory.

Initially, 14,000 vaccinations were given, with the Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust and other volunteer organizations sterilizing about 4,000 animals, Blumberg said. Each vaccinated dog is outfitted with a red collar, he said.

Blumberg, a St. Petersburg High School graduate and an engineer with a degree from Georgia Tech, first became involved in animal welfare in Egypt. He and his wife, Andrea Yates, a program officer for USAID in Sri Lanka, met in college and married before going to Swaziland to serve in the Peace Corps. They have lived overseas since 1989. They moved to Sri Lanka two months before the tsunami.

Within days after the disaster, Blumberg and other volunteers formed the Tsunami People Animal Welfare Coalition. In March he co-founded the Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust.

Initial financial assistance came from individuals and organizations such as Animal People News, Humane Society International, World Society for the Protection of Animals and Best Friends Animal Society. Pfizer Animal Health provided 50,000 doses of rabies vaccine.

"Now we're having to fundraise to keep going," Blumberg said late last week.

The trust operates mobile clinics in devastated areas and refugee camps. Pet owners take their animals to the clinics by foot, three-wheelers and bicycles, but community dogs are captured in large butterfly nets. The organization pitches tents to perform sterilizations.

"We try to do about 35 dogs a day. That's 175 a week," Blumberg said.

"We are doing same-day capture-neuter-release. That's using special techniques that allow the dogs to be released the same day, and it includes special suturing methods and materials. And it even uses Super Glue as a sealant to keep out the dirt. By using this method, it negates the need to have kennel or day care," he said.

Community dogs are returned to where they were picked up, he said, "since they are territorial and will protect that community from other animals moving in."

The work is ongoing, Blumberg said.

"What we're doing now is going to new places and sterilizing, but then having to go back to the places we've already done to catch the ones we missed, and the puppies that have been born in the interim," he said.

"In order to do an effective rabies campaign, you have to get at least 75 percent of the animals. In order to achieve zero population growth, you have to sterilize at least 75 percent. We're aiming for 90 percent, in essence - all that we can catch or have brought to us."

To find out about the Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust, go to www.tsunami-animal.org

[Last modified July 17, 2005, 01:06:14]