Stray dogs are a common sight around Myanmar, including Yangon. While there is no way to gauge exactly how many stray dogs roam the city, a Guardian article from earlier this year estimates that the number exceeds 120,000; the latest government reports put the number of stray dogs in the country at over three million.
Although there have been government-led initiatives in the past to help control the stray dog populations in urban areas — either through culling or spay-and-release programs — neither have been overtly successful in tackling the real issue when it comes to strays: human fear. As a result, when Maiken Fransisca and Kjetil Hasselegård decided to set up Giving A Future (GAF), they knew from the beginning that the best way to succeed in helping stray animals would be to work together with the people within the communities where the animals lived, not outside of it.
Emphasizing the importance of the commitment of the humans in a community to look after the area’s animals, Hasselgård explains, “We do not believe it is sustainable in the long run for any organization or animal group to come in and rescue dogs if the local community does not care for the animals themselves…By working with animals you are in reality working with humans. It is not just about the animals, it is also about humans and animals living in harmony.”
Today, GAF is made up of a small team of local vets who help out the stray animals of Yangon and Mandalay — the country’s two largest cities.
Hasselgård points out that due to the animals’ generally docile nature, it’s common for communities to ‘adopt’ a stray dog. “Most local people we talk to like having their dogs around — it is a natural part of the Burmese street life. They usually live at the stairway, have a name and get some food. It can both mean security or just good company.”
Unfortunately, not everyone is so warm towards strays, and sometimes the team’s hard work does go to waste. “We have experienced many setbacks in areas, both in Yangon and Mandalay, where the dogs we treated were culled afterwards,” Hasselgård admits to Coconuts Yangon. This is not surprising, given some people’s fears that stray animals, especially dogs, are unpredictably violent and may be carrying rabies. Although the Yangon City Development Committee signed a three-year deal last April to work with a US-based organization to help decrease the number of strays through vaccinations and neutering, lots of citizens still believe that culling is the only way to deal with them.
However, talking to and working together with locals allows GAF to teach them that culling isn’t the solution. Hasselgård tells us, “If people see that it is possible to manage healthy, happy dogs who don’t spread diseases and don’t overpopulate, it becomes less of a problem to them as well.”
After seeing their strategy succeed in the streets, the team decided to bring their program to one of the most populous and prominent forms of community within the country: monasteries. “They [the monks] understand that we try to promote good health for the animals, which of course is in line with Buddhist faith valuing all living beings,” Hasselgård explains.
The group first started in Mandalay’s Mahagandayon Monastery, one of the largest teaching monasteries in the country. When they first took a rough headcount, the monastery was home to over 100 dogs and ten cats who were being fed by the monks, but not receiving any healthcare.
As a result, GAF asked if they could come onto the grounds and provide the necessary treatment for each animal. Operating an on-site neuter-spay-release program, the team’s aims are to “reduce the outspread of diseases, vaccinate against rabies, and spay/sterilize all animals in this area.” From there, the group has branched out to several other monasteries within the city.
Staying true to their commitment to encourage local communities to take care of strays themselves, GAF also provides monks with a medical kit that will allow the latter to take care of minor medical procedure themselves — including cleaning wounds, checking overall vitals, and treating worm infections — once the team finishes their initial rounds of treatment and leaves.
Although the program has been widely successful for the most part, Hasselgård admits that they have run into a few problems. For one, since there are no set boundaries, animals simply come and go within the monastery grounds; people also sometimes bring strays to the monastery because they know it is a ‘safe haven’ for them, especially if the animal is ill. When this happens, the team has to take extra precautions to keep the potentially infected animals away from the newly sterilized ones until the former can be checked and treated.
Additionally, some monasteries have turned down GAF’s offer to sterilize their animals as it goes against their beliefs. While this is obviously unfortunate, the group makes sure to respect each monastery’s wishes every time.
Apart from setbacks such as these, the GAF team takes pride in their program, also acknowledging that this kind of success would not be possible if the monks themselves did not take an interest in caring for ‘their’ animals. “The reason why this is important is because the monks interact with the dogs every day…There is little point in a veterinarian travelling out to a monastery just to give deworming pills to a dog,” Hasselgård explains.
“The monks also have the animals’ trust — a crucial point. Community dogs are of course not wild, but they will not always let anyone pet them. If treated by someone they know, there is a much lower risk [of harm]. We have so far had zero incidents because of this.”
Unsurprisingly, Hasselgård relates that the most rewarding part of their work is seeing the difference that their treatment has made for animals who were once incredibly ill. “What we treasure the most is the small moments when you communicate with animals and can tell from the look in their eyes that they are thankful. You can often see true gratitude in their eyes after they get help — that motivates us to continue,” he tells Coconuts Yangon.
In addition to the monasteries, GAF also emphasizes the importance of exchanging knowledge within their team itself. As such, several experienced international vets have come into the field with the group of local vets and teach them the proper methods of diagnosing and treating animals according to their needs. This aspect of their work is crucial as it allows the local vets to gain knowledge that they can then take back with them to their private practices and treat additional animals outside of their work with GAF. As Hasselgård points out, “It makes the project sustanaible.”
Last year, GAF also held a small workshop for approximately 300 schoolchildren in Mandalay. Considering that most locals’ negativity towards dogs stems from the fear that they might attack small, defenseless children who play with them, GAF realized the importance of educating kids.
Hasselgård explains, “We taught the children active postures and body language, and how to behave if you are approached by an aggressive animal. This is also so important because we similarly kept a focus on how to respect animals. Giving information to children about these matters at an early age is so important because they will grow up to either respect or mistreat animals.”
Donations to Giving a Future can be made via their website. Every kyat that that the organization receive goes directly towards the animals.
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