A visit to Bali Animal Welfare Association provides some insight into Bali life through the world of their street dogs.
These dogs were all rescued and treated at the BAWA clinic in Ubud, with the aim to get them healthy and into forever homes.
Rat Poison Dog
A happy little dog greets me as I look into the first cage inside the clinic door. Although his tail is wagging excitedly, he’s unsteady and shaky and a bit uncoordinated. These are symptoms of rat poisoning.
Despite the programs BAWA runs in schools teaching kids how to care for dogs, the introduction of rabies to Bali hasn’t helped the Street Dogs cause. While the current campaign to vaccinate all the dogs will eventually see the end of rabies in Bali in the next couple of years, the Balinese are still very scared. Sometimes they take matters into their own hands.
An easy way to get rid of dogs they consider a threat is to lace rice with rat poison and leave it out on the footpath for the dogs to eat. The trouble with rat poison is that it leaves residue on the ground. Rat Poison Dog not only ate the poison but also absorbed it through his feet and effectually got a double whammy dose. He was barely moving when he was first rescued by BAWA. A week later, tail wagging and tongue lolling, he was walking again but with that Parkinson’s’ like shake, the last remnant of the attack on his nervous system. Scarily the rat poison residue left behind on the footpath is as much a threat to local children and tourists as it is to the Street Dogs.
Pedigrees
There’s a desire for the younger generations of Balinese to be more Western, a desire probably brought on by the influences of tourism and technology. In an effort to be more like us, some Balinese prefer to have a pedigree as a pet so these days you can see dogs like Poodles, Labradors and Rottweilers on the streets of Kuta. You’ll also see mixed pedigrees crossed with street dogs. Ironically while BAWA struggles daily to reduce the street population, the breed dogs are only adding to the problem as owners still aren’t sterilising their dogs.
Sadly the Balinese don’t see the value in their own native canines. Bali’s street dogs are thought to be the descendents of the first companion dogs that appeared in the evolutionary split from wolves, making them one of the oldest “pedigrees” around. The symptoms of poverty, a lack of basic necessities like food and medicine, leave the dogs in poorer condition than the people. So instead of being a symbol of prestige, the street dogs are a reminder of just how tough life is. No wonder Balinese prefer Western pedigrees to Bali dogs.
The irony is that even the pedigrees end up in BAWA severely underweight, with fur loss – and for the exact same reasons that local dogs come in – lack of companion animal care education.
Bima
Bima was rescued with a couple of his litter mates but he was so fear aggressive that vets couldn’t get near him to treat him.
Forcefully treating an animal often increases their stress levels and exacerbates their illness. Leaving them untreated would see their health decline. It’s a Catch 22 situation, often seen in the animal rescue world.
Bima’s fear aggression had earned him a death sentence; the visiting Australian vet said it would be detrimental to treat him and it would be inhumane to leave him in such an appalling condition. He needed to be put down.
At home in Australia vets just don’t have the resources to treat cases like this. The beauty of rescue centres is that they have the time, the people and the love to give cases like this a second chance. And so Bima got a second chance; the husband of a staff member spent days just sitting near the puppy, step by slow step, earning his trust.
Bima came to learn that people can be kind and friendly and he was finally able to be treated. His fur grew back, he loves a cuddle and he’s currently up for adoption. His transformation can be seen here on BAWA’s Facebook. A happy ending to what could have been a very sad story.
But what happened to the little dog to make him so scared of people in the first place? This was the first time I’d heard the term “fear aggression”. Looking back through my years in the pet industry, animal rescue, and even pet ownership, I realise I have seen the symptoms of fear aggression many times. When an animal is scared it will physically lash out. For that matter, so will humans! Sadly, I wonder how many animals have been put down because they were “dangerous”, when in fact they were probably just really scared.
Net Dog
A capture net lay on the ground with the heavy metal handle on top of the pile. It took a while for me to figure out that there was a lifeless form wrapped up in the net, mostly all I could see was skin and bloody scabs. At first I thought it was dead or pretty close to it but Net Dog had been called in by a local who was concerned about his health and this is just the sort of callout BAWA does every day. Net Dog was so terrified of capture that he had to be heavily sedated for the safety of himself and his rescuers, another case of fear aggression. Clinic staff carefully got him out of the net and laid him out for a thorough wash and dry and popped him into a cage to sleep off his sedation. His skin infection had caused epidermal swelling which left him looking as though his skin had been boiled and only sporadic tufts of fur and bloody scabs were left. So long as Net Dog isn’t found to have a terminal condition, the staff will do their best to earn his trust, treat him and find him a good home.
Ringworm Puppy
There is a quarantine section at the top of the stairs for puppies infected with ringworm. They are all huddled together right behind the wire gate with one little black puppy on the wrong side, outside the gate. There’s a pretty view of rice fields behind them. He’s so small he can fit through the bars whenever he wants so he gets first access to pats from staff. Ringworm can be picked up by touch but it’s also easily treatable so these puppies will be ready for adoption very quickly. Jessica, a vet student from Switzerland, studying in Scotland, and spending 2 weeks at BAWA told me the biggest lesson she has learned from her volunteer work is to always wash her hands thoroughly – so she freely pats Ringworm Puppy and he loves her for it; pats and food are his two favourite things.
Mama Dog
Have you ever received an email showing photos of amazing friendships between animals that ordinarily would be enemies? Well Mama Dog’s story is a bit like that. The life of pets and strays is survival of the fittest, they run in packs, there is a specific hierarchy within the pack and even the rough and tumble play between mother and pup is more rough than tumble. Going against typical pack behaviour Mama Dog, a bitch still lactating, was lying up against the far concrete wall of her kennel to keep cool. Despite her kennel having concrete walls over 4 feet high with a further foot of wire mesh on top of that again, she jumped the wall and rounded up about 10 puppies of different ages and mixed breeds, rescued by BAWA. The puppies had been abandoned before they had been weaned and now that Mama Dog has adopted them all they no longer have to be hand reared. Occasionally being a Mama Dog to so many puppies gets annoying so she jumps the wall again to find some peace and quiet nearby.
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Fully vaccinated, sterilised and ready for adoption.
