Animal Rahat Update

March – May 2010

Founded in 2003 with just one treatment station, Animal Rahat now provides services throughout the entire Solapur and Sangli districts in Maharashtra, one of the largest and most populous states in India. The programme started with just two employees and has grown to include a staff of four veterinarians, their assistants, animal caretakers and a full-time community educator. Our veterinarians are now on call for emergencies and advice around the clock, every day of the year.

In this report, we list a few of the many achievements that Animal Rahat has made from March through May 2010. Animal Rahat's work is only made possible by the generous support of its sponsors – so please make a gift today and help Animal Rahat provide relief to many more working animals in India.

Animal Rahat was pleased to bring a highly experienced new head veterinarian, Dr Sushmita Parai, on board this quarter. Having treated animals for an equine welfare organisation before coming to Animal Rahat, Dr Sushmita brings loads of expertise and knowledge of the needs of India's working animals – including the donkeys and horses who are a significant percentage of Animal Rahat's patients.

In Animal Rahat's vigorous effort to adopt the best possible practices, the staff is currently assessing the six most commonly used pain-relief drugs with the aim of identifying those that are most efficient and effective and have the lowest rates of adverse side effects.

Erasing Myths

A common belief in the villages served by Animal Rahat is that animals who are used to pull carts don't require as much nourishment as do animals who are used to produce milk. As a result, people cut corners in how they care for these animals, and this causes of immeasurable suffering. Animals who are used to pull carts spend their lives coping with raging thirst – sometimes going from one morning to the next with no water, pulling loads all day long in temperatures that can reach 60 degrees Celsius. But they are also very hungry because they are denied the same rations as those which are given to cows who are used to produce milk – even though they desperately need nourishment. One of the saddest sights is that of bullocks pulling carts of green fodder intended to feed cows who are used for milk when those same bullocks will never be allowed to take even one mouthful of the food. 

It is very hard to break old myths and habits that have been around for centuries, but the Animal Rahat team works hard to do just that by meeting with village councils and bullock owners. In the photo below, a bullock looks on as Dr Sushmita holds an educational session to impart the importance of providing working animals with proper hydration and nutrition.

A Special Patient

In addition to bullocks, buffaloes, camels, donkeys and horses, India's working animals also include the occasional elephant. These animals have the misfortune of being tourist attractions in major cities where they are forced to give rides to visitors and are used as attractions to encourage offerings in temples. Elephant handlers (known as "mahouts") control the elephants by jabbing vulnerable parts of the elephants' bodies (eg, behind the ears, chin and knees) with bullhooks – clubs tipped with sharp hooks.

Animal Rahat recently helped an elephant named Ram Prasad who was being terribly mistreated while he was in musth. In elephants, musth is a time when males' testosterone levels rise and they want to mate. During this time, they become very angry if they are confined, and the temporal glands located on each side of the head swell (it is thought that the pain of the swelling may contribute to the aggression). A musth period can last several months.

Ram Prasad's mahout was so afraid of how Ram might behave while in musth that he had been keeping the poor elephant chained by all four legs to a cement floor 24 hours a day. Unable to move more than a few inches in any direction, Ram lived this way for several months! As a result, Ram's back legs are in terrible shape. The right one is very thin and so stiff that Ram can barely move it, and he has a painful abscess on one of his feet.

Animal Rahat has been working carefully to develop a relationship with the mahout and earn his trust and that of the temple governing body so that the mahout would be receptive to attempts to improve Ram Prasad's living conditions. The Animal Rahat staff has been successfully working with the mahout to get Ram bathed and exercised, and they will soon be bringing in an elephant expert from Jaipur for consultation. There is a lot of work to do, but Ram recently went on his first walk (pictured below), thanks to the persistence of the Animal Rahat staff.

In the photo below, Ram is enjoying a tasty piece of watermelon given to him by Dr Sushmita. As the photo shows, Ram's left ear is missing because of an accident that occurred when he was younger.

Emergency Treatment for Animals in Grave Distress

In addition to their other duties, the Animal Rahat team comes to the aid of sick or injured animals who are stray, abandoned or otherwise in need of help.

Here is just a small sample of emergency cases recently handled by the Animal Rahat team over the course of only a few days:

• A pregnant donkey was reported to be in great distress. No owner could be found. (Unfortunately, it is common for people to leave their donkeys to wander so that the animals can try to find bushes and even trash to feed upon. Sometimes sick or injured donkeys are simply abandoned.) The vets were not able to save the foal, who was stillborn, but by providing pain relievers and fluids to the mother, they ensured her survival and recovery.
• A stray puppy was found lying in a market yard with a dismembered forelimb. It seems that someone had driven over him. The puppy was beyond recovery, so the vets relieved his endless pain and buried him with dignity.
• A donkey was observed rolling in pain. Animal Rahat's chief vet immediately went to the scene and discovered that the donkey had eaten a small polythene bag. After dosing the donkey with oil, she was able to extract the bag, and the donkey recovered quickly.
• A rabid horse was in a delusional state and was self-mutilating by trying to bite himself. The Animal Rahat vets performed euthanasia to spare him from a horrible death, as rabies is incurable.

Educating Other Veterinarians

The Animal Rahat vets submitted two papers this quarter to a colloquium for other veterinarians in order to promote better welfare practices and urge their fellow professionals to help change some of the abusive practices to which working animals are subjected. One of the papers was on the Chinchani Fair, and one was on alternatives to nose ropes.

The Chinchani Fair is an annual goddess festival during which whole families pile into carts and force their bullocks and horses to run for two days over a distance of 100 to 250 kilometres to the fair. As a result, the animals experience joint dislocation, torn shoulder muscles, lameness, yoke gall, dehydration, hemorrhagic diarrhoea, painful bloating and wounds on various parts of their bodies. Animal Rahat sets up a relief camp for the animals to receive rest, water and medical treatment and also provides free buses to the fair so that animals will be spared this gruelling journey altogether.

In their paper on nose ropes, the Animal Rahat vets explained that the use of nose ropes is detrimental to the welfare of bullocks. When a bullock is young, owners pierce the animal's nasal septum and thread a 5-to-8-mm-thick rope through the hole. The rope is then tied behind the horns. The whole procedure is performed without any veterinary care and causes the bullock great pain. The rope remains on the animal permanently. As the bullock grows older, the rope is replaced with thicker rope. Over time, the ropes rot and are periodically replaced, again with no sedatives or veterinary care provided. Unclean ropes lead to infected wounds (which often become infested with maggots), and the ropes often rub the skin around the ear, causing fungal infections. In addition to these problems, the overarching issue is that nose ropes cause pain when the cart driver pulls them to steer the animal.

As an alternative, Animal Rahat proposes that nose ropes be replaced with face harnesses known as "morkees." Face harnesses require no piercing, can be easily cleaned and maintained (and therefore pose no danger of injury or infection), cause no pain when used to steer the bull and can be removed when the animal is not working.

Helping to Retire Working Animals

A very important aspect of Animal Rahat is its animal-retirement programme. Usually, when long-suffering animals become too old or ill to work or continue to pull carts, they are sold for slaughter. This means that the animals often face an unbearably long and hellish journey to the slaughter point, where their throats are usually cut while the animals are still conscious. As an alternative, Animal Rahat encourages owners to allow animals to continue living with their families until they die so that the animals' remaining years can be free from work, pain and the terror of the slaughterhouse.

To lessen the expenses that owners incur when they are not using their animals to earn money, Animal Rahat pays for part of the animals' feeding expenses if the retired animals are kept with their owners.

If owners do not have enough money to keep their animals after they become too old to work, Animal Rahat encourages owners to turn their animals over to Animal Rahat instead of selling them for slaughter.

There are several dozen bullocks, horses, ponies and donkeys (as well as a dog or two) now living in peaceful retirement courtesy of Animal Rahat.

Pictured below is one of Animal Rahat's most recent retirees, a handsome bullock named Houshya (which means "hush"). For 18 years, he pulled a heavy cart loaded with whatever goods his impoverished family was paid to move. As he grew old and lost the strength to pull the loads he once did, his owner considered selling him. But the kind man realised that it wouldn't be long before Houshya slowed down so much that his new owner would sell him to be killed for meat and leather, so he gave Houshya to Animal Rahat for his retirement.

The first thing the workers at the retirement centre did was to remove the hateful nose rope that had dug scars into poor Houshya's nostrils and replace it with a morkee that rests comfortably around his muzzle. Houshya can now spend his last years resting in the shade, grazing and never having to spend another second under a heavy yoke.

Two donkeys – one of whom was pregnant – also recently joined the retirement centre family. The loving mother, now called Anna, and her adorable foal, Gregory (pictured below) – are both happy and healthy. This lucky foal will never have to haul crushing loads of bricks or experience the misery of an empty stomach.

Perhaps you have been lucky enough to see horses rolling around in the grass or soil. They clearly enjoy this activity just as much as our more familiar dogs and cats do. But most working horses in India never experience such comfort and joy. In urban areas, horses hardly have any opportunity for rolling around; either they are hitched to a cart or confined to an area with a concrete floor.

Donkeys, ponies and horses in brick kilns (where the ground tends to be sandy) often have terrible wounds on their withers, which would coat with sand should the animals roll over; instead of bringing them relief, rolling around would increase their misery.

So horses who are rescued by Animal Rahat are given wood chips to serve as a surface to roll on, and they use this area as if they were children on a playground!

How gratifying it is to be able to provide rest for these retired animals and to help alleviate the suffering of the thousands who are still working. Animal Rahat is extremely grateful to all the sponsors who make this programme possible.