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January – March 2011

Highlights

Coimbatore Vizha

As part of Coimbatore Vizha

(celebrating the spirit of

Coimbatore), Humane

Animal Society along with

People for Animals (PFA)

organized a free Anti-Rabies

and Pup Immunization

Vaccination Camp for

Mongrels at the Street Dog

Sterility Centre in

Seeranaickenpalayam on the

9th of January. Pure breed

dogs were vaccinated at a

nominal cost. The event was

a huge success and was

attended by our Guest of

Honour, Dr. C Shylendra

Babu IPS.

Ambulance Grant

After much effort, we have

clinched an ambulance grant

from the Animal Welfare

Board of India (AWBI) to

further our efforts in

Coimbatore’s Animal Birth

Control campaign.

Average no. of dogs

spayed/neutered (2010) =

250 per month

Target no. for 2011 =

400-500 per month

Longtime SCAD (Street Cats & Dogs of Bangkok) supporter and vet

volunteer, Donna Blasko, returned home to USA from a retreat in

Anaikatti in Tamil Nadu taking with her "Shorty", an 'Om Doggie' she

found dumped at an ashram. Donna lovingly calls him her "Indian

Dachshund" - he certainly looks like a mix of Indian mongrel and

dachshund, a proud looking guy with enormous ears that make you

smile when you look at them.

Shorty has now been adopted by a family in the New England area of

USA. Donna says he's a great guy who apparently once had a family

before he was dumped for his poor skin condition. HAS helped Donna

neuter, vaccinate, and treat him for fleas, and now he's shiny new again

with a lovely temperament.

Donna won't be sitting around in the USA for long. Come fall, she'll be

heading to Burma, then India again, traveling around for various

teachings and practice in Buddhist and Vedanta traditions. But that's

not all - she rescues dogs in need and has always been open to helping

SCAD in whatever way she can when in the States, either by airport

pick-ups or fostering dogs rescued from Thailand that are in need of

new homes. It's through Donna that SCAD's street dog rescue "Chok Dee

Dao" found a home with Laura in east coast USA; he went on to become

a certified therapy dog in the USA bringing joy to numerous children

with reading difficulties, and helping elderly residents in care with

mobility problems.

It is only ironical that mongrels are adored overseas but not in their

home country where people splurge thousands of rupees on foreign

breeds.

.

Countless monkeys, dogs,

rats and other animals are

burned, blinded, cut open,

poisoned, starved and

drugged behind closed

laboratory doors every

year for convenience and

economic reasons and

because of old habits. Not

only are animal tests

extremely cruel, they are

also completely

inaccurate because of the

vast physiological

variations between

species. Other species

absorb, metabolise and

eliminate substances

differently than humans

do. The truth is that

testing on animals is just

plain bad science which

harms humans and other

animals alike.

Vivisection is the practice

of experimenting on live

animals.Many vivisectors

come to India because, in

their own countries, they

cannot get away with

doing the type of animal

testing they can here.

Every year, research

facilities across India –

including the Animal

Research Centre, the

Patel Chest Institute, the

National Institute of

Nutrition (NIN) and the

All India Institute of

Medical Sciences (AIIMS), just to

just to name a few –

squander valuable time and

resources as well as millions

of rupees conducting

experiments on monkeys,

dogs, cats, rabbits, rats,

mice and other animals.

Although the Committee for

the Purpose of Control and

Supervision of

Experimentation on

Animals (CPCSEA) –

which was created under the

provisions of the 1960

Prevention of Cruelty to

Animals Act – is supposed

to help implement good

laboratory practices and

ensure that animal testing is

carried out in proper

conditions, animal research

in India is notoriously

riddled with problems.

Many pharmaceutical

companies do not employ

full-time veterinarians to

take care of animals on a

day-to-day basis or

caretakers to look after the

animals at night. Most of

the procedures are

performed by students.

Housing conditions are

bleak because many laboratories do not provide

animals with air

conditioning, proper

lighting, or hygienic water bottles, cages and food.

The UK-based National

Anti-Vivisection Society

(NAVS) issued a report on

Indian animal testing based

on a review of Indian

research papers in the

international scientific

literature and CPCSEA's

inspections of 467

laboratories. NAVS found

key faults in the animal

testing industry in India and

concluded that years of

scientific research in India

have been invalidated by

poor scientific procedure,

poor laboratory practices

and a lack of appropriate

animal care.

In India, one of the largest

animal suppliers, the

National Centre for

Laboratory Animal Sciences

(NCLAS) in Hyderabad,

supplies about 50,000

animals to laboratories

every year and to 175

institutions in India,

including pharmaceutical

companies and educational

institutions. Both NCLAS

and the NIN have been

under fire from animal

protection organisations for

years for not maintaining

basic animal welfare

standards. According to The

Hindu, NIN has kept

monkeys, who are highly

social, in solitary

confinement for up to 12

A few years ago, PETA and

the CPCSEA rescued a

monkey named Paro and 36

others from Pune's National

Institute of Virology (NIV)

after uncovering horrid

conditions. Unable to provide

even one record for any of the

animals it used, NIV had

confined most of its monkeys

to tiny cages for more than a

decade, and some had been

disfigured or paralysed from

confinement and abuse. Some

monkeys were missing fingers

and teeth, while others – who

had gone insane from years of intensive confinement – spun

in circles around their cages.

In June 2002, members of the

CPCSEA inspected the dog-

housing facilities of Delhi's

Ranbaxy Laboratories and

found that most of the animals

were suffering from

dermatitis, infectious diseases

and defects that resulted from

inbreeding. At the AIIMS,

primates were housed in old,

rusty cages, and they were

inappropriately grouped for

their social behaviour

patterns. Scientists at AIIMS

have not submitted required

final reports for nearly half of

the 339 projects which they

completed between 1991 and

2000.

. Source: Peta India

.

This is an appeal from Humane Animal Society (HAS) – a registered Animal

Welfare Organization in Coimbatore, to animal lovers all over the world. As

some of you know, we have been very actively involved in several animal

welfare activities in Coimbatore since 2006. More information on HAS and our

activities may be found at www.hasindia.org. Now, HAS needs your help, more

than ever, to continue this work and also to take it to the next level.

HAS is extremely fortunate in having a group of professionals who donate their

time and effort on a purely honorary basis, thus ensuring that every paisa

received by us goes directly into animal work without any of it being eroded by

overheads or administrative expenses. As an animal lover, you have

contributed to our efforts towards animal welfare and thanks to you, we have

been able to save lives, treat illnesses and rehabilitate the injured. We are

writing to you now to ask for your help with one more cause – our permanent

shelter at Kinnathukadavu which will now form the heart of our future

operations.

As many of you know, we have been instrumental in starting and maintaining

the ABC-AR (Animal Birth Control and Anti Rabies) programme in Coimbatore

under MoU with Coimbatore Corporation. Since inception, we have sterilized

over 5000 dogs in the city and are aggressively striving to increase the numbers

further. While the facility provided by the corporation is well equipped, due to

infrastructural, space and operational limitations, we are unable to provide

permanent homes to several injured and abandoned animals as well as to pups

that are so helpless and fragile. The sterility centre at Seeranaickenpalayam is

more than fully utilized just for the ABC programme.

.

The 1.5 acre property that the Trustees have acquired at Kinnathukadavu

(offPollachi Road about 26 Km from Coimbatore city) fulfils a long-felt need for

a permanent shelter for many animals that need a home. Our staff and

volunteers work throughout the year for abandoned animals, dogs that have

nearly been killed in road accidents and victims of serious abuse like donkeys

and horses. We need to care for these animals long-term and hence we need a

place where these animals are safe and well taken care of. At the proposed

shelter at Kinnathukadavu, we plan to put up a few kennels, a dog run, a small

and functional living quarter for the care-takers and basic facility for water and

electricity, the estimated cost of which is approximately 7 Lakhs.

We have come a long way but there’s still a long way to go…

Please offer what you can to

Humane Animal Society

No. 35, Co-operative Colony

Perks Arch Road

Uppilipalayam

Coimbatore 641015

Or send a Cheque / DD in the name of Humane Animal Society

(HAS) and sent to the above address C/o Dr. Mini Vasudevan.

Or transfer online to IDBI Bank, Coimbatore Branch, payable to

Humane Animal Society, Account No: 006104000125635, MICR -

641259002.

HAS is registered under section 12A(a) of the IT act 1961 and granted the status

of Charitable Trust wef 06 April 2006. All donations are tax-exempt under

section 80G of the IT act 1961 wef 06 April 2006.

Heroes of HAS

We thank the following members for their contribution to our shelter at Kinnathukadavu:

1. Trident Pneumatics Pvt Ltd.

2. Renee Comly

3. Alex Mathew

4. Erick Siba

5. Sujith Kanakasabapathy

6. Sweta Jayaram & Sudarshan

7. Karen Nivedita Foundation

8. Coimbatore District Electrical Traders Association

9. Krishna Rao

10. Srinivasan Natarajan

11. Kiran P. Shah

12. Manokaran

13. Mahaveers Charitable Trust

14. Manvinder S. Anand

15. Vastupal

16. Farokh

17. Tarla Malani

18. Hiren Gandhi

19. Crystal Tea

20. Rajesh Radhakrishnan

21. Mahendra Pumps

22. Sapthagiri Borewells

We also want to acknowledge with gratitude the following organizations for

helping us to acquire an ambulance:

People for Animals Coimbatore Rotary Club of Coimbatore Metropolis

We thank the following members for

adopting a homeless pup from our shelter:

Sambath Kumar

Ananth,

S. Devaraj,

N. Selvaraj,

P. Surya Prakash,

R. Sreekanth,

K. Ramkumar

A. Suresh