The animal’s attack was relentlessly vicious. Sharp teeth sank fast and deep over and over again, gouging and ripping.
The only way I could stop the puppy from demolishing my shoelace was by picking the little guy up and giving him my finger to gnaw on.
That seemed to satisfy him, for a while at least, but it only incited jealously among his littermates, who were now all squirming around my feet. Altogether, there were six mostly black puppies sharing a pen with almost a dozen other full-grown canines at the PPAWS shelter in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The litter of puppies – so small they looked only weeks old – had been rescued after being abandoned in a ditch. Each bore numerous scabs from wounds or skin conditions, but all seemed healed, full of energy, puppy inquisitiveness and mischief. All they lacked now were permanent homes.
Many of the other dogs in the pen shared similar histories, having been found either abandoned or horribly injured in some way, or both. A few were healthy and suffered from nothing more severe than shyness, but several had more serious problems: One had an ailment that made it difficult for him to control his bowels (and consequently nearly impossible to place in a home), another had a neurological defect that made him walk with an ungainly lurch and a third bore numerous fresh surgical scars from a veterinarian’s efforts to close up deep and dangerous wounds.
The residents of a nearby cat cage seemed, on the whole, to have been luckier, if having been abandoned can in any way be considered lucky. Most of them – with the exception of one white female who was blind – appeared healthy.
Around the corner, however, the story was different. Four cats in separate cages sported various post-operation scars alongside two dogs in a similar state and a semi-sedated Golden Labrador puppy awaiting surgery. Inside the building a fourth dog was isolated to protect the others from the infectious disease he carried.
“Lots of dogs come in with parvovirus and distemper,” said Dr. Kea Neak, the Phnom Penh Animal Welfare Society’s chief veterinarian.
PPAWS is one of at least three centers that help to rescue domestic animals in Cambodia’s capital. The need for them in Cambodia is high. The situation was recently highlighted by a video of the funeral of a 9-year-old girl that was posted on social media. The girl had died of rabies after being bitten by an infected cat and the video sparked widespread panic. Thousands of people not in danger of contracting the disease overran medical centers to demand inoculations and numerous randomly targeted dogs were beaten to death in the streets.
While such a reaction was unwarranted, Cambodians are justified to fear rabies. The country’s Pasteur Institute estimates that 5 million dogs carry the disease. However, while as many as 600,000 people get bitten by dogs every year, most of the guilty animals are uninfected. Nevertheless, from 800 to 1,000 Cambodians die of rabies every year.
The way to deal with disease outbreaks and other animal-related problems – as PPAWS and the other rescue centers point out – is not for people to panic and go on killing sprees, but to prevent transmission with vaccinations and reduce the huge number of stray dogs and cats by spaying and neutering pets.
PPAWS and other rescue centers have been doing just that. Dr. Kea sends medical missions around the country for that purpose.
“After tomorrow we will go to do a free mobile clinic on Koh Rong – charity work to provide free surgery, free vaccinations,” he said during an interview some months ago. “We go every year and they cost a lot of money – at least $1,000 per mission.”
Kea said that to pay for the missions PPAWS raises money in a number of ways: through donations collected both in Cambodia and from abroad and through fees charged for services at the Phnom Penh shelter.
“People who bring animals in, they pay some,” he said. “We get funding from international people, too, but it’s not enough. Sometimes we lose money.”
The money isn’t just needed for the out-of-town missions. The shelter has many expenses. It not only houses stray and injured animals, but arranges adoptions and provides medical treatment, Kea explained as he gave a tour of the facilities: the dog pen, the cat cage, the surgical bay, the exterior post-op recovery ward and the food preparation area.
At that time (October last year) PPAWS housed 16 dogs and as many cats in common quarters, as well as the eight dogs and cats in semi-isolation. Two dogs were in foster care. To care for them all PPAWS had about 15 volunteers and eight paid staff members.
The animals they care for, Kea said, arrive in different ways. He said many are brought in by their owners for treatment and are retrieved later, but others are simply abandoned at the shelter or elsewhere.
“This dog has been adopted from here,” Kea said of a shy but happy bulldog. “Someone dropped him off at a pagoda. He had tick fever.”
The ultimate goal for all the cats and dogs is not for them to stay at PPAWS forever, but to find permanent homes elsewhere. Many such are arranged within Cambodia, but Kea said 10 to 15 animals are placed in homes farther afield every year.
“We send the animals by cargo flights,” he said. “One dog was to go to the USA and a cat is going to Japan. We are sending one cat to Switzerland and one to England. Three months ago we sent two animals to California: one cat and one dog.”
So, beware anyone who visits PPAWS: The puppies won’t just try to eat your shoelaces, they’ll also try to steal your heart.
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