Landing at the Jaipur International Airport after 24 hours of traveling, I was greeted by my smiling hosts, a dog-catching truck, and a short drive through the streets of the Durgapura neighborhood. On our way to the Help in Suffering (HIS) Animal Shelter along busy streets with dogs and cattle roaming and occasionally holding up traffic, Jack Reece, a veterinary surgeon at the shelter, asked me if I’ve ever been somewhere like this. My answer was no, but gosh was I excited to be!

Broad scope

Jaipur, the “Pink City,” is home to an estimated 4.3 million people and tens of thousands of street dogs, many owned companion animals, cattle, goats, horses, and camels, and wild monkeys and birds. In 1980, the HIS Shelter was founded to provide access to veterinary care for the countless animals in need around the city. Today, the shelter and its programs have grown tremendously in scope, boasting an Animal Birth Control (ABC) and Rabies Control Program, a veterinary clinic with diagnostic lab that sees any species you can imagine, a traveling Camel Welfare Project and sister Camel Rescue Center in Bassi, as well as training programs for veterinary students and newly graduated veterinary surgeons. The shelter’s medical team and volunteers see dozens of cases every day, all while taking care of the many resident animals and their needs. 

 High impact

Working closely with Dr. Sanjay Singh and Reece, most of my experience was spent at the ABC clinic where roaming dogs are caught every morning and brought in for vaccination and sterilization surgeries, as well as any other procedures or treatments they need. The program has run near-continuously since 1996 and has sterilized and vaccinated over 95,000 dogs and vaccinated an 69,000 dogs to date. Through their efforts, human rabies cases within the program area have approached zero, human dog-bite rates have fallen, and the roaming dog population has stable while the city continues to grow year over year. With over 50 annual human rabies cases from around Rajasthan typically seen at the local government hospital, this drop within the program’s area of the city marks a significant improvement in public health. Rabies is a fatal disease, and adults and children can be exposed through animal bites, including dog bites, in areas of the world where the virus is endemic. Through vaccination efforts and reducing whelping-associated aggression via sterilization, the team has significantly reduced the risk of roaming dogs in Jaipur contracting rabies and transmitting it to the people of the city. With the help and guidance of the entire team, I performed and in many spay and neuter procedures to further the program’s mission, helped in managing the medical care and post-op assessment of the dogs, and spent a morning learning how the staff catches and releases the dogs brought to the shelter.

High-tech tracking

My arrival at the shelter coincided with the ABC program’s biannual street survey, a six-day-long process where groups leave in the early morning and walk predetermined routes around the city counting every roaming dog they see. Surveys are repeated every spring and fall, and the data is used to estimate population size and percentage of spayed females, important parameters for measuring the impact of the program. I was thrilled to join the shelter staff on these early morning treks as it gave me a fantastic opportunity to see every corner of the city. The team and I were also able to trial implementation of a digital system for tracking dog sightings using the Talea app from the International Companion Animal Management (ICAM) Coalition which can track the exact path taken through the city and precise locations of sightings. This new data can be used to compare even more granular change in dog populations over time and assist in focusing dog- catching efforts to the most impactful geographic areas. The new digital system also opens the door for tracking dog populations in new regions of the city in a systematic and repeatable way.

Caring for camels

A highlight of the trip was getting to work with Dr. Abhinav Swami of the Camel Welfare Project. He and his team travel long distances to surrounding towns and cities where camels are used as draft animals. Often, the owners of the camels make a humble living and don’t have access to veterinary care, allowing minor problems to go untreated and progress into conditions that are much more difficult to treat. Swami and his team regularly treat conditions like foot abscesses, saddle wounds, and skin and intestinal parasites for free. They also improve welfare by providing softer plastic nose pegs to replace the typical hard metal or wooden ones that can cause injury, supplying vitamins and supplements for the camels’ feed, and installing light reflectors on camel carts to reduce the risk of automotive accidents which can harm both people and camels. 

 A meaningful journey

Traveling to the HIS shelter was a profound experience and I am grateful for the CVM (College of Veterinary Medicine) Expanding Horizons International Education Program for funding the project. Learning and practicing shelter medicine internationally is something I thought would never be possible for me, but the positive memories and incredible connections I’ve formed while in Jaipur have motivated me to continue a pursuit of international veterinary work in the future. Being able to expand access to veterinary care for those in need, at home and abroad, is a deeply rewarding mission and one I will strive to carry out throughout my career. The work done at the HIS shelter is unimaginably valuable and I extend my gratitude and respect to all the staff and volunteers who make important things happen every day. I’d also like to thank Dr. Khagesh Singla, Dr. Monika Prajapat, Dr. Gauri Yashi, Dr. Sanjay and Jack Reece for welcoming me with open arms and making my stay in Jaipur fun, memorable, and full of good food.

Vladimir Mazur is a fourth-year veterinary student at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biochemistry from Hunter College in 2020. He is interested in pursuing small animal emergency and shelter medicine after graduation with goals of expanding access to affordable veterinary care and improving the health and welfare of stray animals.

If you’d like to learn more about the HIS Shelter’s mission and projects, you can find more information at www.helpinsuffering.org. The shelter offers an externship program for clinical year veterinary students internationally. Contact jack@his-india.in if interested.