Balla

Dogs are everywhere in Sri Lanka. I mean absolutely everywhere. Entire litters of puppies grow into adulthood continuing to live in family of origin groups. These dogs belong to nobody. They "live" at dustbins. Dustbins are concrete structures about the town where household rubbish is placed by villagers. These dustbins are the dog's food tray. They are garbage dogs and eat leftover rice, curry, bones and vegetable scraps they find within the bags thrown into the dustbin.

When throwing our household trash up over the concrete wall, there if often an answering yelp as the trash bag lands on a dog scavenging inside the dust bin. Hopeful dogs, patient and cowering, wait for humans to deposit their trash in the bin. Once we turn our back, they leap onto the bag to extract any nourishment they can from our scraps. As we do little cooking, the best they can find is poopy toilet paper (another story). We have seen dogs licking up human vomit and other animal excrement. They are very hungry.

Humane societies and sterilization for animals are non-existent here. Older female dogs' nipples drag on the ground, indicative of the number of litters (and lovers) they have had in their lifetime. Hardly a day goes by when you are not witness to balla copulation: on the streets, on hospital grounds, and on the main street of town. They are not that discriminatory about the whereabouts of such activity, nor do they seem to require privacy.

All dogs have mange or lice or something equivalent. Whatever the medical name, the condition leaves them berserk with an itch. The only recourse they have from the torture is to bite at their fur and skin. Many, many dogs are completely hairless, not due, in any part to their breed, but in response to the hideous torture of the itch. All dogs are at least in the state of semi nudity and often, the self biting, leaves them bleeding and sore. We were instructed in our VSO training to NEVER touch a dog and now we know why.

Baby pups scuttle about the town, scavenging for scraps and competing with adult dogs for bits of food. The other day, in the pouring rain, I saw a bitty little brown and white dog with a curly pig tail and wet messy hair, scuttling along in search of food, like a forlorn orphan.

In addition, and maybe even more hard to stomach, are the sheer number of dogs with broken or injured legs. Hardly a dog around doesn't limp; many are three legged. They have a fourth leg, but they cannot use it due to some injury, so they hop about on three legs. The worst thing we saw was a dog with a broken hip trying to run. It was hideous to see and one can only imagine the pain suffered.

We have yet to figure this out. Is it the because of the Buddhist culture that does not believe in the taking of life, of any kind? Or is this lack of help for dogs a result of the Muslim culture who view dogs as "ritually unclean". Also, is it possible that the Hinduism concept of reincarnation has fated these dogs? Or is it simply that people are so focused on taking care of people, they just have no time, energy or money to take care of dogs? I don't know, but what I do know is that dogs here are not having the "Life of Riley" like most privileged dogs do at home in Canada.

Picture, but not pretty.