Sri Lanka – a holiday paradise in south-eastern Asia, the promised land for travellers. It is no problem to communicate here in English, the prices are relatively low, the locals are poor, but friendly… However, to dog lovers, apart from the fairy-tale panoramas, it also offers a sad view of four-legged pets without a home, of which there are hundreds of thousands wandering around Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is like an open zoological garden for Europeans, no cages, no pens. This island, that has a warm climate for the whole year, is – apart from other species – inhabited by crocodiles, elephants, monkeys, snakes and bizarre insect vermin that you’d better not meet. Local people are nice to travellers and since they learn English already since their school days, you will be able to communicate with all of them with no complications. Many Sri Lankans are literally fighting for the affection of tourists, since they are the source of their livelihood.
Besides the fact, that you can get a ride on an elephant in Sri Lanka, a common means of transport is a tuk-tuk or the Asian three-wheeler (you only have to take care, that their drivers don’t fool you). When you are taking such a long trip from Europe, it is nice to travel the island on foot. Since Sri Lanka does not offer only long sandy beaches like from a movie, but also mountains, national parks and reserves.
Sri Lanka’s dog roamers
Same as in whole of Asia and in other far-away parts of the world, European tourists encounter many cultural differences in Sri Lanka. Let us, as loyal dog owners, show a specific one on dogs.
Since I have a well-fed dog at home, who daily gets all its care and love, I am always saddened by a look on apathetic dog roamers and generally animals that no one is taking care of. There are many such dogs in Sri Lanka. Some statistics even state a number that is higher than two million. Incredible, right? They are skinny and eat only what they can find – rubbish, to be more precise, and when they can’t find anything to eat, it can happen, that they starve for long days. If you have a dog, then you know, that their stomachs are bottomless. That much sadder is the reality of those who are truly starving.
The inhabitants of Sri Lanka have rather a neutral than warm relation to dogs. It is not common, contrary to Europe, for them to keep dogs as pets. That is rather a privilege of richer classes of the Sri Lankan society. From time to time, the dog roamers will get a bite to eat from the people, but oftentimes, it is mainly the tourist take pity on them. The bewitching and touching dog eyes work on them. In Sri Lanka, you can find homeless dogs on sandy beaches as well as anywhere else in nature or urban development.
During the day, the dogs prefer to rest in the shade. As soon as the temperature starts to drop (and also at night), they set out to look for scraps of food. On some of them, you can see consequences of an injury, since they often move around roads, where they come into the way of the wheels of a tuk-tuk… Neutered dogs in Sri Lanka can be recognized by missing a part of an ear. That’s how they are marked. Since the local government is trying to limit dog overbreeding by neutering them. At the same time, they continuously vaccinate the dogs against rabies.
In conclusion, we can only hope, that the Sri Lankans will gradually find a closer connection to the dogs and they will learn, how great partners they can be.
tradiční dárky pro psy .jpg/30x20/FIT)
tradiční dárky pro psy .jpg/600x400/FIT)
Christmas is coming and it’s the time we are thinking of how we can please our loved ones. Besides family and friends, we should also not forget about our loyal companions that have stood by our side through our highs and lows during the whole year....
In this article, we’ll introduce you to another discipline of Disc Dog – our focus will be on Parallel Time Trial. The most important thing in it is the time within which a dog catches a flying disc. What does this discipline look like, in what...
Coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on the lives of most people. Our travelling has been limited, we started spending most of our time at home – with our furry friends in many cases. However, it has also been a change for them. They suddenly had...
Most of us dream about having a long and happy life, and ways to ensure it have been sought for centuries. Recent scientific studies, however, suggest that the answer has been right before us all along: Our cats, in addition to being nice companions,...
Defence Training is a process in which we try to encourage and develop the predatory instinct. We differentiate between practical and sports defence. In the case of sports defence, the dog is controllable and it isn’t headless stimulation of...
This animal is a wild predator that also likes to just relax on the couch. We are, of course, talking about the American shorthair cat, which can be considered similar to its European counterpart, just on the American continent. What makes this breed...
Wolves belong to the Carnivora order, and the thought of meeting them in the wild scares many of us. It is therefore quite surprising that wolves are very shy and wary animals that will try to avoid human contact at all costs. All the more if the...
Like humans, our pets may experience adverse reactions to some food or ingredients. Whether we give them dry food or raw meat, there is always a risk that the food will not suit our pets, perhaps simply because they cannot digest it. How to recognize...
On our blog, we have already written about dogfrisbee, a sport where dogs catch flying discs. Its advantage is that both the dog and the owner play sports together. Dogfrisbee is also a great sport for its diversity – it includes various disciplines...
Sport cynology is sometimes also called the royal discipline. It is mainly because of its difficulty – very versatile skills are needed for it both from the dog handler as well as the dog. What aspects are the most difficult and what is its...
The Vizsla comes from Hungary where it arrived with nomadic tribes. The written references about this breed can be traced back to 14th century, but it started to be more significant in 18th and 19th centuries, mainly in association with races just...
As well as people, dogs are unique living beings which differ in their nature and in what they like and don’t like. A significant part of it depends on upbringing of course, but owners need to accept some characteristic features of a dog and learn...
