Avis Lyons, 65, is an initiator of Animal Rescue, in Kerala (India). Presently, she has put up in Thiruvananthapuram and has decided to live here permanently as she has sold her property in England. Not only has she given shelter to wounded animals but has also sterilized and vaccinated numerous dogs and other animals. Scroll down to take a glimpse of her life as well as her work of rendering refuge to the poor animals,
1. You sold your own home in England for financing your altruistic work here in India, how far did the Indian government support you for your stand?
Avis: ARK (Animal Rescue Kerala) has Memorandums of Understanding signed by the local Panchayaths of Vizinjam and Venganoor , and we have had just over 2 lakhs in total from the Animal Welfare Board of India, but apart from that we have had no governmental support whatsoever.
2. You might have faced certain challenges in the region, especially from the Municipal Corporation, how did you cope up with those?
Avis: On many occasions with great difficulty. When the mayor of Trivandrum asked in August 2006 if we could teach Corporation staff how to implement the ABC (Animal Birth Control) program we were happy to help. To later discover that they had used the skills we had taught them to kill thousands of dogs, many of which were our sterilized dogs, I was devastated. If it wasn’t for the dogs I would have left long ago, they give me the strength and courage to continue.
3. Could you please tell us something about the Animal Birth Control program?
Avis: The program has been scientifically proven to be the only way of efficiently -and humanely- reducing the dog population.
Dogs are systematically collected, from one area at a time, and are sterilized and vaccinated against Rabies. At the same time we put a tattoo in one ear (for identification), and a v shaped nick (for identifying previously sterilized dogs from a distance). We have records kept for each animal that enters into our care, and their tattoo number and location of capture are recorded. Every animal is released to the exact location it was captured. This is extremely important as dogs are territorial, they need to go back to their territory in order to find food, but also they will stop other dogs from entering their territory, so once all the dogs in an area are sterilized/vaccinated it then becomes a stable population, no other dogs are allowed in, no puppies are born and the area becomes rabies-free (the panchayaths that we have been working in for the last 5 years are completely rabies free).
We also sterilize male dogs this makes the dog much more placid so the dogs are less likely to fight amongst themselves.
In areas where there is no ABC program, when the female dogs come into heat, the male dogs wander in packs and fight amongst themselves.
Killing doesn’t work as when you kill dogs other dogs take up the vacant territories. It is usually the friendly community dogs that are the first to be caught, and in their place come more nervous who maybe not so friendly. Where there is organic waste there will be animals looking for food. If there are no dogs there will be rats instead.
4. Critics postulate that there is an escalating graph of poverty in the country which does not allow a workable atmosphere to help the stray dogs. What do you have to say in this regard?
Avis: It is not a people v/s dog situation. The ABC program is important for both humans and our canine friends. Over the course of time the ABC program reduces the dog population so that you end up with a steady population of friendly community dogs as opposed to packs of roaming hounds. The ABC program, done as it is intended, in a systematic way, is the only way of eradicating rabies in the dog population.
5. What do you have to say about animals laws under the Indian administration?
Avis: The animal welfare laws of India are great, but they are very often not implemented and particularly not in Kerala.
6. How far have you reached in achieving your goals?
Avis: I came here when I reached the age of 60. I intended to sterilize the dogs in the Kovalam area and to stay for about 3 years. I have achieved this, but find I am unable to leave as there is so much cruelty and so many animals needing our care.
7. Where do you see yourself, let’s say, five years from now?
Avis: If would like to say that I would be retired and taking things easy, however as long as I am fit and healthy I honestly cannot see me leaving the Centre. The animals are my life.
8. Would you like to leave some message to our readers?
Avis: I believe that the world would be such a better place if everybody did their little bit to try and improve the planet and to help people or animals in need instead, unfortunately it seems to be left to a few people to do a lot.
Please try and do just a little act of kindness each day.
9. Finally, we would like to have your thoughts on the Instablogs News Network and all its related sites. Which one is your favorite?
Avis: Of course I will have to say the pets section.
Before signing off, I’d like to thank Avis for sparing out time for this wonderful interview and also to Odette, her daughter, for arranging responses. Furthermore, I’d like to wish both of them luck for all their future endeavors.
