Rescue and Managing Street Animals in Nepal

Dear Supporter, 

Since the earthquake that devastated Nepal earlier this year, the Himalayan Animal Rescue Trust (HART) has been busy attending to a number of cases of wounded and distressed animals. Here is the account of one such case from the Sindupalchowk District. 

In the village of Kuli we came across a farmer, Damodar, looking for help for his badly wounded buffalo. Buffaloes are of high value to farmers in Nepal as they are the traditional providers of milk, meat, hides, manure, draft power and also reserve capital for farming families.  Damadar had already lost one of his buffalo to the earthquake. It was trapped for 12 days before they were able to dig it out, and it died on the 15th day. So he was desperate to help this animal.

On our first visit, we observed that both front legs were fractured and the right leg bone was exposed. Damodar had applied herbal medicine and a splint, but he had no access to any pain medication for the wounded animal. Our vets applied a plaster of paris cast to both legs and gave the farmer antibiotics, pain relief and food supplements to administer to the animal. We left Damodar with advice on keeping the cast dry and what bedding to give the buffalo. 

On the second visit the owner reported to us that the right leg's cast had come off and that he had reapplied a herbal cast. We observed that the right leg had become swollen and hot with an infection. We reapplied the plaster cast and gave the animal pain an antibiotic injection and pain relief as well as giving Damodar a top up of medicine to administer. We were pleased to note that Damodar had gone to great lengths to make improvements to the animal's living conditions and had taken our advice about the bedding. He wants to nurse the buffalo back to health and refused euthanase. 

The third visit to the farm has not given us much hope. The left leg does look more stable, but healing is very slow. The more severely injured right leg is very unstable. Still Damodar persists, he has built a new shed and has followed the treatment course. We have applied a fiberglass cast to the right leg and reset the cast on the left leg and left him with more antibiotics. 

Damodar's story is very typical, he is unfortunately not alone in this huge misfortune, although the care that he has shown for his buffalo is outstanding. His father and brother both live and work away from home in Hetauda and Kathmandu respectively, so Damodar and his mother run the farm between them. They have already lost one buffalo, and sadly, we are not convinced that this animal will survive.

We will have to return to assess the health of the animal agian, as Damodar won't give up hope, so neither will we!

Thank you for your generous and ongoing support. 

With Gratitude

GVI Nepal and HART

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