Shaggy!
In Uganda, stray dogs are normal, all looking dirty & a bit on the thin side but working together in packs to look after themselves & find food. It has been one of the things I have struggled with a lot since coming to Africa, the way that animals are looked at very differently to what I am used to, & as an animal loving vegetarian, also very differently to my own personal beliefs of how we should care for animals.
I get very angry sometimes here, when I am surrounded by religion, & people who ‘believe’ & yet when I used to go to Sunday School when I was a child I was taught that animals were Gods creatures. Surely if you really do believe in God then you should be respecting Gods creatures, not contributing to their suffering. I am not a religious person, but I have learnt here alot about how people can be religious, but not ‘good’ people. I strive to be a good person, despite not being religious. I think my way is the better way.
There are many ways here that I see animals suffering…….the chicken bike, where about 30 chickens are tied to a motor bike to be transported. Still alive, tied upside down, sometimes their heads dragging on the ground or their bodies being burnt on the pipes. The cattle truck, where they are crammed into a truck so tightly that some fall, some have their limbs trapped & are bleeding or being trampled on, children throwing stones at dogs, kittens being thrown about like toys & like yesterday whilst driving back from the net distribution, 20 live chickens tied to the roof of a minibus as it hurtles 120kms per hour down a bad & bumpy road, or the live pig tied to the rack on the back of a bike again like I saw yesterday. Sometimes being here can be so heartbreaking.
A short while ago I kept seeing a dog as I was driving into town, that just stood out as been so much worse than all the others. He had no fur at all & was obviously suffering from sever mange & he just looked in so much pain & was so thin. Around the same time I learned that there was a USPCA (Uganda Society for the Protection & Care of Animals) in Kampala. I contacted them about the dog & also to volunteer my service to treat any animals that may have some movement problems. They are just a small group of people on a small plot trying desperately to help the animals of Kampala. They have no transport so they asked if I could use my car to transport the dog, of course I agreed.
On the day itself I was nervous about catching him, but despite a few nervous moments we caught him. Bless him, he smelt so bad & he was filthy. He was totally lifeless in the car, just totally weak & surrendered. He was totally lost of any energy. I was so please that now he would be getting treatment. We named him Shaggy. The photos below were taken that day on my phone.
This week I went to see Shaggy again & I was amazed at what I found. Firstly he is white!! When I went up to the pen, he was bright eyed & jumped up at the fence he was so full of energy, I had tears in my eyes. The feeling was amazing & the work they have done in putting him back together is just fantastic! These were the photos I took this week.
