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Megan, selected from The Bark

Saving the Dogs of Bali

posted by Megan, selected from The Bark Nov 1, 2009 1:20 pm
filed under: Dogs, Pets, Safety, The Bark, , ,

By Twig Mowatt, The Bark

On a steamy June morning, employees of the Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA) are engaged in one of the most rewarding parts of the job: delivering puppies to an enthusiastic group of new owners -all sixth-graders- in the town of Ubud. The students have completed a course in animal welfare, making them eligible to participate in the second annual Bali Dog Idol contest to see who takes the best care of a family pet. Last year, 18 students completed the six-month challenge, which required them to answer questions about responsible dog ownership and strut their pup in front of a live audience. The event proved to be such a success that this year BAWA, the sponsor, has increased the number of contestants to fifty.

“I’m so excited,” says 10-year-old Dayu Bintang, after selecting a female puppy from the BAWA van. “My family is going to help me take care of it. It’s our first pet.”

Though the young girl has never before shared her home with a dog, she knows that many stray dogs roam the streets. In fact, two forage through trash near her as she holds her new puppy. If the power of education and the joys of pet companionship work their magic as hoped, then it’s not just this one puppy who will benefit from the Idol experience. Bintang and her family may also begin to look more kindly on the dogs outside.

“Education is by far the most important program and the one I care most about because it’s the only hope for lasting change,” says California native Janice Girardi, who founded BAWA in 2007 after doing years of her own animal rescue work following her move to Bali to start a jewelry business. “But it’s the program that I end up giving the least amount of attention to because the other problems are so much more pressing.”

Most pressing by far is the excruciating balancing act that requires Girardi to weigh the importance of preventing dogs from being born against preventing dogs from being killed. That is, does she direct BAWA’s limited resources into the spay-and-neuter effort that stops endless litters from being born and then dying on the streets, or does she put her effort into a massive rabies vaccination campaign to save dogs from being killed by strychnine under the government’s elimination approach to rabies control?

Next: Life for animals living in Bali

More on Dogs (38 articles available)
More from Megan, selected from The Bark (11 articles available)

15 comments

15 comments

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15 comments add your comment
Adam R.
  • Adam R. says
  • Nov 14, 2009 4:43 AM

How I could help the dogs in Bali my first thought was why don’t the Balinese like dogs? Since then I’ve found that they have a very strong respect for all living things, good or bad, as they believe everything has a right to be in this world.

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Peter R.

The heart of a good human being is not very hard when it comes to money. The reason is, that a person trying to help animals is most of the time running out of money.
These persons are commonly no millionaires or rich peoples.
Saving animals from deathrows,donations, buying food for shelters etc..
It breaks every time my heart saying no, but my own animals need food, too. Rent will be paid. Sorry, I give every month what I can.
My heart is not hard, especially not with poor animals.

Jerilyn C.

I'm glad to see that these animals are getting the help they need. Thank you.
Jerilyn Capaccione

Ammy G.

I live in Singapore and just visited Indonesia 2 weeks ago. The state of poverty - even in the bigger cities - is appalling. People swarm the streets when the traffic lights turn red and go from car to car trying to sell items like bottled water and other cheap goods, or use boxes as begging bowls and ask for cash outright. In the rural areas, they stand in the centre of the road with butterfly nets, hoping passing motorists will drop some money into them. And these are able-bodied young folks doing the begging, not old or disabled people, mind you. The income disparity between the rich and poor is extremely great.

Until the greater issues of corruption and poor governmentation are addressed, it will be hard to see any genuine, long-term change. This country still has a long way to go.

Paula Powers

I applaud BAWA for the work they are doing in Bali-I wish that more people around the world would emulate this effort then there would be no overbreeding of pet animals and those that do live would be cared for in loving homes. It breaks my heart to see feral dogs and cats anywhere-their lives are short and pitiful-all it takes is caring, spaying and neutering your own pets and encouraging your friends and neighbors to do the same-using Trap Neuter Return for cats and feral dogs and soon enough the feral animals will be under control. The goal of course is to have no feral pets at all-that the shelters will be empty of unwanted pets and that every pet has a good and loving home-here as in other countries it will take time and unless people are educated into proper treatment of animals and breeders are limited to how many litters they may have in a year, puppy mills shut down, all cats neutered except for the few of each breed that are shown and the purebred kittens sold to loving homes where one of the conditions of sale is that the kitten is neutered if it is not going to be shown-same for dogs-that would help the unwanted pet problem.

Sandy H.

I avoided reading this article yesteday when I first saw the title because I expected it to be depressing, but instead I am uplifted and inspired by this woman's activism!

Anja N.

For one month I travelled in South East Asia and met only one Chinese woman who cared for several cats. The others, no matter of their cultural or religious background showed any concern. I have seen dogs eat news paper because they where starving. No spay & neuter programs; it was heart breaking.
Hats off to BAWA - great work; great program; great children!

Nan B.
  • Nan B. says
  • Nov 2, 2009 4:15 PM

These wonderful children may be what it takes around the world to make this difference for our wonderful animals......

Lydia L.

I applaud the positive efforts - children taking pride in caregiving is truly something we need more of. Without taking away at all from this proud accomplishment, I would like to stress that it is important that resources such as time and money go to hungry and hurting children first, before they go to hungry and hurting dogs. Bless all of you for working to make the world a better place.

Stephanie S.

I just got back from Bali and it was so sad to see the condition so many dogs and cats were in. This program sounds like a good one. A good spay and neuter program would be greatly beneficial. The animals looked like they were in great need of food other than what they could scounge.

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