Hi all, it’s JoTong here again.
Yesterday, together with Uncle Wong, we had a very important mission; something which we had been struggling to do for quite some time now (to be more precise, it’s been more than a year!). It was a case of whether we wanted to do it the hard way or the easy way.
There were four very difficult-to-catch female dogs whom Uncle Wong have been trying to catch using the trapping cage. He had previously successfully caught two of them initially but one of the mamas escaped before Uncle Wong could close the door of the cage (and this same thing happened not once, but TWICE!). Another mama was caught but Uncle Wong was almost attacked by the mama’s kids (it’s the first time we saw this scenario, kids protecting their mama fiercely). So Uncle Wong had no choice but to let go of the mama for his own safety. Another mama was way too smart and she always seemed to be able to smell something fishy when we were setting up cages or traps or whatsoever to catch her. She would never let herself be enticed with any food that we put to lure her. She would rather go on a hunger strike for a few days. The last mama was the one of the sisters from the Recycle Mamas’ group that we have been targeting since two years ago.
Why did I say “the hard way” or “the easy way”?
Well, the hard way means we continue with trapping, luring, trapping and the cycle repeats until we successfully catch the mama.
And the easy way is to use the darting method (I thought so, but in reality it is not so easy, after all).
After discussing with Uncle Wong for more than four months (actually he did not agree to using the darting service as it is an extra burden to us financially) but I told him we had to give the darting method a try as we had been trying almost two years to catch these four super difficult mamas and each time we saw them get pregnant, delivered, the puppies died and this scenario goes on repeatedly….
However, just like durian runtuh, we are so grateful to receive food aid from AnimalCare last week and we managed to save up a big portion of our money to spend on other expenditure especially on the rice for the dogs. Therefore, I coaxed Uncle Wong to try the darting method for these four dogs. I’m relieved that he finally agreed because if Uncle Wong is not around to help during the darting, there is no way I can do the searching, carrying of cages and most importantly carrying the unconscious dogs (after they have been darted).
In order to protect the identify of the darter, I will not be sharing the photos of the darter in action. But I would very much like to share with our readers and rescuers who have been following AnimalCare’s blog that the darting method definitely is not an easy way as it thought to be. This method requires a lot of hard work too as we need to locate the dogs, entice them with food (hoping they will come out to eat), show their photo to the darter (as he needs to know the exact dogs to dart), once the dog ias successfully darted, we have to block all possible escape routes like the big drains, narrow alleys, etc. to prevent the dog from hiding in these places as we will have difficulty to locate and bring the dogs out once they are inside. Once darted, the dog will still be in a conscious state for about 6-8 minutes before they fall into an unconscious state. But they will wake up in a semi-conscious state after around half an hour or so, meaning we have only that time to search for the dog and put them into the cage before they start running away again (this really gets us into an adrenaline rush 😅).
In today’s mission, the duties assigned to me by the darter are pointing the dog to the darter while he is waiting with his dart inside his car nearby, luring the dog with food, walking away so that the target dog will continue eating, once the darting is successful, I have to follow the dog closely (without chasing, running or making any loud noise that could scare the dog) as the dog may not realize that she has been darted. Then I need to keep a close eyes on her until she falls unconscious and then we have to quickly carry her and put her into the cage. The 1st and 2nd dogs were quite an easy job for us. But for the 3rd dog, she dashed into the big drain after she was darted, I literally had to run faster than her and jump into the drain to block her from going deep into the drain. When she saw me in front of her, she turned back and ran towards a small hole which opens into a huge field (picture of the hole shown as below) and this is the dog hole where Uncle Wong crawled through into the field to search for the mama as she would be unconscious for less than 6 minutes. After searching for almost 10 minutes, Uncle Wong found her still in a semi-conscious state. Maybe she was too strong and the medicine had little effect on her. So Uncle Wong had to use a net to catch her in between the narrow alley and transfer her out from the small hole opening. This was another obstacle for us. But al last with much sweat and effort, we successfully secured her in the cage.
Then came to mama No. 4 where after being darted in between the narrow alley of the piping, she ran to hide underneath a container. We wait near the container quietly and let her sleep. Then we had to pull her out from under the container.
I then sent two of the more aggressive mamas to the vet’s immediately and at the vet’s, one of the mamas suddenly woke up and almost attacked the vet assistant at his neck (Phew! That was so close.). I already warned and reminded him that the dog is aggressive and we need to take extra precaution when transferring her from one cage to another cage.
Two things we learnt from yesterday mission:
Firstly, there is never an “easy way” when it comes to catching a stray.
Secondly, never underestimate a dog who looks like he or she is in an unconscious state. We still need to be extra cautious every time in handling the dogs.
Safety first!
This is the hole that Uncle Wong had to crawl through to get over to the other side to locate the darted dog.
Two of the unconscious dogs on the way to the vet’s to be eventually neutered.
One street dog neutered, hundreds and thousands saved from being born.