On 11 June, more than a hundred dogs, tied in sacks atop a dcm truck – disoriented, injured, traumatized and suffocating to death – was dumped below the road at Gaiguri i.e. 13 kilometers from Phuentsholing along the highway towards Thimphu. If this isn’t the defination of callous, selfish, cruel and outright evil – we don’t know what is!
A local woman who lives in this area – disturbed by the stench of dead animals nearby – saw the dumped dogs in the morning of 12 June, and reported it to the local authorities in Phuentsholing.
The local also informed Jangsa on 14th June of the harrowing sight of the stench of about 20 dead dogs in sacks, and about more than 80 injured. sick, disoriented, traumatized and aggressive dogs lost in the wilderness.
When Jangsa staff members reported the event to Lama Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche – the founder of Jangsa – Rinpoche remarked: “How can Bhutanese do such inauspicious acts in the most auspicious Fire Monkey Year that commemorates many auspicious and momentous events: the birth of Guru Padmasambhava that occurs in the Fire Monkey year only once in 60 years; the auspicious birth of His Royal Majesty the Gyalsey – another Dharma King to upholdand uplift our collective destiny. How can any Bhutanese accumulate such a heavy negative karma for our Dharma Kingdom?”
Lama Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche instructed the staff members to immediately conduct a fact finding and rescue mission. A team immediately departed from Thimphu to the location where the dogs were reported.
The Jangsa team conducted enquiries with all the locals in all the townships and villages along the Thimphu-Phuentsholing highway, including the checkpoints along the way. For some sinster reason – nobody seems to know about the dcm truck number or the driver (from whom Jangsa could gather further leads) or who or which agency or community was responsible for this outrageous cruelty. Not only is this event sad, cruel and inauspicious – the sinster ploy to deny the role of any person, leader or agency is even more harrowing and bodes ill for the coming future ahead.
The poor dogs were discovered in atrocious conditions. 20 dead, almost all weak from the journey, severely injured, and many had now turned aggressive due to the harrowing experience of near-death and death of other dogs.
It is uplifting to note that many locals had come forward to take care of some of the dogs wandering around. In collaboration with them, Jangsa undertook a mass feeding campaign all along the highway, approaching the dogs with caution and care.
Jangsa was able to rescue about 20 puppies that had survived and tend to the many injured and sick – most of whom will be moved to the Jangsa Animal Shelter in Serbithang, Thimphu – that provides food, water and medical care to the dogs and other animals there.
Jangsa is now looking to see many possibilities of long term rehabilitation, food and care of the dogs, in partnerships with locals. The fact that Jangsa does not know where the dogs were apprehended from makes the task of relocating the dogs impossible for the moment.
From the perspective of modern civility – this is an outright case of Animal Cruelty against which most civilized nations have legislations. From a spiritual perspective – to harm any animal and particularly dogs is a very heavy negative karma – not only for the individual committing the act but for the whole nation.
Most importantly, to ensure that such a cruel act – anonymously or openly- is not repeated in the sacred Dharma Kingdom of Bhutan, Jangsa appeals to all individuals, communities, agencies and all others, who have the auspicious destiny of our kingdom at heart – to lend a voice, a hand, and to come together to prevent such atrocious and cruel act from ever repeating itself in our sacred land.
May our collective destiny – shaped by our individual and collective karma – be auspicious, may our Dharma kings live long and may our Dharma Kingdom enjoy an auspicious present and future ahead.
It is all in our hands!!!
