Himalayan Animal Rescue Trust

HART (Himalayan Animal Rescue Trust) is situated in Lakeside, Pokhara, Nepal in the foothills of the Annapurna range of mountains.  Its purpose is to improve the lives of many animals in the region who are defenceless against the cruelties that man and nature inflict on them.  HART uses a mixture of programmes; neutering, education, care in the community, mass vaccination days, campaigning, and others to achieve its goals.  Although HART will do its best to help any distressed animal, the current work is focused on the dogs that live on the streets and whose numbers are regulated by the local authorities on poisoning days.  The status of these animals varies between being owned and cared for by a resident, to being occasionally fed by well wishers, or being completely bereft of human attention.  Finding responsible long term homes for unowned street animals is simply not possible, there are far too many animals and Nepal does not have a pet owning culture.  HART is reducing the number of dogs by a neutering programme, improving their health through vaccination and treatment, and working with the local authority to stop the strychnine poisoning days.  Volunteers are always welcome at HART.  Veterinary skills are particularly useful, but IT, fund raising, teaching, and general assistance are also needed at the centre.  Anyone travelling to Nepal could also be a huge assistance in taking donated medical supplies out from the UK.  There is no reliable postal service and commercial couriers are too expensive to warrant their use.  At the moment Pokhara is going through the last few weeks of the monsoon season and the team is engaged in recounting the numbers of street dogs to monitor the effect of the neutering programme.  Hopefully the numbers will be significantly less but we'll keep you informed.