Winter 1999 News Bulletin

More Information About IPAN Animal Refuge Veterinary Services Education Animal Conditions Project Reports "Loki" the Indian Elephant and related issues How you can help

In this Newsletter:

• Activities at the IPAN Animal Refuge
• Around Hill View Farm Animal Refuge
• What Visitors and Volunteers are saying

Dear Friends of Animals and Supporters of IPAN,

Thousands of people around the world responded to our appeal to request the Indian authorities to re-engage IPAN's field staff in caring for the severely injured elephant, whom we call "Loki". Our work for this elephant over the past year has depleted our limited financial resources, but we continue to press for him to be given sanctuary and proper care, and for the responsible authorities to be more transparent and open to collaboration to save the last of the elephants in the wild (we have the largest remaining elephant population in India on our doorstep).

We had hoped to send out a full newsletter with photos showing some of our animal treatment successes, and to give you an idea of how essential our Hill View Farm Animal Refuge is. But while we have over a dozen staff there, we cannot afford for our part-time volunteer assistant here in the U.S. to put an elaborate newsletter together and handle all the correspondence. Every cent we raise goes to our various IPAN projects and to running the Animal Refuge.

IPAN Director Deanna Krantz returned to Hill View Farm Animal Refuge this November for another tour of duty. On the way from the airport to the jungle she had field manager Nigel Otter stop the jeep twice to pick up injured animals, arriving with a dog with a broken pelvis cradled in her lap, and a donkey with a broken leg carefully positioned between her luggage (mainly veterinary supplies) with his head in the arms of Thomas, the cook's son.

I wish I could transport you to the Refuge to meet some of the 200 resident animals: "Bingo," a red 'country' dog whose festering leg we amputated after he was attacked by a wild boar; "Shadow," a white dog who dragged himself for over a mile to our gate with a broken back; "Plastic," the village cow on whom we operated and removed some 40 pounds of ingested plastic bags; "Laura," the once emaciated pony with a torn-off hoof who now races around the compound every morning with the 30-some resident dog pack playfully chasing her. And there's "Dean," our first dog whom we saved from the ravages of mange and starvation, who is the pack leader and calls me out to play my flute when I'm there, to which the whole pack sings!!

Then to sit quietly in the evening after an exhausting day treating animals in remote tribal villages and enjoy the quiet presence of the cows and calves in their enclosure, or be with the herd of 80-some donkeys in their enclosure and come to know how curious, gentle and caring these often abused creatures really are.

Deanna is now working with local community leaders on a much-needed cattle population reduction and health improvement project, which will, indirectly, help protect wildlife from disease and competition for food. We've found that when we successfully treat cows and water buffaloes who have been attacked by tigers and panthers, the farmers don't retaliate against these predators as they used to.

Being involved in wildlife and conservation issues is not our primary agenda, since our main concerns are the health and welfare of domestic animals, which includes our dog spay/neuter, vaccination and mange eradication programs, humane education, free veterinary treatment and 24-hour emergency care of cattle, water buffaloes, goats, sheep, ponies, donkeys and the occasional cat. But such involvement is inevitable since we live in the jungle, in one of India's wildest remaining places, and villagers bring us sick, injured and orphaned wildlife for attention, and provide us with in-field information about elephants, tigers, leopards and other wildlife. IPAN is therefore in an almost unique situation, helping both wildlife, domestic animals and the rural poor and tribal peoples. There are many challenges, frustrations, opportunities and successes - over 600 dogs sterilized, 2,000 vaccinated and over 10,000 treatments given to various animals during our 3 years of operation. Our cattle improvement project, aimed at enhancing the welfare of thousands of local scrub cattle and reducing their numbers, has recently been initiated with the support of the local Panchayat (elected regional authorities) and endorsement by village elders. Your financial support to enable us to continue is most urgently needed and sincerely requested.

Dr. Michael W. Fox
IPAN Chief Consultant and Co-Founder

Around Hill View Farm Animal Refuge

Emerging from the night through the mist and low clouds, the Blue Mountains move from indigo into purple as the first peacock cries as dawn breaks and a troop of langur monkeys whoops and barks at the panther slouching home beneath them into cool shadows where the wild boars root, cobras and hyenas pass the day, and a family of elephants walks across sunbeams going down to the river to drink and bathe. The otters are playing upstream from a spotted deer's remains that the wild dogs have just left to the flies, a shy jackal and two hungry dogs from the waking village with its rising smoke as people boil their water and rice, clanging milk churns and calling their cows, a timeless mantra in the rustling stands of bamboo. Along the river, ashimmer with dragonflies, the babble of water and stones becomes the babble of warblers and orioles, in the deep jungle breathing with the seasons, for eons dreaming into life the infinite, the mystery, the beauty and the silence between the pulse of sacred drums as tribals dance into the night in Deanna's donkey corral, and two cow-dogs toast themselves beside the fire.