It only costs $2,700 per month to pay a staff of 12 which includes 2 vets in Dharamsala. And what we know for sure, is that without our staff, we could not save the animals. What would we do without catchers and vets? Many people feel that paying staff is not where they want their money to go. We feel the complete opposite. Most of our staff come from the local villages surrounding DAR and their incomes provide for their extended families. By helping humans, you are helping our animals.
In India, as Covid 19 has shut down most of the country to save its humans, it has worsened the situation for stray dogs. With businesses, hotels, and restaurants not opened or partially opened, their food source is scarce. Our spay/neuter, education, and volunteer programs all had to be put on hold for now, but the rescues keep coming. When this is over we will be behind in our goals. We do not want this time to also result in the worsening of lives for our staff and their families.
By making sure we can financially keep our dedicated staff during this time, we know that we can continue to help the current rescues, and be ready to start our programs up again once the lockdown is lifted. By investing in our staff, we are not only helping the homeless population of animals in Dharamsala, but we are giving income to allow rural families in our community to thrive during desperate times. Economic impact of Covid 19 on humans will have detrimental impact on the animals.
By investing in the community, we are forever changing the outlook on how stray animals are treated. If we can show that we support the economic welfare of the community we work in, we can gain support of new people. It is the best way to help solve the current human/stray conflict.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).