Collateral damage of increased traffic

Thimphu (Kuensel/ANN) - No one keeps a count of how many die or are left to die.

But the increasing number of vehicles in the city has been driving dogs and cats to their graves, if records with the veterinary hospital in Chubachu are any indicator.

Since January this year, the veterinary hospital in Chubachu has treated 64 dogs and 26 cats that were injured by motor vehicles in Thimphu.

This means about 11 animals (dogs, cats or both) are injured or fatally penalised for being on the roads by cars every month.

"We send them back after treating and don't know how many of them survive," chief veterinary officer Dr Kinley Dorji said. "And this number is only going to increase as the number of cars in the city grows."

The victims are both stray and pets, he said, and are brought to the hospital usually by drivers of cars that hit them.

Until September 7 this year, the hospital has registered 665 dogs and cats as pets in Thimphu.

Recently, a truck driver brought a critically injured dog he had run over to the hospital. "Its abdomen had ruptured and it took a us a long time to stitch up," Dr Kinley Dorji said.

A few weeks ago, a puppy, which was also run over by a car, received treatment but did not survive.

"His body was still warm when I picked him up from the seat," the driver, who happens to love dogs, said. The puppy was given a water burial.

There are 402 cats and 707 dogs in Thimphu, according to the 2009 livestock statistics.

As the cars move outside the city, it's the cattle they hit and, while the cars move on, these animals suffer for about a month and eventually die, said Aum Tshiteem of Jangsa Animal Saving Trust.

"We rushed to help a calf that was hit by a car near Babesa, but we couldn't get to him because of the traffic jam that day," Aum Tshiteem said.

Jangsa has rescued and is taking care of about 1,000 animals, mostly bulls, cows, yaks, and pigs.

Aum Tshiteem said they are working with Thimphu municipality to move the animals to another shelter in Tsirang.

"We plead with drivers to drive carefully," she said. "Please understand that the pain the animals feel when hit by a car is no different than what humans feel," she said.

There are about 31,000 cars registered in Thimphu today and a cattle population of about 4,600.