On December 4th, 2010, the Commissioner of Anantapur Municipal Corporation organised a meeting at our cattle hospital.
Recently, Karuna Society received 36 street roaming cows from Anantapur the largest town in the district. Karuna immediately provided these cows with medical treatment, fodder and shelter. One of these cows died suddenly and the postmortem showed it was caused by plastic ingestion of 40kg. The Karuna Board members held a series of discussions with the Commissioner resulting in this important meeting.
Emergency surgery was performed in presence of the cattle owners to show how much their cattle suffer when they let them walk free in the streets to feed on garbage in town instead of natural feed.
- Sedated cow being prepared
Two cows were operated on. One cow had 42 kgs of plastic removed while the other had 32 kgs taken from its stomach. Each operation took approximately 2 hours. Unfortunately, the first cow died two days later despite the best efforts of the Karuna staff. It already had been in a weakened state for too long before the surgery.
On the day of the event, the Municipal Environmental Engineer, the Sanitary Inspector, the President of the Puttaparthi Gram Panchayath as well as regional cattle owners were invited to witness two such operations. The media was also invited to film and report this news to raise public awareness. Reporters from seven media channels and all district newspapers attended.
After the event, the Commissioner showed the footage of the operations to all district officers. A decision was then made that from March 1st, 2011, plastic will be banned all over Anantapur District. In addition, they decided that Karuna’s cattle hospital would be the best place to operate on cows that are suffering from plastic ingestion as the necessary facilities and inpatient care is available.
In all big and small cities in India, cows are often let loose on the streets to scavenge in garbage and to save the cost of natural feed and grass. There are an enormous number of plastic bags in the street garbage. Many contain leftover food that attracts the cows to eat them. These polythene bags are stuck in the cow’s first stomach (Rumen). These plastics cannot be digested but accumulate over time resulting in a slow death as the cows are not able to ruminate with proper grass and feed. There is no space left in the rumen to start natural digestion. They only survive on the waste food; they slowly starve to death. In addition, the poor animals are in constant pain. Calves born from affected cows are small in size due to lack of food and space caused by packed rumen plastics. As much as 65 kgs of plastic has been removed from one cow’s stomach during a life-saving operation performed at Karuna’s cattle hospital.
- Local anesthetic is given
- Incision being made at cow’s stomach
Unfortunately, the owners of the street cattle roaming the streets are not real farmers. This is a most abusive business for the animals. Many are bought from farmers at the cattle
market for very little money. The new “owner” simply leaves them on the road to fend for themselves. They mark the animals as theirproperty. Whenever it suits them and the animal “looks fat”, they sell them off for a lot of money to an unsuspected real farmer or for slaughter.
When the farmer feeds natural feed and grass, the animal dies from indigestion and so the farmer and the cow are both victims of a cruel and immoral practice.If we think only about Anantapur town there are still hundreds or more cattle left on the roads. They are sentenced to a slow cruel death. This is a cruelty most people are not aware off, when they see the animals walking in the street. Think about the big cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, how many animals are suffering.
Plastic bags being removed from stomach
Up to March 1, 2011, seven rumenotomies have been performed. For three animals the surgery was too late to save their lives. Four are doing well and are under observation. For some time we will continue the surgeries every Saturday.
UPDATED NEWS
First operated cow that did not make it
April 1, 2011. Out of the thirty rumenotomy operations, to remove plastic bags from the cow’s stomach, that were performed on the stray cattle from Anantapur, as of April 1, 2011, four animals died before we could do the surgery and four died after the surgery and couldn’t be saved because our help came too late. At least their suffering came to an end.
The other twenty-two are doing really well. Some were young calves, when operated on, had 30 kg of plastic bags removed. Another cow delivered a healthy calf on February 13th, a few weeks after the surgery.
Second operated cow that is doing really well
Due to the kind and compassionate actions of Phillip Wollen of the Kindness Trust, his donations have covered the cost of operating on 100 cows. The commissioner of Anantapur, after seeing the video of the suffering that these roaming cows go through has started the clean up of Anantapur Town with the intention of making changes throughout the whole district. He has ordered the removal of all garbage bins and collections are now done door to door and taken to the municipal garbage dump where they will be building a concrete wall around the dump to stop the animals from scavenging. He has also organised a group of ladies that go door to door educating the public about the destruction caused to animals and the environment.
Thanks to our video the commissioner understands the plight of the animals. He took the decision NOT to auction the cows, roaming the town as happened in other places. He said it would not solve anything as the same people who buy these animals are the ones who put new ones on the road so will be sending Karuna a new load shortly. These animals are given to us in permanent custody. He is also interested in the result of our surgeries as over time, he hopes that we can show the difference in the stomachs, less plastic. Finally, no surgeries should be necessary!!!! There are other towns where the anti- plastic campaign has been successful, like Kurnool, but Anantapur is the first town where the plight of the animals is now part of the policy.
TREATMENT AND CARE PROTOCOL
Following is the rumenotomy report till date from our Veterinary Surgeons. April 9, 2011
RECEIVED: 46 animals.
- Death before operation 4. all caused by plastic ingestion.(PM)
- Nr of operations; 36.
- After surgery 6 death, 28 recovered.
- To do; 8,
- One cow delivered her calf safely some time after the surgery.
TREATMENT
- A combination of antibiotics is required for post operative care; enrofloxacin and streptopeniciline for at least one week.
- Along with antibiotics we give pro-biotic to reestablish the rumen flora and Ayurvedic rumen stimulants for speedy recovery.
- Daily dressing of the wound with anti septic solution and fly repellent.
- Recovery time is between one and two weeks.
FEEDING REGIME
- Before surgery we feed food waste from canteens and vegetable peelings to resemble the previous food habit eaten from the streets. This is necessary to prevent digestive complications.
- Weaker animals receive fluids along with vitamins before surgery and if needed also after surgery.
POST OPERATION
- Only natural grasses should be fed.
- NO FEED MIX SHOULD BE GIVEN, to avoid gas accumulation.
- When the animal starts chewing peacefully, the surgery will most probably prove successful.
SYMPTOMS for plastic ingestion:
- Grinding of the teeth, hardness of the rumen, diarrhea, less food intake.
DECIDING FACTORS for surgery;
- Intensity of the symptoms. For some animals help is too late, they cannot withstand the surgery. They die just before or after surgery.
COMPLICATIONS
- In some animals we found that the wall of the rumen was already protruded by nails causing an infection of the peritoneum. Recovery will be complicated or impossible.
PROFESSIONAL/ETHICAL POINTS
- Milking cows should be accompanied by their calves. (no separation, too much stress for both).
