Stray dogs get comfy winter home in Tibet

Every dog has its day, and the expression is especially true for Marig, a former stray that once prowled the streets of Lhasa but now has a name and a home.

Thanks to the Tibet autonomous region's first stray dog adoption center, which opened in late 2013, 2,000 dogs are no longer subject to hunger or danger during the chilly winter on the Tibetan Plateau.

"We saved Marig from the brink of death," said Dawa, a social worker at the center. "We brewed Tibetan medicine to cure his illness and prepared a single room for him to recover."

Migmar Tsering, an official in the city's government, said stray dogs had become a nuisance for urban transportation and a danger to tourists, which prompted the Lhasa government to invest 8.8 million yuan ($1.45 million) to build the center.

Located some 20 km from Lhasa, the center occupies more than 13,000 square meters of land with 96 kennels and several rooms for weighing food, quarantine, treatment and cremation.

Dawa said the dogs ate nearly 3 metric tons of food in the center's first two weeks of operation. The dog food is Tibetan-style, with tsampa, a local staple made from roasted barley flour, as a special additive.

According to a Tibetan legend, it was dogs that endeavored to bring the seeds of highland barley from a faraway place to ancient Tibetans before local people learned how to grow food.

In addition to three sacks of tsampa and two sacks of dog food each day, Dawa makes two pots of bone broth with vegetables daily as a winter treat for the dogs.

Traditional shelters

Tsamlha, a 68-year-old local woman, murmured to herself as she fed the dogs in Sera Monastery.

"Eat some more, little puppies," she said.

Before the center opened, the responsibility for caring for stray dogs fell mainly on local monasteries, where monks and residents provided them with food.

A Tibetan saying admonishes, "Do not hurt dogs in monasteries, or it will break the heart of the living Buddha."

However, the monasteries' ability to care for strays is limited. While they will still be allowed to shelter stray dogs, the new center will relieve some of the pressure on overburdened monasteries and clean up the city's streets.

"The local government has full respect for religious traditions, and the decision on whether to send dogs to the adoption center is up to each monastery," Migmar Tsering said.

As for street dogs, public security bureaus and city administration offices are in charge of capturing and sending them to the adoption center, where they will be registered and quarantined before being given a kennel.

The center is currently full, but dog owners may go there to retrieve lost dogs. The center also allows for dog adoptions, should anybody want to give a dog a loving home.