Our Camel Welfare Programme helps the poorest village communities, which have no access to veterinary services for their working camels. If a sick camel cannot work at the brick kiln or cart goods over long distances under a burning sun and alongside speeding vehicles, its owner will not earn his daily wage.
Camels are used to pull carts in and around Jaipur. They are mostly owned by poor families, living on the fringes with hardly any veterinary services available to them locally. We set up the Help in Suffering Camel Welfare Project in 2001 with the support of volunteer veterinary surgeons Richard and Emma Morris to address these problems. We now have two units — in Jaipur and Bassi — to treat and admit camels in both urban and rural areas. Nose peg wounds, nasty road accidents, and poor, uneducated owners are the main challenges that we face.
JAIPUR CAMEL PROJECT
Based at the Help in Suffering hospital, the Jaipur Camel Project tends to the welfare and veterinary needs of the working camels across the city. The team treats sick and injured camels, educates owners on good husbandry, and fixes reflectors to carts to reduce the risk of night-time road accidents. Emergency visits are also made across the city whenever required. The Project treats over 250 camels during routine visits and may attend 15-20 emergency cases every month. Occasionally, injured camels requiring daily treatment are admitted to the HIS hospital in Jaipur.
With a specially designed mobile clinic, the camel team visits areas where camel owners commonly gather for work. It also sets up camp at Jaisalmer and at the Pushkar Camel Fair once in a year to cater to the veterinary needs of camels there.
CAMEL RESCUE CENTRE, BASSI
In 2011, we set up HIS Camel Rescue Centre (CRC), Jaipur’s first dedicated camel treatment centre, in the village of Bassi 30 kms from the city with funds from the ELSU Foundation (Switzerland) because we realized at the start of the Camel Welfare Project that the Jaipur camel unit was not fully equipped to treat the draught camels working in rural areas, especially around brick kilns, and in transporting goods to the city.
It has the facility to admit camels for treatment, and to provide them long-term care under a resident veterinary surgeon and support staff. The CRC team also operates a mobile clinic to provide veterinary care and advice to camel owners in a large number of villages around Bassi. Between 250–350 animals are treated every month.
CRC, Bassi has expanded its work to include treatment of all types of animals in nearby areas, and has been equipped, with help from supporters in Australia, with an ambulance with hydraulic lift to allow for easier and more welfare-friendly rescue of sick and injured camels and other large animals.
Our camel welfare work is funded by the Marchig Animal Welfare Trust (Scotland), SPANA (UK and Australia), Susanna Wachtl (ELSU, Switzerland), Animal Aid Abroad Inc. (Australia), and Aspi Rusi Sattha.
