The Ramingining Aboriginal Dog Program

The Abolitionist speaks with Anne Celan.

Anne Celan is a white woman who has great compassion for the Aboringinal Communities of Arnheim Land, NT. The Voiceless Grant Program provided a grant to start up a de-sexing program in Ramingining (pop: 900) to then be extended out to other indigenous communities over time. The situation with the Camp dogs in these communities is complex but Anne made headway where others had never dared to go before. Claudette Vaughan spoke with this amazing woman recently.

Abolitionist: Please can we begin with a brief history of the Ramingining Community?

Anne Celan: Ramingining is a remote indigenous community in northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory . Because of the wet season we are cut off by road for 4-5 months of the year and travel for the remaining months is by light plane. Ramingining has a population of around 6-700 permanent residents dependent on whether people are moving about to other communities or homelands for reasons such as visiting, ceremony or funerals.

The dog population was in desperate need of help long before I arrived. There were approximately 450 dogs in a town of approx 70 houses. Some houses had as many as 10-20 dogs, all in appalling condition. Abuse as well as neglect of dogs was common however there are complex factors involved when trying to understand the extent of the cruelty. Unfortunately because of such huge numbers of dogs, the aboriginal people resort to keeping the dogs submissive through physical abuse.

If there are 15 dogs at your house and you have little kids running around, you can't have the dogs being aggressive and assertive. So to keep the dogs under control they constantly kick them, throw objects at them, hit them with clumps of wood, brooms or star picket posts and worse still, throw boiling water over them. Dogs are particularly at risk of such abuses when attempting to take food cooking on campfires or entering houses in search of something to eat. As a result of the constant kicking, the majority of dogs on communities have broken bones that result in a limp and/or deformed legs or hips. Without a specific dog program, the dogs are never treated for intestinal parasites, fleas and ticks, or vaccinated against fatal viruses. They spend their entire lives lying in the dirt and scratching. Many have open sores, scabies and skin disease and are commonly called leather dogs because they have absolutely no hair. And critically, because they are not desexed, the cycle of misery continues.

The neglect like the abuse, takes many forms, indigenous people constantly move about to other communities for ceremony, funerals and visiting family. Distressingly they can be gone for weeks, often months and their dogs are left at the house to fend for themselves. I fed the 9 dogs next door to me when they were abandoned for 4 months last year. In addition some dogs who are brought here by visitors, are also often abandoned and left here.

Although the abuse is widespread and accepted on indigenous communities, it is an horrific thing to witness if you are a white person from mainstream. Dogs on communities aren't companion animals as we consider them and the role dogs have in western culture is alien to indigenous people. The suffering of dogs in many indigenous communities remains so dreadful it would shock all Australians if they were aware of the situation. When tackling the problem of what to do, I had to understand that camp dogs, as they are called on communities and outstations, aren't companion animals and I couldn't portray all my ideas of how animals should be treated upon indigenous people.

Camp dogs were traditionally kept for hunting and to protect the people and campsite from other tribes. When people moved into town away from their homelands and outstations, there was naturally less hunting done, so the dogs literally began starving to death, which was also hastened by illness, ticks, parasites and injuries sustained not only from people but also from the packs of dogs competing for such a

A Poor Pup - Ramingining

Some readers may think there is some exaggeration or embellishment of the details outlined above, but to the contrary far worse abuse and neglect occurs than what I have outlined.

Operations

Ramingining has recently completed two years of an extremely successful dog management and welfare program that was desperately needed and initiated by me at the start of 2004. After my first 2 years in Ramingining, many things had escalated and I knew the time had come to try to initiate, through consultation, some form of program to address the cruelty and neglect of the excessive dog population here. I had seen several dogs ripped apart by other dogs because they are pack dogs. Once one is badly injured and weakened in a fight, then the rest of the pack all rip into him. It's a horrific thing to see. Litters of puppies literally died by the week. There would be 10 puppies one week and then a fortnight later the majority had died, some from viruses or injuries, but predominantly from starvation. The whelping bitches had no milk because they too were starving and of course this is a shocking circumstance to constantly live with.

When I first started the program I was told by the white people in the community and by several indigenous people that I would never be able to touch a single dog. This was because in the past the history of dog control on many aboriginal communities often meant the arrival of strangers, usually contractors, sometimes even police who just shot the dogs without any consultation with the indigenous owners of the

A Wounded Dog - Ramingining

As a consequence of the previous horrendous action taken towards their dogs, most indigenous people now just shut down and understandably will not discuss any further action directed against their dogs. When discussion arose concerning the dogs, the indigenous people were no longer willing to listen or trust anybody to do the right thing.

The way to carry out programs on indigenous communities is to try and consult and plan with the people so that they are a part of the decision-making. I had been in Ramingining community for 2 years before I began consulting with the people and asking them what we could do together to address the problem of too many dogs. I asked the people if they perceived there was a problem rather than just myself, a white person, saying, “ I think there is a problem and I'm going to do this about it.” Instead I asked them what they thought. I began by speaking to all the families I knew, just sitting under the trees after school or at night. We discussed the dog problem and they agreed that something had to be done. They said they couldn't control the dogs and they were scared for their children. Their dogs were sick and they thought they were getting sick from the dogs. They told me that in the past dogs had been shot, not so much here, but they had heard stories of other places and they never wanted that to happen again. They asked what help they could get and I explained that there were things that could be done and that we could choose a vet that was going to work in a way that they would like him to. I probably sat with the indigenous people for 2-3 months, discussing the problems associated with our excessive dog population with as many as possible. We talked about a plan of action that they were happy with, so that everyone understood what was happening and what we planned to do. We talked about ‘operations' as they called desexing, ‘killing' as they called euthanasing and medication for intestinal parasites, ticks, scabies, etc I started ringing around to see which vets would be prepared to come to remote Ramingining, the costs etc.

I knew that there has always been a problem in the past with funding. For funding projects concerning the community, it's often up to the Town Clerk/CEO and that's usually a white chap and if he doesn't hold animals' welfare as a priority there's no money available. In the two years before I began the program, I was met with continuing opposition and an unwillingness to allocate any money towards a dog program, from

Before program an old dog died from ticks

In the past there had been some funding for inconsistent, haphazard and ineffective visits from a veterinarian. A vet would drive in with an environmental health officer from Gove, sometimes for only a day which was useless. What effective action can you take with 450 dogs in 24 or 48 hours? The vet would only have time to throw out Ivomectin in food for the dogs, which is an all-wormer and is also fantastic for treating skin problems and restoring healthy hair. Although it is an excellent product, they were only reaching 5-10% of the dog population and the dogs weren't being de-sexed which was what the community needed most of all.

Even though I was consulting with the people about the dog program everything was moving very slowly, but it always does on indigenous communities and you just have to be patient. It gathered momentum as it went along and everybody heard about it. I spoke often to the indigenous Chairman of the Ramingining Council who was keen to get something done. The Chairman acknowledged that he was worried for people's safety. The dogs were extremely territorial and running in packs. They were biting nurses and teachers on their way to work and these incidents had been reported to the Council. Several children had also been bitten and every one knew it was only a matter of time until a child could be badly injured or even killed in an attack. The dogs were chasing and getting hit by cars, barking all night and when a female was on heat there would be up to 30 male dogs trying to mount her. Because we probably had 200 female dogs, the fighting and the scrapping would go on all night, every night. Female dogs were being literally dragged along still knotted to a male dog while the next lot were fighting to mount her. The fighting was intense and the sound of the screaming females was just so distressing.

The many problems created by an excessive dog population were also having a huge social impact on the community. Teaching and nursing staff were leaving because they were finding it impossible to sleep and because they didn't feel safe walking anywhere and most found the suffering of the dogs too much to endure.

The indigenous Chairman invited me to a meeting of the Ramingining Council and asked me to put forward a proposal to members on what could be done about the situation. Disappointingly but not surprisingly, the current non indigenous CEO at the time told the Chairman there was no money for a dog program. However I had discussed this probable outcome

Burns Victim

Some money was allocated but I told the Chairman that I would apply for grants from other organisations in addition to money from the Ramingining Council to cover the cost of a vet coming for 3-4 day visits, three times in the first year. We received funding from the school at which I work, ALPA (Arnhem Land Progress Association) an indigenous owned shop, the only shop in Ramingining and further funding came from ATSIC through the Ramingining Homelands Centre.

After many months of planning and hard work, Peter Trembath, a veterinarian from Katherine and his assistant visited Ramingining community and outstations in March 2004 to carry out the first of many visits over the following 2 years. The first visit was planned to make a positive, pro-active and immediate impact on our problem of the seriously excessive dog population. He knew that we had to de-sex as many dogs as possible because we weren't going to make any sort of impact unless we did. He was also very realistic about what we could achieve with indigenous people until they built up trust in the program. He fund that when he tried to approach the dog owners without me

He was in his own words ‘met with sullen silence.' Peter's subsequent visits have maintained de-sexing as a priority and as he built up the trust of the people the results have been sensational. In the Ramingining town community and on it's surrounding outstations, we have now desexed 205 dogs, 120 castrates and 85 spays. We have euthanased 101 terminally ill, injured or dangerous dogs, all humanely and if not strays,

Boiling Water Burns

We have halved the number of dogs in Ramingining and on the outstations so that the surviving dogs now have some quality of life. Owners are identifying better with their dogs with the numbers reduced and consequently there is less incidence of abuse. With 98% of female dogs now desexed, thousands of puppies are no longer born each year only to die in tragic circumstance and the females no longer have to endure their previous brutal existence. Likewise desexed males are fighting less and are therefore healthier and happier.

Peter has been a major strength of the program because of his commitment, dedication and his effective and pro-active approach. Pete was the subject of the “The Flying Vet,” an ABC series screened about 6 years ago. It was a great advantage that Pete is also a pilot and can fly into our and other remote communities. Pete and I have formed a successful team, living here I was in the position to carry out all the liaising and speaking with the indigenous people and Pete was the practitioner, a skillful surgeon who didn't lose a single dog from all the dogs that were de-sexed. This is all the more remarkable because Pete carried out all the operations on the back of the council ute. We couldn't set up a central or more appropriate area to operate on the dogs because 98% of the indigenous people of Ramingining could not catch their dogs! As soon as they called their dogs, the dogs bolted having learnt that any attention is negative and usually results in abuse. Thus Pete had to tranquilise the dogs with a dart gun, which was very much a task requiring the utmost precision because the dogs, spooked, always ran off into the bush or under houses, both before they were darted and again after being darted. When Australian Geographic came to do a story about the dog program they commented that they were absolutely amazed that given the difficulty and time-consuming task of darting every dog, that we were able to desex any dogs!

At the end of the first year I needed to apply for further funding to continue the program. Naturally for the program to remain effective it has to be continuous and ongoing with a minimum of 2 visits a year, preferably three. I applied to the marvelous animal welfare organisation called VOICELESS for a grant, in their inaugural year. Our dog program was most fortunate to be one of the ten recipients of a grant

Dog Fight Injuries

Abolitionist: Why were some dogs euthanased through the Program?

Anne Celan: The chronic ill health of the dogs that were euthanased were a result of any one, or a combination of the following reasons.

The major cause of a desperately weakened dog is chronic malnutrition. Added to this the camp dogs might also be suffering from any one or more of the plethora of things that mainstream dogs also die of. Because there is no vet on hand to call upon, such illnesses and injuries can escalate and become life threatening. Then there are the ticks which have a huge impact on the dog's health, dogs can literally have all the life sucked out of them by hundreds and hundreds of ticks. I come from Melbourne so had never seen the extent to which ticks could invade a dog. The masses of ticks resemble ‘cauliflowers' across their heads and faces, between their toes and especially in their ears because the moist ear canal is the ideal environment for ticks. While dogs are under an anaesthetic and Pete is operating, I de-tick them to give them the opportunity for better health. It is nothing to take out 30,40, 50 ticks out of one ear of a dog alone and the ticks are all full of blood.

Many of the dogs also had inoperable venereal disease, which was spread from the males to the bitches, when mating was rampant and ongoing. The male dogs had grossly enlarged penises that bled and the bitches open, weeping, fleshy tumors on their bottoms. I don't know how these dogs survived as long as they did. Fortunately as of March this year, we have now euthanased all the dogs with venereal disease.

A bitch with VD

Another common cause of ill health for camp dogs and ultimately death, when combined with any of the above is ongoing, chronic intestinal worm infestation. The dogs stomachs become so extended with worms that they resemble a pregnant bitch.

A Stomach full of worms

Last but not least, dogs are frequently hit by cars, either when they are chasing them, or while sleeping under them or on the roads as all camp dogs love to do and dogs on outstations are often taken by crocodiles.

Before coming to Ramingining, my background as a animal advocate was voluntary work at an animal shelter in Melbourne . I helped out at the Australian Animal Protection Society in Keysborough, working towards saving dogs lives. During that time I was part of a team committed to re-homing all dogs where possible. However when I got to Ramingining I had never seen suffering on such a massive scale.

I witnessed dogs taking 2, 3 or 4 days to die. They would generally crawl under a house or retreat into the nearby bush to die but it was not uncommon to see dead dogs lying on the road. Some dogs had become vicious and were living alone and in drains.

All the dogs we euthanased went peacefully while sedated, which was in vast contrast to their violent lives. Not a single dog was shot. The dogs never suffered and remember that many of these dogs had lived an abusive life but their deaths were peaceful. I blessed each one of them and preferred to bury them in a pit dug for that purpose, rather than to scatter them in the bush for the crows to eat. Looking from a practical viewpoint, the latter option was probably considered more environmentally sound, however although a pit was not ideal, I believe the dogs deserved to be buried with at least some attempt at dignity.

Abolitionist: This is not documented by the mainstream media at all Anne.

Anne Celan: I didn't know there was suffering on such a great scale happening in rural and remote communities when I was living in Melbourne . I've been to Asia and what I saw there I thought could never happen in Australia – in our own indigenous communities. When aboriginal people lived traditionally they had large numbers of dogs but they hunted and there

Leather Dog

Traditionally the aboriginal camp dogs had companionship by sitting around the camp fires and they weren't abused as they are today. The worst incidents of cruelty that I've seen on indigenous communities is the practice of throwing boiling water over dogs and of course a lot of them never survive that. It is a frightful thing to see a dog's back covered in ulcers, scabs, sores, puss and flies as a result of being burnt. I've cared for many of these burns victims with antibiotics and ointments but they are left with frightful scarring and some have died. The sustained sound of a dog screaming as a result of being burnt is one I will never forget.

One of the wonderful things about our Dog Program is the animal welfare education program we introduced at school. Educating the community about cruelty and how best to care for dogs was one of the critical criteria I had to meet in order to receive the funding from VOICELESS. We were able to reach many women in the community who spend time at school, especially the pre-school. We extended the

Meals on Wheels

Whenever I'd ask an Aboriginal person “Why do you have dogs?” They always answer, “because they keep bad spirits away and they stop people from coming and stealing stuff from us…” So really these dogs have become only guard dogs, not companions. Some of the old aboriginal men and woman value companion dogs and these dogs return the care by being very protective.

Consultation with the community works

I will relate an amazing story of an elderly lady here – a much-loved lady amongst her family – who had dementia. The family had a very large Great Dane who was brought here by white people a long, time ago. Simon, the Great Dane and the elderly lady were great companions and loved one another. Tragically one morning she was awake early and had lit a fire herself. She was wearing a long flowing skirt which aboriginal woman wear and it was made of a flammable fabric. She wandered away from the fire carrying a stick which was alight. Her skirt caught fire and the first people to hear her screaming were the white nurses from the clinic. When they tried to rescue her, Simon alarmed by her screaming tried to protect her and prevented the nurses from assisting her. He just would not let people through to help the woman – white people in particular and unfortunately her family were still asleep. Simon became more and more frantic and it wasn't until the screaming and Simon's barking woke the family, that they could help the old lady. Tragically by then her clothes were totally alight and she received major burns to most of her body and although she was evacuated immediately to hospital, very sadly she died several days later in hospital.

About 6 weeks later her body was flown back to Ramingining and Simon knew. He may have picked up the vibe from the family with their mourning and wailing but when the coffin arrived at the house he went straight to the coffin and started howling. There's no doubting that Simon knew. It's just the most extraordinary story. When they took the body into the house which they do on aboriginal communities, he stood guarding the coffin for over a week and when the coffin was buried he continued to howl.

Abolitionist: Tell us more about the Dog Program Anne.

Anne Celan: The Ramingining Dog Program has been successful because effective and immediate management has been our priority from the outset. In order for a maximum impact, the vet started with an emphasis on castrating as many males as possible because a castrate is a much quicker procedure than a spay and it cuts back on aggressive males hunting for bitches. In the early visits we also spayed as many

A Starving Bitch

Seeing as the indigenous people of our community had made the decision to de-sex their dogs we passed a regulation at Council that all non-indigenous staff coming to work in Ram and wanting to bring their dogs, must have their dogs de-sexed before arrival.

It has also been made very clear that non indigenous people who take in a camp dog/dogs to feed and care for, must take the dog with them or make arrangements for someone remaining here to take over the care when they leave. We have had many incidences where folk have gone off and left the dog/dogs behind and they have been attacked by the remaining dogs. Happily in contrast, many non indigenous people have lovingly adopted dogs themselves or found homes outside the community for them. These lucky dogs become devoted companions, are usually full of personality and wisely never look back!!

A Pack of Dogs - Ramingining

It has been very rewarding to involve the school students in the dog program. The primary kids take turns working with the vet and gain so much from the experience. Their help is invaluable, they assist in translating when we visit houses to ask what assistance people need with their dogs, they climb under houses, chase the darted dogs vast distances into the bush and run through 8 feet tall spear grass to locate where the sedated dogs eventually drop, not an easy job!

Many now have a better understanding of dogs and of how to treat them. They alert me to sick or burnt dogs and the fact that they now ask me to help the dogs, is a wonderful break through. Not so long ago, on arrival at school one morning, I was met by a contingent of young students holding a burnt puppy of only 3-4 months. I took the pup to the pre- school where we cleaned him up and talked about the cruelty and pain of burning dogs. A teacher from Melbourne who was here for a term, took him into her classroom to continue involving the students in his recovery and she ended up taking him back to Melbourne.

Importantly there is a need to speak with the owners following surgery to their dogs because few have any experience with an operation and most don't understand or don't care about any ‘post-op' care. Following surgery the dogs are carried from the ute to the verandahs, however many don't want their dogs put there because they started with a great fear of the medicines and blood. We have to point out that if the dogs are left lying on the ground they are at risk from cars pulling up, the hot sun and being eaten by ants. We also tell the kids not to tease and poke them with sticks while they are recovering from an anaesthetic and after. We explain that they will be thirsty and need water, I always find some sort of container and leave water near the dog.

To avoid panic and misunder-standing, for those owners who do care, we explain the dogs may vomit. It is a fantastic thing to go to some outstations where many indigenous folk look after their dogs. Following operations on their dogs we have seen them laying down sheets or tarpaulins on the ground for the dogs to lie on and even carrying them back to their verandahs on a sheet in a wheelbarrow!!

Ticks taken from a pup's ear

Visitors to Ramingining- staff from health, education and local government, anthropologists, politicians, tradesmen, contractors, pilots etc all comment constantly on the marvelous condition of the dogs in Ramingining and praise the success of our program. They say it is so wonderful to see compared with dogs suffering on other communities.

I keep records of the work carried out at each house and update it following each visit from the vet.

Pete makes a visible cut in the ear of every dog he de-sexes, because this way it can be identified from a distance. This eliminates time wasted in the future trying to catch dogs again to determine if they have been de-sexed. There is no point putting a tattoo inside an ear if we can't catch the dogs!!

I ask the indigenous Council Chairman or Vice Chairman to announce impending veterinarian visits over the loud speakers so that everyone remains informed. (loud speakers are our usual way of reaching a wide audience.)

Between vet visits I continue the administering of worm and tick control, sprays and oral treatments for healthy skin and some vaccinations. It is a big and time consuming job, but a labour of love and needs to be ongoing otherwise the health of the dogs quickly deteriorates, especially in the conditions of the tropics. I keep anti-biotics, painkillers for serious accidents and ‘the green dream' to euthanase critically ill dogs suffering as a result of being attacked by a pack or hit by a car.

Peter Trembath and Kathy Hamilton with the 200th Desexed Dog

Abolitionist: If you had a Wish List what would that be?

Anne Celan: For an effective dog management program to be mandatory on all indigenous communities, whether they be remote, attached to cattle stations, on the outskirts of towns or on islands off the mainland. Not just in the NT but right across Australia . Most importantly for the programs to be on-going and carried out at least twice, ideally three times a year. And as explained above, the need for indigenous people to be consulted about the care of their dogs and hopefully for them to take on more active roles within the programs so there is a feeling of ownership, responsibility and pride in their dogs.