An update from Sri Lanka’s World Animal Day Ambassador
Otara Gunewardene is the founder and CEO of Embark, World Animal Day’s fantastic Ambassador organisation in Sri Lanka.
Since its inception, Embark has successfully rescued, treated, fostered and found new homes for thousands of Sri Lankan stray dogs.
Embark’s mission is to create a society where street dogs and people live in harmony with one another.
Embark’s key activities include:
- sterilization surgeries
- puppy re-homing campaigns, and
- caring for injured stray animals
Each of these activities is supported by a comprehensive and consistent campaign of education.
To date, this has been achieved by raising awareness of the importance of animal welfare, and advocating practical approaches to connecting with stray dogs and communicating the importance of treating these community animals with respect.
Embark have shared an overview of their amazing work throughout 2020…
“Our impact over the past 12 months is as follows:
We have been able to:
- rehome over 567 pups
- provide sterilizations for more than 1356
- vaccinate over 6495 dogs, and
- provide much needed medical treatment for more than 4318 street dogs
Our work keeps increasing every day due to the lack of organized veterinary care for small community animals.
We have also addressed the urgent need for the animal welfare bill to be approved.
Otara and the group of animal welfare advocates who worked tirelessly over the last 10 years, recently participated in a meeting with the key government ministers in order to expedite the matter.
We look forward to a day in the near future where the bill will be approved… a day where all our animals will finally have their legal rights in the country.”