By Kamanthi Wickramasinghe 

A whole lot of pawsomeness awaits visitors at the Colombo City Centre this weekend as Tails of Freedom and Little Island Sanctuary are getting ready to bring an awareness programme based on animal rescue and welfare in Sri Lanka. The event aims to improve people’s knowledge about various breeds of dogs through a range of interactive activities, games and insights from several speakers who will join the event to share their experiences adopting various dog breeds. 

Speaking to the Daily Mirror Life, Shilpa Samaratunge, Founder – Tails of Freedom and Little Island Sanctuary, said that what they have experienced over the past 7-8 years is that a lot of people’s choices affect what’s happening to animals. Tails of Freedom provides a safe and loving environment for many rescue dogs who have been given up by their owners.

“Most animals we get are senior animals, and they get thrown out when they can’t reproduce anymore. The reason is mostly age, and most people are reluctant to adopt an animal if they are senior. We have a few people who have adopted senior animals from us coming to share their experiences at the event. There is one lady who adopted a senior dog because she’s older, and it was good for her to have someone walking at her pace, easy for her to look after and an animal in terms of size, etc. But we rarely have people opening up about their lifestyle and why they want to adopt a senior animal,” she said. 

According to Samaratunge, a person’s lifestyle is a key factor to consider when adopting a dog. “Sometimes people who live in apartments would adopt a dog, and then they go and purchase beagle puppies, thinking that the dog is small and it would be alright. But they don’t think enough about their lifestyles, and also realise the fact that this is a hunting dog and that it needs a lot of running space. We talk about the breeding aspects and about responsible pet ownership because that is one of the reasons why we are getting these animals. Outside of the breeders, there are many people who don’t understand how to make the right choices when choosing an animal. As a result, they can’t look after them and eventually they surrender them,” she explained.

She further explained that street dogs have evolved mostly by accident. However, in the case of breeds, they have been bred to do certain jobs. Drawing a few examples, she said that beagles, for instance, need to exercise, and if they don’t get their exercise, they would become frustrated and start wrecking things at home. German shepherds are dogs that are bred for protection, and so they would bark a lot. “But people see it incorrectly. So people need to be prepared for different behaviours and traits when they adopt certain breeds of dogs because those traits are in-built,” she added. 

The upcoming event is the first of its kind, which aims to bridge the widening knowledge gap around adopting dogs of various breeds. She advised people to research various breeds before choosing to adopt puppies just because they are cute. “When we get rescues and re-home them, we look for large garden spaces, dogs need to be taken on regular walks and so on. Some dogs, such as pugs, develop medical issues as they get older. This is the same with American bullies. A lot of young boys buy them, and when they get rashes and these young owners can’t handle it. But if you read up on the breed, they are predisposed to certain genetic problems also. When we first started in 2018, every month we would get 2-3 rescues. Now every day we get requests for about 2-3 dogs, which we can’t even take in. So it’s all this information we want to get out to the public through videos, information panels, public talks, games and other activities,” she said in conclusion, while inviting the public to visit the event and gain some knowledge about rescue animals, breeding, pet ownership and so on.

The event will be held on September 27 and 28 at the Colombo City Centre from 10.00 am to 10.00 pm.