ABOUT ANIMAL NEPAL

At Animal Nepal we call ourselves ‘A voice for the voiceless’. That’s not an easy ideal to live up to, especially in a country like Nepal. While our ancestors lived in close harmony with nature and maintained strict rules about killing and eating animals, Nepal, like any other country, nowadays witnesses large scale animal exploitation and abuse. Despite all this, our voice is getting stronger.

Animal Nepal started out by speaking up for the suffering dogs of Kathmandu valley and the exploitation of elephants for tourism in Terai. We then discovered and intervened against the mistreatment of donkeys, mules and horses in brick factories. For seven long years, with the support of our international friends, we gave a voice to rhesus monkeys, which were bred for lab tests in the USA. We protested against ‘diplomatic wildlife gifting’ by the government and a new law regulating wildlife breeding. We spoke for the animals killed at Gadhimai festival, for dogs poisoned by local governments, for individual animals at the zoo, for dancing bears, holy cows, in fact for any animal which deserves a Voice.

And we keep voicing our concerns. We protest against the loss of greenery in our cities, the destruction of our forests and animals at Nijgadh and other parts of the country, the ongoing abuse of cows and elephants. We lobby for new legislation which provides legal protection for the animals. We campaign for humane conditions for livestock. We promote vegetarianism and right living. When needed we act as the elephant in the room, let the cat out of the bag and watch new developments like a hawk.

But we are more than just a voice. We practice what we preach and are not afraid to act. That is why we have been running successful programs for dogs, equines and livestock, focusing on permanent solutions through education, improving conditions and birth control. We built a sanctuary for discarded equines, a treatment center for dogs and plan to expand one of our centers as an education hub. We expanded our working area beyond Lalitpur, to districts such as Gorkha, Dhading, Banke and Lumbini.

I would like to invite you to join our movement for animals. You too can raise your voice, so that our collective voice becomes a strong one. We need to be heard in our neighborhoods, Singha Durbar, across the nation and abroad. No animal in Nepal should remain voiceless. It is up to us to stand up and speak out.