British vet sets off from Point Pedro on a 620 km run for Sri Lanka's street dogs

British veterinary surgeon Dr. Janey Lowes set off from Point Pedro on Friday on a 620 km run to Dondra, the length of the island, to raise money for veterinary facilities for Sri Lanka’s street dogs, the Daily FT reported.

The 22-day challenge, called “The Dog Jog”, routes through Anuradhapura, Kandy and Horton Plains. The distance is close to 15 marathons — more than a half marathon a day, in heat, humidity and hill country.

What the money is for

Lowes is aiming to raise $2 million towards a purpose-built veterinary hospital, a rehabilitation centre and a veterinary training centre.

The two clinical facilities are expected to let WECare treat around 3,000 additional animals a year. The training centre is the wider bet: the charity plans practical training, workshops and continuing professional development for more than 200 veterinary professionals annually, and hopes to help establish Sri Lanka’s first nationally recognised veterinary nursing qualification.

Twelve years

Lowes first visited Sri Lanka in 2014, returned months later and founded WECare Worldwide. What was meant to be a one-year project became her career. The charity runs free treatment for street dogs from a base in the south, along with community neutering and vaccination through a catch-neuter-vaccinate-release programme, and says it has carried out tens of thousands of rabies vaccinations and neuterings.

WECare estimates around three million dogs live on Sri Lanka’s streets.

“For almost 12 years, Sri Lanka has been my home and its street dogs have been my life,” Lowes said. “Our current hospital is constantly at capacity.” She said the aim was to share skills so that “the impact can reach dogs in communities far beyond the area we can physically cover ourselves.”

She was candid about the running. “I hadn’t run since school before I started training for this,” she said. “I’m suffering so that street dogs don’t have to.”

Not reported

The report does not say how much has been raised so far, where the new facilities would be built, or when construction might begin.