One perhaps surprising area to volunteer in is with stray dogs abroad. Relax, they tend to be friendlier than stray dogs at home! I’ve dealt with stray dogs in two countries now – India and Turkey – and have had excellent experiences.

Vets Beyond Borders is one organization that utilizes the help of self-supporting volunteers for different programs in India and South-east Asia, and also has links to many other local organizations. They collect strays, neuter (and usually vaccinate against rabies as well) them and after they’ve recovered, set them free. Other organizations doing similar work include Welfare of Stray Dogs in Mumbai, SHKD and EHDKD in Istanbul and FHDD in Fethiye, Turkey.

For a whole host of reasons, many countries outside North America and Western Europe have a large number of stray dogs. Causes including cultural beliefs about keeping animals in homes, the presence of garbage on the streets that the dogs eat and live on, and the ability of dogs to reproduce like, well, rabbits. The scale is too large for the dogs to be taken into shelters and even if they were, adoption is not common enough to provide homes for all of them.

Governments in many of these countries have used a variety of methods to deal with strays, including mass poisoning or other killing campaigns – which just do not work. Issues of humanity aside, they just can’t catch and kill all of the dogs. When or if they do succeed in killing a lot of animals in one area, this just makes it easier for others from neighboring areas to move in. Plenty of people support these programs out of concern for the welfare of the animals; opponents may say these programs put animals before people but the reality is that the killing programs are both inhumane and ineffective in the long run.

Again, issues of humanity aside, stray dogs are a nuisance to people because they may bite or fight or run in the road and cause accidents. Neutered dogs are often less territorial (and accordingly less aggressive) and obviously don’t reproduce, which is a longer term solution.

Short term volunteers who have found their own temporary accommodation can help by assisting with the dogs before and after the surgery (catching them, making sure they don’t injure themselves while groggy, cleaning), recording “intake” information like weight, etc. or sterilizing instruments (I’ve done this myself… there’s a bit of blood but not much). Experience dealing with animals is helpful, but often you don’t need special skills to help out. If you’re a vet or a vet tech, you can obviously do more.