The Doctor Who Understands Pain…

By Ranee Mohamed

She is a medical doctor and barely has any time to eat.  But Dr. Rukshana de Silva buys 50 kilos of rice every month.

Yes, she knows that too much carbohydrate can cause diabetes, but she also knows that death due to starvation causes unbearable suffering and an immeasurable amount of pain and tears.

“Where are we heading too? I have watched starving animals on the road being knocked down by speeding vehicles, struggle and moan in pain with their eyes open, only to be downed again by another speeding vehicle. What kind of society are we living in? Where is the love? Where is the care? Where are the feelings,” she asks in tears.

A few months ago, a female dog she was feeding was run over — the tyres going over her face and neck. “I rushed to her, the animal which usually came swaying her behind and her tail, with that long grin, was moaning in pain. She was in a pool of blood and as I called out to her ‘kalu, kalu…’ she breathed her last few painful breaths in my arms,” said this doctor in tears.

Dr. Rukshana de Silva recalls with anguish the day she saw some poisoned dogs lined atop each other in a hospital some years ago.

“When a large number of animals die a mysterious death, we know that they have been poisoned, but will these animals ever believe that their ‘best friends’ have poisoned them? How can a so called ‘human being’ administer a poison in food and give it to hungry animals?” asks this doctor.

With her heart in the right place, Dr. Rukshana de Silva is determined to change life for the suffering animals on the road. Right next to her is an engineer who is ‘good with animals’. “A van and a few men will help us get the hungry dogs off the streets. We plan to vaccinate them, treat them, feed them and give them the shelter and care they so badly need,” he said.

“But we need not go and catch dogs, they will come to us,” said Dr. Rukshana de Silva.

However this compassionate team has a problem, they have the heart, they have the determination, they have the drive and they have the manpower, but it is the land that they do not have.

This is a plea. This is a plea on behalf of every suffering animal you see on the road. We see dogs without food on sunny days, we see them with their stomachs sucked in on rainy days. We want to do something for them, but we just cannot get off our vehicles because we are in a hurry.  We see mother dogs in search of food just so that they can rush back to feed their young pups hidden somewhere in this wicked world. No one feeds them.  No one sees the plea in their eyes. The find a shopping bag in the pile of garbage and they pull it away and have a hurried mouthful of rotting refuse. Then they rush back. Sometimes they don’t have anything at all. Whom do they tell? Whom can they ask?

Dr. Rukshana de Silva says that workers in a petrol shed close to the STD clinic and the security officer too helps her in her mission of mercy. “If an animal is knocked down, they telephone me. I have ensured that all these dogs are vaccinated. They are not a threat to society,” said Dr. Rukshana de Silva who speaks glowingly about the Pets V Care Hospital on Staples Street. “When I take animals there, they are very helpful,” said Dr. Rukshana de Silva who spends a great deal of her earnings for the care and treatment of animals in distress.

“There is no such thing as a stray. Strays are created by us. When a female puppy is born, people go and dump it on the road. She grows up and litters and then they become her babies…, babies she is unable to look after,” said Dr. Rukshana.

“Imagine the pain of a mother who has to watch her offspring being run over? I have seen dogs run helter skelter trying to tell someone that her pups have been knocked down. I have seen other dogs watch a fellow mate doing the dance of death having been run over by a speeding vehicle, they all want to tell someone, but no one wants to hear,” said Dr. Rukshana de Silva who went on to observe that no one wants to listen to those who can talk, so who will bother trying to understand what the dumb animals are trying to say……”

“We have to salute President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his ‘no kill’ policy,” pointed out Dr. Rukshana de Silva who is also involved in  changing the gruesome fate of animals condemned to death.

“Some meat-lovers will ask us in alarm, so what are you trying to do? Stop us from eating meat? We want to remind them that as human beings we owe it to the animals to treat them humanely and not kill them in the presence of the others. How will we feel if  our sister, mother, father, or brother is killed in our presence….and we are going to be the next one? How insensitive can we get? We are called human beings becaue a greater degree of understanding is expected of us,” said Dr. Rukshana de Silva.

“Animals are knocked down by buses, vans and cars each day, but what can they do? They also have rights, besides everything else they have a right to live. When the rights of a human being are violated we take the violators to court. Who represents the animals?” asks Dr. Rukshana de Silva, the daughter of Advocate Mahinda de Silva, who was a great animal lover.

“When I was about six years old, my father brought me a gift. It was a plain cardboard box.  I thought it must be a doll. But when I opened it, out popped the little heads of puppies – a brown head, a black and white head, a brown and white head and black heads and brown heads. There were six puppies atop each other. Someone had dumped them on the road, neatly packed in a box — and my father brought the box and gave it  to me. I remember how we got them vaccinated and brought them all up. I felt like a mother duck as they followed me around saying ‘koook, koook’,” recalled Dr. Rukshana de Silva. It is a sound that echoes in her mind. “I will never forget the day I received this cardboard box till the day I die,” said Dr. de Silva.

We all look for compassion in doctors, and Dr. Rukshana de Silva seems to have enough for both humans and animals. Her years of experience and her vast knowledge in her chosen field have not stopped her from pausing to stop and feed a hungry animal.

“The animals I feed follow me around. I am not ashamed. We ought to be ashamed when we do not care for another living being. Look at these animals, these dogs, when we feed them once, they remember. There are so many dogs that I look after near the clinic. When I take them food every evening, they give me a hearty welcome. If  I go to see them without food, the depth of the welcome remains unchanged. The love in their eyes will not change just because my hands are empty,” said Dr. Rukshana De Silva.

Why are you talking about animals when there are so many suffering human beings?

This is one question that you cannot ask. Dr. Rukshana de Silva who  works at present at  the National Hospital’s STD and AIDS control programme, has done more than her share for human beings. A medical doctor by profession, she has spent long years working in various hospitals in the country. She has seen the blood, sweat and tears and her heart bleeds at the memories that are clasped in her mind.
She pays a great tribute to her Director who is also an animal lover. “Compassion is an essential quality — an important quality for every human being,” insists Dr. Rukshana de Silva.

“ I am determined to open this animal shelter. This suffering must stop. We will get the help of certain NGOs to continue to feed and treat the animals. We know of several NGOs  that are doing good work at the moment,” said Dr Rukshana de Silva.

Dr. de Silva and her team of good samaritans are about to give homeless animals a home. Land is hard to come by these days, but where can we take all our land to. We want take it with us when we leave this wicked world. But we can certainly take with us  the joy, the happiness and the comfort of hundreds of animals spared from starvation and a gruesome death.

Giving does not wholly mean giving parties. Giving does not only mean giving alms. Giving will mean more when we give those who cannot ask – those on the throes of anguish each day, and those who escape death by the violent roaring of wheels and the even more violent roaring of the pangs of hunger that threaten to rip the very linings of their being…

(raneemoham@hotmail.com)