About Nepal Street Animal Rescue

HILLARY KLOETZLI
Founder - Nepal Street Animal Rescue
Donor Relations, Board Member, US Based Partner- Sneha's Care

Snehacare.com/donate-now

The idea for Nepal Street Animal Rescue was born in 2003 when a young American woman, Hillary Kloetzli, traveled to Kathmandu, Nepal to work as a volunteer teacher for three months. During that time, she discovered a stray dog problem of staggering proportions, but could find no existing facilities that were up to the task of solving the problem.

Upon returning to her home in Portland, Oregon, she began researching the most effective ways to control the stray animal population. She discovered the best answer to the problem would be to build a comprehensive animal care and adoption facility that would implement the World Health Organization’s proven ABC Animal Birth Control and Anti-Rabies Program.

Armed with information and blessed with the support of her family in the U.S., she returned to Nepal in 2007 and began setting the wheels in motion that will bring Nepal Street Animal Rescue to life.

A graduate of the University of Southern California, Hillary has achieved career success in the fields of advertising, marketing and events planning. And now, she has turned her compassion for animals into action.

Hillary feels a close affinity with the people of Nepal and has established a number of trusted friendships there in government and education who share her pro-animal rights views. But, there is no closer relationship that Hillary has in Nepal than that of the Founder of Sneha's Care, Sneha Shrestha and her team of workers who run the shelter.

Hillary and Sneha share the same philosophy about animal rights and how to attack the problem of the street dog population. They have formed not just a friendship but also a partnership that will address the issues of animal welfare law and the rescue and treatment of the 30,000 dogs currently languishing on the streets of the Kathmandu Valley area. Their like-mindedness will go a long way in the years to come in reducing the street dog population throughout Nepal in a humane manner.

The partnership between Nepal Street Animal Rescue in the United States and Sneha's Care in Nepal is simply a fantastic way to maximize everyone's talents in order to bring about the end of the suffering that has been going on in Nepal for the street dogs for far too long.

"Ever since my first trip to Nepal in 2003, the faces of each stray dog I encountered there have stayed in my mind and challenged me to do something on an unprecedented scale to help end their suffering.

"Seeing an injured, sick or dying dog is always a very painful experience, especially when people are beating them, trying to chase them away and the poor animals are too weak to move – or even worse, are trying to give birth.

"Over the years, the Nepali people have become a bit immune to the suffering of these poor animals but, in the last 10 years I have witnessed each and every day people calling, e-mailing and contacting Sneha's Care to report an injured or suffering street dog. That makes me hopeful that people in Nepal are taking a keen interest in these dogs and are seeing them as living beings with feelings. This is a subtle but very encouraging start. With the people's help, Sneha's Care can be more effective in treating those animals that need it the most. It makes me proud to see this change."

Taking the dogs back to their home on the street after being sterilized and vaccinated.
Pictured: Hillary Kloetzli

Sneha Shrestha
Founder- Sneha's Care

The organization’s name was designed using the name of Mrs. Sneha Shrestha who started helping strays in 2014 after her pet was poisoned by her neighbor. She started her mission to STOP Animal Cruelty in Nepal. To start the mission she came up with a Facebook page to motivate people to love strays & not to hurt them.

Sneha started feeding strays on daily basis, started visiting Animal Shelter & donating to them for their cause. Everything she did was posted on her Facebook page so that others could do the same thing by seeing her posts. One day, while travelling to Dhulikhel, Sneha saw an dog an injured dog in the highway with lot of maggots on his wound. She picked up the dog and took it to the Veterinary clinic in Kathmandu. It was medically treated and taken back to the same place after two weeks. She then realized, she could help also the injured street dogs by herself. It was all about the dedication and love towards the street animals; she started picking up injured dogs and takes them to the veterinary.

Sneha started rescuing many dogs after that first rescue using her own money to pay for their treatment. She started posting every rescue in her Facebook page to motivate people to help needy animals. She started receiving at least 10 to 20 messages every day regarding injured dogs. How can one woman, without a team go everywhere to rescue street animals?. She then thought of forming a team and registered her organization. Sneha’s Care was officially founded in November, 2015.

Her monthly expenses for animal treatment & care is approximately Three to Four Lakhs Nepali currency. On top of that, she has finished building her own Animal Shelter with the cost of fifty two lakhs Nepali Currency. Only 10% of the money needed to run the shelter comes from donors inside & outside the country. 90% of the funding for the care of the animals is covered by Sneha herself. Sneha’s Care is dedicated to rescuing injured dogs, Animal Birth Control (ABC) & Humane Education. Sneha's Care also provides shelter and a forever homes to disabled dogs & pet adoption for those healthy enough to be re-homed. The organization also takes unwanted, abandoned, abused, or stray pets and attempts to find suitable homes for them.