The coral island of Saint Martin’s, known for its clear waters and seasonal tourist rush, is now home to a different kind of first: Bangladesh’s first permanent stray dog shelter. The facility, which opened on November 1, 2026, was built by the Bidyanondo Foundation at a cost of Tk 1 crore, and it is designed to tackle a problem that has quietly grown for years—an estimated 4,000-plus stray dogs living on the island with almost no structured care.
The shelter is not just a holding space. It has 20 individual enclosures, each capable of housing up to 12 dogs, and two veterinarians are on-site to handle medical treatment and daily care. The core of the operation is a sterilisation programme aimed at cutting down uncontrolled breeding, which organisers say is the root cause of the island’s dog overpopulation. According to volunteers involved in the project, female dogs on the island can give birth several times a year, and many of the animals arrive with tumours, skin diseases, and other untreated conditions.
Bidyanondo Foundation Chairman Kishore Kumar Das, who inaugurated the shelter, said the decision came after he witnessed the neglected condition of the island’s dogs and heard reports of several being brutally killed. He stressed that temporary feeding or medical camps would not solve the problem and that a permanent, humane system was necessary to balance the needs of the animals, the residents, and the island’s fragile environment.
The initiative has also drawn international hands. Two young women—Jalpia from Germany and Jessica Maria from Peru—have joined the effort, driven by their concern for the animals. Jessica noted that sterilisation is essential because the breeding rate is simply too high to manage through rescue alone, while Jalpia emphasised that progress will be gradual: sick dogs are being rescued from the streets one by one, and the team is working to help them recover while slowly bringing the population under control.
For the residents of Saint Martin’s, the shelter represents a long-overdue solution to a daily struggle. With limited resources, feeding and caring for thousands of dogs had become an impossible burden, and malnutrition and disease were widespread. The new facility offers a structured way forward—one that organisers hope will reduce suffering, ease pressure on the community, and set a precedent for humane stray-dog management elsewhere in Bangladesh.
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