One Saturday morning recently, Justina Sukamto climbed up the decrepit wooden stairs of an old, abandoned building in Gajah Mada, Central Jakarta, accompanied by her friend Lucy and a homeless man, Pak Hans, who lives in the building. They were carrying styrofoam boxes containing a mixture of rice and fish and the excited barking of dogs resonated all around them.

'€œWelcome to the jungle,'€ Justina said brightly and smiled.

The jungle she was referring to is an empty plot of land between several buildings in which 22 stray dogs were kept. The ground is covered with debris, bushes, banyan trees and used styrofoam boxes are scattered all over the place.

A wide blue tarpaulin held in place by six bamboo sticks provides shelter from the sun and the rain for the dogs.

On that day, Justina and Lucy had come to feed the stray dogs, which did not stop barking as long as people were near them, including their caretaker Pak Hans. It was unknown how the dogs had got there, but she and Lucy had now visited them several times, the 44-year-old Justina explained.

According to Pak Hans, the place had been a home to stray dogs since 1984, when there were only a couple of them there. The dogs bred and, when 25-year-old Lucy found the place in 2013, there were 50 of them.

'€œI often saw dogs running here and there near the old building. Feeling curious, I followed one of the dogs. I was surprised to eventually find 50 dogs in that secluded place,'€ said Lucy, who works across the road from the old building.

Lucy reported her finding to Justina and some other dog lovers, who then established a dog welfare organization called Republik Guguk (RG) in the same year.

According to Lucy, some of dogs she initially discovered had died in the severe flooding in the capital in 2013.

Justina, Lucy, and other RG members then raised funds, selling various things, as well as finding sponsors, to neuter the dogs and provide them with food. RG has also helped neuter stray dogs in other places in Greater Jakarta.

Justina pointed out that neutering was important to keep the number of dogs at a manageable level so residents in the area would not be annoyed by an increasing number of dogs.

She said that it had been a difficult struggle for RG to compromise with the residents and management of the land on the stray dog issue, including the building of a permanent shelter for the canines.

Justina said that RG had once tried to build some permanent shelters from wood. However, the land management '€” who Justina refused to name '€” rejected the plan without elaborating why.

'€œHe refused the plan and said that he would drive off the dogs if we built the permanent shelters,'€ Justina said. '€œI begged them, really begged, for them not to do that.'€ Justina said that in the end, RG compromised with the tarpaulin.

Justina and Lucy further told The Jakarta Post that RG had been hiding its exact address from the public to protect the dogs from people who might want to sell their meat.

Dog meat is a delicacy among certain ethnic groups, such as the Batak, Manadonese and Javanese.

Justina also said that keeping the address secret prevented the government from putting down the canines to prevent the spread of rabies.

'€œMost of the stray dogs here are already vaccinated, thanks to donors who gave funds to RG, '€ Justina said.

She added that since they found the Gajah Mada dogs, she, Lucy and other RG members had been welcoming the assistance of donors.

She went on to emphasize that RG would not put the Gajah Mada canines up for adoption. According to her, the organization members were afraid that the dogs would be unable to survive in other places as they had only ever lived in the empty block. (agn)

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