Paws > People

"We have a very active group with people from different social backgrounds so citizens who live in the slums all the way to the well to do families all coming together for this particular cause. We concentrate on animal birth control. We pick up stray dogs and cats and get them neutered (for a male dog the testicles are removed and for a female dog the uterus is removed) so they can’t produce further as the fate of these strays is extremely heartbreaking as they either die of hunger or get run over by cars so that is what we as a community try to prevent. In the case of an animal rescue, we first assess a situation by noticing the condition of the respective bird, dog or any animal and then we take the next step by either bringing them home or to the hospital. I recently got a call about an abandoned dog that was found at my school playground and after assessing his behaviour we tied his mouth so he wouldn’t get scared of us and attack in return. I brought him home and after doing some research found that he used to stay at a restaurant in Thane and after it shut down the owners left him there so he has been abandoned for a year and a half. An animal rescuer found him and was bringing him to Juhu when he jumped out of the Rickshaw and has been roaming the streets since a week before we found him. So we fed him and got him checked up as he had a little bit of a cough and went on to find him a home.

A lot of animals go through torture in various ways, not only physically but also mentally. A lot of cases where dogs are not loved which is what they care for the most. I picked up a dog from outside my house and for the first 5 days she was extremely shy and wasn’t interacting with the other animals in the house and kept to herself and did not react to affection. After she recovered from her infection she started showing her true colours and had massive behavioural issues because of being abandoned. The doctors could tell that she was somebody’s pet. She wouldn’t trust anyone and was extremely possessive about her food. She was very unpredictable and would act out and attack kids which got very difficult to handle so we got in a dog behaviouralist which really helped get her feeling safe again. So if you see an animal that is being abused or in an accident there are ways to help them. There are a lot of active NGO’s and helplines that you could reach out to or to take a picture and putting it on Facebook on multiple groups that are associated with animal welfare.”