Finding homes for lonely pets……Vijay Singh
NAVI MUMBAI: When she is not designing offices and complexes, Chembur-based architect Shruti Shetty spends her time finding adopted homes for stray animals.
As part of the young group called ‘World For All’, which is also active online on a social networking site, Shruti also monitors the status of recently adopted animals in their new homes and puts up pictures of ‘new arrivals’ for adoption.
“I concentrate on kittens as there are fewer takers for cats. It’s comparatively easy to find a new home for pups and dogs. My place has literally become a foster home,” she said.
Veterinarian Dr Deepa Katyal-Engineer, who runs a private clinic, also actively helps sick strays or abandoned pets by finding new homes for such animals. “We heavily depend on internet and SMSes to spread the word. Also, we have to check if the conditions in their new homes are good enough or not,” said Deepa, adding that the problem of abandoned pets only complicates the matter.
“It is rather selfish on part of those pet owners who cruelly abandon these poor animals. They don’t realize the pain and emotional distress these abandoned pets go through, and sometimes they even die as unloved and unwanted animals,” she said.
Animal Welfare Officer Roxanne Davur of ‘Terra Animal Trust’ said that it is better to adopt Indian dogs instead of fancy imported breeds which are more prone to ailments in our climate. “We try to persuade people to not keep large, foreign pets like Great Danes or St Bernards in small flats. There are so many Indian animals up for adoption,” said Davur.
Powai-based animal lover, Ganesh Nayak, who runs the NGO ‘Animals Matter To Me Mumbai’ is happy to have helped two abandoned Great Danes find a lovely new home in Alibaug. “I found these dogs in a poor condition at a bus depot in Borivli. I spent nearly Rs 35,000 on their treatment, and now they have a new owner, Mallika Singh, who loves them immensely,” said Nayak.
Bhandup based Plant & Animals Welfare Society (PAWS-Mumbai), run by Sunish Subramanian, also maintains a database of foster homes for various animals that can be adopted.