MC's Initiative

Why shelters are not the best place for our animals.

 

We get more than a 100 calls a week asking us to take in animals in distress at Sai ashram Animal shelter.As much as we try to do our best in running a shelter to our optimum ability I feel it is essential that you make an informed decision before you place an animal in any shelter.

 

Disease is rampant in all shelters and with our weather conditions being so extreme most dogs have a hard time surviving there. Flies, harbingers of disease drop maggot eggs into any small wound an animal may have.They sit on food, urine,faeces and spread more disease amongst the animals.

 

Also viral diseases like distemper spread through the air and if new puppies or dogs are brought in that might have the virus they put all the other pups/dogs at risk who do not have the vaccine to protect them from it.

 

The rule of the survival of the fittest is also prevalent here.

Only, the dogs who are more aggressive and pushy are able to fight for their food and generally the more shy,scared dogs go without a meal.

 

Many of our pampered pedigreed pooches who are used to a bowl of food being placed in front of them with no competition find it very hard to adjust here.

It is our utmost effort to have puppies and pedigrees adopted foremost, as they are unable to cut it, in a shelter.

 

In my opinion, shelters are not the best places for an animal and I would advise people to only send a dog to a shelter as an absolute last resort.

 

It is advisable that you try and find a foster home/temporary home/farm house over putting any animal into a shelter.

You can also post about it on social networking sites like Facebook, twitter etc

Some of the groups for animal welfare are -Indian Animal Forum, Red Paws rescue, Sai Ashram Animal Shelter,Adopt a pet, Pablo's Doggy Foundation India, Angel eyes Animal welfare foundation etc

Also more foreigners living in India are open to adopting our Desis so you can put posts up on expat sites like delhiexpat.com,yuninet etc These also have facebook groups which you can join and post at.

 

Another alternative is to email madhu_goyal@hotmail.com and  sdgsdg00@yahoo.com,Madhu and Shampa ji are both amazing women who have been championing the cause of animal welfare for the past several years and have a large database to which they send out these relevant emails.

Your post should be as concise as possible and should include the details of the animal like age /sex etc , temperament,vaccinations being upto date or not,a photograph or a few and a contact number and email address where you can be contacted.

 

As an alternate option, there are some good boarding houses too where for a daily sum of money you can keep a dog/pup .A few of the better boarding places for dogs are written as under-

1 Canine Elite ,you can visit their website at www.canineelite.com

2Alpha 11, you can visit their website www.alpha11.in