Vatavaran wishes to increase societal compassion towards stray animals by helping residents understand their behaviour through imparting knowledge based on fact as well as observation.

The Issue of Stray Dogs and Other Animals

CANINE COMPANION CAMPAIGN

Vatavaran’s Canine Companion Campaign strives to bring harmony between the stray dogs and the residents of their locality. This campaign teaches you how to deal with them, thus making it safer for them to be around, and for you and your children to be around them.

Our campaign can be run in any locality that feels the need to manage its stray dogs. We mostly work in localities where our Solid Waste Management Scheme already exists. This is because we train our rag pickers to be the primary care takers of the dogs. Where we don’t, our work gets constrained and limited.

Stray dogsare perceived as a constant menace in our cities, and we understand that residents have a hard time dealing with their presence. Caring for stray dogs is not only good for the dogs themselves but also works as a safety measure for humans against contagious diseases.

Most free-roaming dogs belong to an ancient canine race known as the Pariah Dog, which has existed all over Asia and Africa ever since human beings started living in settlements. In India the breed has existed for perhaps 14,000 years or more. Much of the urban stray population consists of mongrels or mix-breeds.

In its work with animals, Vatavaran would undertake the following steps for each colony that would contact us:

We study:

• Population dynamics: Age Ratio and Sex Ratio
• Spatial distribution
• Health conditions

We try and take care of their health by:

• Getting the sick animals treated
• Getting the animals neutered (if required)

We round up by training and informing the residents and the local rag pickers for the welfare of the animals. We follow up with regular meetings, regular health check ups, etc. We also help in deciding which individuals can adopt which animals – we help find the right match.

Apart from local animals, animals in general are not well cared for in our society. We’ve picked up on a few areas where the lack of care is jarring:

• Lack of proper habitation, nutrition, health care and presence of animal teasers in the zoological parks
• Street shows of birds, snakes, monkeys and other animals
• Wild animals performing in circuses
• Use of animals to test cosmetic products

We also worked for the rehabilitation of monkeys. We believe that they should be restored to their natural habitat and not roam on city streets.

We’re also here to urge you to intervene if you see any violence against animals – whether they are being physically beaten or are deprived of amenities. Sometimes dogs are bred in the wrong environment (Huskies in New Delhi) and some are kept constrained in cages and chains for no reason. Either way – just call us and we’ll do our best to help you get justice for the poor animal!