Chunnabatti Cruelty Case: the IDA India Response

On the 1st of August this year, we had got a call to rescue a dog who had been brutally attacked with a cleaver which had split his back wide open. He was rushed to our Deonar Centre and his treatment started in earnest. He slowly recovered, the wound healed and he was ready for release on 13th October '12. This is when our IDA India team led by Naina Athale of IDA, swung into action. They used the return of this dog to launch an exercise in spreading awareness and compassion. A hand-out had been carefully prepared in English and also the local language, Marathi. It was to be distributed to prevent such cruelty from happening again. For two and a half hours, the team went all around, meeting various types of people from the locality. It was a wonderful exercise in reaching out to the community and sensitizing the people of the locality to look out and care for their local stray animals. There was a very positive response from the locals and one school boy collected a number of the hand-outs to distribute in his school. The perpetrator of the cruelty had long since been hounded out of the place by the locals. The dog is back where he belongs, healthy, safe and sound. And hopefully all those who the IDA team reached out to have learned a much-needed lesson in kindness and compassion.

Two IDA Pups in Foster Care

In the last post you could see the injured white mother dog with her one pup. We were fortunate enough to get a foster home for the other pup and he is doing well in foster care. Wish there were more considerate people around like this couple. They are enjoying the little fellow's company and he has a chance at a life now. Don't know about his brother, but at least that baby still has his mom for comfort. Alfie also is thriving in foster care. Check him out in his pink basin. He likes to relax in the middle of his toys after playing with all of them.

Our Little Ones With Moms

Recently a batch of dogs were rescued and brought in to our Deonar Centre. Some criminal had thrown boiling water on them and some of the dogs were badly burnt. The white mother you can see in the picture, was one of them, and she had 4 little ones with her. She had a huge wound about 12 inches across on her back. It has healed very well with care and treatment and you can see the small injury that is still left. Of her 4 pups, two passed away after catching infections, one was fostered and the little one you can see is still with her and happy to be with his mom. The black dog also came in with 6 pups and now has only one left who she looks after very carefully. It is sad when pups die and these two mothers were not operated and had to suffer the loss of their little ones. The only consolation is that, in our care, they are happy and content for the rest of their short lives. They are fed and housed and petted and even manage to play with each other while the going is good. After all, they are just normal, happy-go-lucky little puppies. These were lucky enough to have their moms around.

Muffin, Alfie and Nemo

Muffin the little adopted dog from our Deonar Centre and Alfie the foster pup, living at present together in the same house, get along like a house on fire. They play together with whatever toys are available when they are not playing "Catch" during which Alfie runs like the wind away from Muffin and when she catches up, hides under the nearest piece of furniture. It is hilarious to watch them at play. Here they are with their stuffed fish, Nemo, both trying to pull him away from the other. In the other pic, Alfie, who is very observant, always notices when a photo is being taken and looks alert during the photo op. He looks so angelic in his pics, although he is actually a little devil!

Meet Pintoo the New Spitz at Deonar

This lovely little dog was rescued from the road with a small maggot wound on his hind quarters. He has a very friendly outlook and also a cute snub nose. He is tiny and very light weight and absolutely charming. You can see all this from his photos. Hope he gets a good home soon. He loves people and will make someone a wonderful companion. He is about 3 to 4 years old with no health problems.

Muffin and Alfie the Foster Pup

Remember Alfie the foster pup yo saw in an earlier post? He's growing well and has made great friends with the resident dog in his foster home. She is a small little terrier type who was rescued by IDA India last year at the height of the monsoon when she was abandoned on the streets. She's safe and sound now and is a very happy dog: a real pleasure to have around the house. Alfie is her great pal and they both chase each other around the house, play with their toys together and generally have a ball. Alfie's horrible injury has healed well and soon he will go to his new home. He's a great litle pup.

IDA India Pre-Divali Jumble Sale

The Sale was held at our lovely venue in Bandra and was a great success. This was solely due to our wonderful volunteers you can see in the pictures below. Our merchandise again proved to be very popular and we had a lot of other items on sale as well. One kind person had donated a brand new Mixer still sealed in the pack!! The venue is Goodicia Vaidya's Office and she has a number of lovely resident cats and dogs whose space we had occupied for two days. They didn't mind and we loved having them around snoozing on the floor and on the merchandise! By the way, our new calender is about to be ready for sale just before Divali. It is truly fabulous, at least we think so! Will give a glimpse of the cover in another post.

Mothers at the Deonar Centre

It's always sad when a mother is brought in with her pups. They are banished from some Society premises or a public place because the mother is declared aggressive. People forget that she is merely protecting her little ones and she needs all the help and understanding she can get from the public. This same public has not a single member who remembered to get this dog operated in the first place so that she would not have had puppies at all. We feel sad when they come in because we know what is slowly going to happen. One by one, the little ones will pass away. The mother will have to stay put for two months as she can only be operated after the pups are weaned and then she is supposed to go back to her old location and adjust to life on the street, among hostile people and dogs who have not seen her around for 2 months. It's a tough situation all around and it is totally unnecessary. The brown dog in the picture had three spectacular pups who we desperately tried to get fostered or adopted, the only way to "save" them. It was too late for 2 of them but little Fudge made it. May he live a long and happy life. The black dog has arrived along with 6 pups in tow. That's why she looks so thin inspite of getting double meals. The little gold pom had 7 pups and was brought in the month of June. She has lost all except the alpha male, who has been adopted. She herself is so delicate and charming that we are trying our best to get her a good home. She will not last long if she is put on the street again. This is the sad plight of canine mothers in Mumbai. We should all do our best to see that these type of dogs are sterilised before any more puppies arrive into the dangerous environment of this city.

Two New Fosters

The puppy pen is suddenly over-flowing with patients and the irony of it all is that there is no Asst to attend to them. The last girl we had was very careless with the pups and had to be dismissed. At present they depend on the good graces of the wardboys, who clean, feed and medicate but don't have time to linger around and bond with them. It is great when one of us can visit. They are overjoyed! When these two little ones came in, there was no question of leaving them at the Centre. The little orange and white had a horrible wound on his entire back and was only 11 days old. The little black male had an even worse injury and he had suffered it some time ago, much before he was rescued. His entire small back leg was broken at the joint and in a terrible condition. Anyway, they were whisked out to a foster home. Have to be kept in separate rooms as Inkspot's injury is open and can get infected. Alfie, the orange and white looked like an Alphonso mango when he came in and now by a coincidence, he looks like a small pumpkin!! He is absolutely greedy and adorable and only lives to eat. His wound has healed very well and as both pups are now 1 month old, he will be put up for adoption in about a month's time. Hope Inkspot recovers well but he will always be handicapped, poor little mite. This is what happens when these delcate creatures are born on the road; a most hostile and dangerous environment for them and their moms.

Lions Club of Juhu Waves Visit to Deonar

On Saturday 6th October, the President, Vice President and Treasurer of Lions Club of Juhu, visited our Centre along with Poonam Jaikar, our hard-working IDA India supporter and also member of the Lions Club. They enjoyed the visit, even though they came from very far away - Juhu to Deonar is a very long drive! They particularly liked inspecting our kitchen where meals are prepared for over 500 animals, the blind and handicapped ward, the Puppy Pen and the Cat Ward. You can see Poonam with one of our puppy patients, sitting along with the others outside our small garden. Sunaina, our volunteer turned up to help out and she did some wonderful work. You can see her standing in the "garden" photo. What would we do without our volunteers? God bless them all, especially the ones who turn up!

Mother and Pups at Deonar

This young mother and her three charming pups had to be brought to the Centre as she was very protective and therefore aggressive towards anyone approaching the pups. Mumbai is one crowded city and this is the price these type of moms have to pay for trying to look after their little ones. She will be incarcerated for about two months. she cannot be sterilised before that - that is the age when the pups are weaned. Two or three months is a long time and if the pups are also forced to stay in the Centre, that is, if they cannot be adopted or at least fostered, they are in danger or getting sick or worse. The unfortunate mother will be taken back to her old location after months and this for her will be very difficult and traumatic as she has to adjust and get on with the dogs from that locality. That's why we keep urging people and the public to contact us if any dogs remain unoperated. Sterilisation is mandatory for all strays and with good reason. Please help us prevent this happening again and again. Mother and pups are brought in, the happy little infants play and enjoy their little lives until the inevitable happens (the ABC Centre, in fact any large Shelter is the worst place for the very young). After months the mother has to go out alone into a hostile world. We really need help from the public to prevent all this needless suffering.

New Patients in the Puppy Pen

The youngest is about 11 days old with a horrible wound on his back and the oldest is about 5 months. All of them are in need of care, medication, rest and good nutrition. They have been brought to the right place. At Deonar, our Vets and Assistants tend to injuries, monitor progress and are happy when any patient is ready for release. This is where the problem occurs. If the pup has recovered, he/she should be out of the Centre and back to the his locality without delay, as there is much learning to do for a young fit pup. Another danger is that the pup might pick up some other infection - this is quite likely as there are hundreds of dogs housed together in one area. People tend to take very long to collect the pup and take it back to its area. This is where our IDA supporters have stepped up and intervened. Now a very obliging couple, Priya and Raju, pick up the pups that are RFR and actually deliver them to the person who brought them in, so that they can be supervised and released. This has really helped as before the pups used to be left for weeks on end, unnecessarily, at great risk to their health and at great expense to us. This exercise has turned out to be a great success. Many pups, healed and cured at our Centre are now back in their own localities, doing quite well. Their next visit will be for the sterilisation operation when they are at the correct age to go through it.

The Visitor in the Puppy Pen

Our Resident cats at Deonar have discovered the charms of the puppy pen, namely that they can always get a handout when the pups are being fed and all of them love to eat dry Puppy Food! Here's a handsome orange and white male, quite at home among his young canine friends, waiting eagerly for his daily snack.

These tiny little pups are exactly six days old. As soon as they were born, they were put in a plastic bag and flung in a garbage bin. A garbage van came along and the bin was about to be emptied into the van when a kind passerby heard a small noise. He saw the bag with the pups inside and quickly removed it. Next a truly wonderful person, an elderly lady who is a supporter of IDA India took them into her home for fostering. After that she contacted us. As we couldn't manage to make arrangements to collect and care for such tiny pups, (most of our staff is missing due to the festive season), she was requested to keep them for a little while. She did not know how to care for such tiny pups, but that wasn't a problem. She consulted a Vet and her friend who was experienced in such matters and actually managed to get the little ones to drink from the bottle. This is vital if they have to have any chance at staying alive. After four days we arranged to pick them up and a young man, who is very involved in caring for animals, collected them and kept them overnight, even giving them a 3 am feed. Next day they were brought to Deonar Centre but as the vital staff member was missing that day, they were again taken into foster care by a member of the Managing Committee. When there is no one else, we manage among ourselves. Now the pups are shining clean, well fed and warm. Even if some of them slowly pass away, they will be among those of us who really love and care for them, instead of slowly dying, crushed under the weight of piles of Mumbai garbage. This is why sterilisation is vital for these animals. Now there is a mother in mental and physical agony as her babies have been taken away from her the moment they were born. If the criminal who did this had got her operated instead it would have made a world of difference. But he thought of his horrific disposal plan instead. That's why all of us have to get involved in getting dogs sterilised and safe in every way. We found this small litter. How many litters are not found or die slowly unnoticed in this very way? Please help in every way you can to make the ABC Programme a success.

Our Fattest Resident Cat is quite enormous but very agile. He jumps up, over and down with amazing ease. You can see him relaxing near the water tank by the front gate at Deonar. In the other picture, he is sitting pretty in the Puppy Pen, another favourite hang-out for our cats, probably because they love Puppy Pedigree dry food which they snack on in here. But his best place of all is just outside the kitchen where all the meals are made. That's why he's so fat!

One way to provide entertainment to our little ones at Deonar is to pop them into the small garden when it is a bit sunny - quite rare these days. They start wagging their tails and the braver ones at once get down to exploring. They go quite far away from the small group and love all the exciting smells and all the mud. The timid ones stay put. You can see the smallest brown pups not budging from the small basin. Better safe than sorry!

the Male Pom Pup : Remember the small family that was saved by IDA India some time ago? A beautiful golden Pom/Spitz and her seven little ones? There were six sisters and one brother and of course he was snapped up and adopted at once. The females had to wait so long, that even though they were adopted, none of them survived. Our ABC Centre is not a hospital for babies. Anyway, this lovely little chap was taken as a first pet into a family where the young son was determined to adopt him. It didn't work out because sadly the rest of the family didn't care for the little one. He spent two months in their house and then the young boy was forced to return him to IDA. It was really sad, or so I thought. When he came back, we started at once to see that he went into a safe foster home until adoption time. So the very next day foster care was arranged. the pup was brought to one of our homes to be transported and then a phone call came. A family had lost it's old Pom and immediately wanted to adopt another. (My kind of people!) They were asked to come straight away as he could not be kept overnight due to some difficulties. The pup had been frantic all day, running and trying to hide and snapping when approached. Our wardboys had pronounced him "dangerous". Two sisters came in a rickshaw from very far away, at 8 in the night, in pouring rain. I was quite apprehensive as to how he would react. As soon as one of the girls entered and sat on the couch, this pup took one leap into her lap and held her tight with his paws and started licking her face in ecstasy! It was simply amazing. It was as if he had lost his family and had at last found them. When she reached home, she phoned and told us that he had raced from one family member to the other, greeting them in turn and was delirious with happiness. Wanted to share with all of you. This was truly a one of a kind adoption and we are so happy it turned out like it did. May all our little ones find their forever homes in just the same way.

A Fond Goodbye to Russell: We are sad to tell you all that Russell one of our Sponsor Dogs passed away a few days ago. He came to us long ago when Fizzah Shah, our President rescued him from a garden at Breach Candy. He was just a playful youngster, whose very life was threatened by the gardening staff at that location. He came to our Deonar Centre and had always been one of the big boys in control of all the other resident dogs, along with our Jumpy and Jacky. We are happy that he lived a good life at Deonar and lived for a long time. A few weeks ago, he had visibly slowed down and had got an infected ear. Thankfully that was cured by our Vets at the Centre. He found time to walk up to his visiting friends and wag his tail in welcome and a few days ago, Russell peacefully passed away due to old age. Like all our other dear friends who have left us, Russell will be remembered and missed always with love and fondness.

Check out Rani, one of our special dogs at Deonar. She doesn't like to be earthbound and every day makes her way up onto the roof of the ABC cages to take the breeze on the nice flat roof where she relaxes or roams about as she likes. How does she reach there? It's up a ladder which you can see in the picture! She comes down the ladder too, which is amazing. None of the other dogs will try this, so Rani can sit in solitary splendour in her favourite perch every day without any disturbance from the motley crew below!

Our Resident fat cats at Deonar have now started invading the puppy pen in large numbers as there are comfortable platforms to sleep on and snacks to be had when the puppies are fed. Their large enclosure has an opening in the roof for them to come out and stroll about the rooftops. Now they are so cool with the dogs and their surroundings, that they have descended to earth en mass and soon find the most congenial places in which to relax. One is the bonnet of the IDA Vans as the engine makes it nice and warm, in front of the kitchen as they like the good aromas of cooking food and also as you can see, in the Puppy Pen. All over the Centre, there i s no conflict at all between cat and dog and the same holds good in this Pen.

Adult Rottweilers are fearsome looking with their muscular bodies, massive heads and piercing eyes. Our IDA India driver and wardboys had to rescue an abandoned Rottwieler a few days ago. He was carelessly left on a majoy road in Navi Mumbai and had been spotted running up and down in an agitated fashion. Even at the Centre, he was so upset that he snarled, leapt at anyone approaching and had to be housed in an empty to keep the other dogs safe. Our Asst Selvi was the only person who quietly went into his enclosure and made friends with him. She didn't tell anyone and it was high-risk, but she immediately bonded with this dog and it was a relief to all of us at the Centre, that he showed signs of trusting humans Also we were happy that after all he had been through, he had found a good friend. The pictures are testimoney to this amazing relationship and it will only be good for this abandoned dog.

Our IDA India Volunteer team consisting of Priya, Prathamesh, Mandeep, Vandy and Karan, have been quietly working on the Cow Protection Project. this covers Temple Cows and cattle in Tabelas. They have been visiting many temples to try and figure out ways to help these exploited animals. They suffer from lack of water, they are tied for hours on end with a very short rope and they are exposed to the elements. During this period, the women who hire them for the day, make a lot of money. This business is illegal, but yhe BMC fine of Rs.300/- a month, is so paltry that they happily pay it, get back the confiscated cow and then it's business as usual. Priya and the group also located the main Incharge, a woman called Shanta, who organises this daily business and leases out 50 cows a day. This is only in two suburbs of Mumbai, so the business is really huge and very lucrative. The group has managed to persuade the Incharge to better the conditions of the animals, such as providing them with water, using a longer rope and also affording them some protection from the rain and sun. Priya and the group also visited Tabelas. These are very large enclosures for milch cattle. They found the staff to be secretive and later were told that some of the cattle were not licenced. Here they distributed leaflets in the local language on how to care for these animals and see to their welfare. The work is on-going and much to the benefit of the animals concerned.

It was a happy day for our Resident Cats today. One of their Sponsors came to visit them and brought them some tasty cat food. Today happens to be Friendship Day and after the good meal and all the petting, look who is doing some major bonding! These two were giving each other a good grooming and there was much purring all around. Don't miss madam sitting on the bonnet of one of our vans. She's quite okay on her own, thank you! Besides the engine is so nice and warm that this is a very pleasant place for any cat to relax on.

About two years ago, a young volunteer called Abby from the USA came to work at our Deonar Centre. She did some sterling work and while she was there, she spotted a small non-descript dog and decided that she wanted to adopt him. There was a problem as he had a bad hernia and Abby had to leave for the US. However, she was determined to adopt him and kept in touch until "Gunner" was completely healed. We helped her with the arrangements and at last, the little dog travelled by plane, all by himself to the USA. Now he lives with Abby, his brother Jack, a small dog, and his "sister", a horse named Queen. He runs like the wind and has become quite a heavy-weight. Now he has changed his name - it is "Raj". And just look at him sitting in a field in Oklahoma, he looks as if he is King of the World!!!

This tiny little charmer is the only survivor from a litter of 7 pups. Her mom died within hours of reaching IDA Deonar, and the pups were only 3 days old. They were taken into foster care, but she was the only one that thrived and has been growing very well. It is a sad thought re this little family. Some time ago the mother escaped the team that was trying to catch her for sterilisation. She then got pregnant and suffered through very harsh weather in Mumbai. She was very sick just after she delivered and so the pups were very weak too. This lovely little female is the Alpha pup. Usually in a litter there is one who has the best chance of survival, no matter what the odds. She has a tremendous appetite, is highly intelligent and has an acute sense of smell. She is also very very cute and has already been booked for adoption into a lovely family. So this little story will hopefully end happily for this great little pup.