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.