Pet Owners and Animal Lovers

Sunday, 9 December 2012

Ben Alfred's Art

A young member of PAL, Ben Alfred has drawn all these animals with all the different expressions.

Some of the members have also been sketched.

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Dog rescued from drunkard's house in Naupada

November 6th, 2012

PAL, along with Thane SPCA and Sadbhavana Charitable Trust rescued a dog from a drunkard. He had thrown the dog once from the second floor of the building.

The police was involved and we took the culprit to the Naupada Police Station. The culprit was let go after a warning and the dog was confiscated.

The laws under which animals of India are protected are as follows -

IPC 428
IPC 429
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960
Wildlife Act

Please refer to these sections and make sure that a culprit gets punished if you spot an act of cruelty against any animal, bird, reptile.

Awareness Program at Father Agnel School Vashi

Recently, we had an awareness program in Father Agnel School, Vashi.

This was arranged by some of the MBA students of Father Agnel college as they felt that it was very necessary that the children understand animals.

They approached us and we were only too happy to go to the school and have a program with the kids.

The awareness campaign was on Nov 10th.

There were students from Std 6th to the Std 10th.

The students really enjoyed the session and many of them told us that they would never be scared of animals ever again.

It was really good to hear that the children had benefited from the program.

Waghya

This post is in memory of Waghya, the Tandoor house dog in Vartak Nagar.

Waghya passed away on 26th November 2012. He was 9 years old.

He lived a very happy and good life.

He was run over for the fourth time and this time he could not take it.

Waghya with Dr Hemant getting an anti tick and flea treatment

He was a beautiful dog and the Tandoor house owner had kept him like his own son.

Waghya with Aditi Nair

May his soul rest in peace.

The Life of PI

He was lost, he was lonely, scared and felt abandoned by not just his family, but by the whole world. All he could do was wail and hope against hope that someone would come to save him somehow. He had no paper and pen to keep track of time and he did not have a Richard Parker to keep him company either. The days and nights just seemed to come and go. Dec 3rd, 2012 - Somewhere in the late evening, one watchman decided that he should do something about the wailing which he was hearing for the past few days.He informed a gentleman, who feed dogs in the surrounding area. Mr Kanchan then sort help and started calling various people. Mr Dighe, then informed us about this. We went in the night once to take a look at the area. It was so dark that we could barely see the edge of the drainage. Having rescued Bane before, we hoped that the situation would be better in the morning and that maybe with sunlight and some help things would work out for PI. Dec 4th, 2012 - We assembled at the point trying to spot Pi. A lot of the Nala was covered and the end of it was not to be seen! We followed the Huge Drain and soon realised that one of the societies had built a garden over a part of the drain and the rest of it was under a huge, wide, recently tarred road. We found the part of the drain where it opens out into a nala again and we heard a wail. We stopped in our tracks and listened hard. On following the sound, we soon realised that it was coming from a part of the Nala which was under the garden. We called out to Pi. He was too scared, confused and disillusioned to realise that we were there to help him. He stopped wailing on realising that we had heard him. He started to move in the opposite direction.

Cut to scene 2 -

The fire brigade and the TMC van arrive. The TMC dog catchers gladly offered to help as they were around in the Lok Upvan area. The firemen saw us fretting and worried and asked us if Pi belonged to any one of us. He was ours, yes - yours and mine. Every citizen of India owned Pi. He was the dog of the Public. He was indeed ours. The firemen soon started planning and strategising. They gladly took all our inputs too. Some of them got down from one side of the Nala and the others at the end which was open after the garden and the Road. Within seconds, Pi realised that something was up and decided to run from the open side towards where he first fell into the drain.

The Firemen and the TMC catchers entering the Nala

The TMC dog catchers courageously entered the huge Nala as well, along with Dr Hemant, ready to sedate the dog as soon as he catches it.

Dr Hemant Thange and the TMC catcher who caught PI

The doc had warned everybody around to avoid eye contact when Pi came along. Pi was nervous and scared. He knew the people were upto somethng. He decided to make a run for it.

And lo behold, the very skilled TMC dog catcher caught him in his noose. He was sedated and he calmed down. He saw stars in circles and he felt a calm come over him.

PI Sedated

PI being carried to safety

He closed his eyes. Pi is very weak and has been taken to the TMC sterlisation center for the time being. He will be given the required treatment there and once he is fit, he will be operated. He needs your prayers to get better. Do go and visit him in the Wagle Estate Center, near Ashar IT PArk, and if you do go, please take some good, nutritious food for him. Pi needs your prayers, love and care. With Roshni Saini,Kaur aunty, Nolin Chitnis, Hemant Pradip Thange

The TMC catcher who caught PI

The two boys from the TMC catching unit who were ready to risk their lives for PI

The Staff at the TMC who helped catch PI

The Fire Men of Kapurbawdi Police Station who helped to rescue PI

PI has recovered considerably and is eating well now

Monday, 8 October 2012

SNDT and SVKM awareness campaign

We had an awareness campaign in the month of January in one of the SNDT university colleges. It was a two day stall where we spoke to the students of the college about various animal related issues.

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We did a fashion show at the end of the second day to create awareness about animals as well. All in all, I would say it went very well and to a great extent the purpose of our visit was served.

Some students of SVKM International Junior College decided to volunteer with us during this campaign for the Service program of their college. On looking through the old files, I found these reviews submitted by the students. Some of the students seemed to have been exposed to something new and learnt quite a bit from the experience.

Akshay Sanwal –

PAL is an organization [Pet Owners and Animal Lovers Organization] who's main aim is too improve the health of the street animals. They also help street animals to find a home for themselves. They even have regular campaigns that are against animal cruelty. Firstly, we started of with taking surveys of various students and teachers. We asked them various questions, regarding street animals and their pets. We also asked them to fill a form regarding this. We got many different perspectives on this topic. We were amused by the different sort of answers we got from different people. It was a fun filled experience. After we took a great amount of surveys, we had performed a Fashion Show as planned to show our support for animal rights. We clearly demonstrated why animals need to be treated in a better way. We even got a great response from our audience in the auditorium. Many of them were fascinated by our fashion show, and showed great appreciation. I myself also found many young individuals who were very eager to help us, and also many wanted to adopt cats and dogs. We were all delighted by doing this.

Shahrukh Anklesaria -

As volunteers we helped spread awareness about the protection of pets and animals. We even distributed forms to a number of people so that they could write down their suggestions and the form would even serve as a survey amongst the crowd.

Anam Ankolkar -

PAL stands for Pet and Animal Lovers. Here I performed a survey for the organization in a college fair to see the effectiveness of the organization and also to make people around the area aware of it. I also participated in a fashion show which intended to make the audience aware of animal cruelty. This activity is very close to my heart as personally I love animals and think such activities must be performed much more often. then after, I plan to take part in as many activities that PAL organizes as I can.

Vidit Atre -

Our group as a whole went in the college festival a got a form filled with almost all the student participating in the college festival which helped us in knowing how are the stray animals in and around the city are treated , we also presented a fashion show spreading awareness regarding the ethical implications regarding the killing of wild animals.

Poorvi Dhargalkar -

Contributing to a movement for saving animals was something new for most of us. I had never been a part of any campaigns for animals so this was very different for me and I was indeed very enthusiastic. I love animals and pal gave me an opportunity to make a contribution for them. Interviewing people about their animals and understanding their ways of looking after their pets gave me an insight into the world of the understanding and loyal pets. Making posters that said different things such as "a dog is a loyal friend, adopt it" was a lot of fun and people appreciated it too. We felt the importance of passing the message around.Winning the fashion show we did to save animals made us realize and feel that we had done a good deed. We had indeed played a role In saving the face of innocence.

Vatsal Shah –

My experience at the PAL (Pet owners and Animal lovers) event – SNDT Matunga was very fruitful. I had fun in learning several new interviewing skills. I conducted almost 20 interviews which was aimed at conducting a survey to determine the understanding of the commoners regarding animal welfare. We also helped the organization to sell their items whose funds would be used for animal welfare. The fashion show was also quite good. We had participated in it as well and were dressed as snakes and cats and several other animals. With this particular activity, my perception regarding animals completely changed. The way we went to the streets and asked people for their time for the interview showed how salesmen are treated. The activity involved issues of global importance and had several ethical implications considering the concern which the animal welfare at this time requires.

Nishin Shirkhande –

The PAL event was indeed a grand one. We went to the S.N.D.T college in Matunga and PAL owners had their stall ready. We had to first listen to our instructions from the owners and then we began work. We were given around 20 sets of questionnaires and we had to conduct a survey on strangers. We had to make sure that they filled the forms very well. This was quite a task as many people werent ready to fill in the forms as many of them disliked pets or werent interested in filling them. But i didnt give up and continued going and ended up with around 20-25 filled questionnaires.Then we helped people buy some stuff from the stalls as well. The next day we did the same thing but after that we had a fashion show and different stalls had to put up a show. So some of us dressed like snake charmer, some animals etc and we portrayed cruelty to animals on stage. I was dressed like a snake charmer and we pulled off a good show. The people enjoyed it. Thus this was a great and a new experience for me and i hope i get to take part in such events in the future as well.