Superman for animals

In the last one year, the team headed by Pradeep Nair, a Senior UI developer by night and an animal rescuer by day, has managed to rescue close to 300 animals from tricky situations, take for instance the puppy that was rescued two days ago from UoH. Thanks to Pradeep’s efforts that lead to the formation of his group — Animal Warriors India.

Pradeep has been rescuing animals for more than a decade now, both in Hyderabad and Kerala, and the one thing he noticed was the lack of volunteers. “In Hyderabad, there are two organisations that work with animals, but there are very few rescue volunteers. So, I decided to create a group where volunteers do just that,” says Pradeep, who started his organisation last year.

Despite being just a year old, the organisation that has 11 volunteers has managed to rescue 300 animals, one of the most difficult being the one where Pradeep rescued a kitten. “The kitten was stuck in a borewell that was 70 feet deep and 6 cm wide. The rescue operation lasted for three hours and I had to lower a rope with a mesh bag (used to store onions) so that the kitten would latch on to it. It was a very tense situation because if the rescue didn’t work, the kitten would eventually die,” says Pradeep.

Since Pradeep has been rescuing animals for long, he learnt the tricks of the trade. “I learnt how to handle different kinds of animals and that’s what we train our volunteers to do too. Apart from tactical training, we also make sure that they are trained to handle situations where an animal dies, because that demotivates people and several have quit because of this,” he explains.

Pradeep and his team made news when they adopted an injured horse Bijli, who eventually was fitted with a prosthetic limb. However, the team has also faced threats. “When we wanted to rescue Bijli with a broken leg in the Old City, the locals didn’t want us to take her. They threatened us, but when things got out of hand, we called the police. Today she is resting with us in Alwal,” he says.

On any given day, the team receives at least five to six rescues and all the expenses are borne by Pradeep’s team. “Rescues can get expensive — we had to once hire a crane when an ox fell into a well — During such instances, the money goes from our pockets. We can’t ask organisations that we help to pay us, because they don’t have much money either,” he says.