Bengaluru: A dog may be a man’s best friend, but for stray dogs a wound or illness could only mean leading the rest of life in debilitation, followed by a painful death. Unlike pet dogs, they don’t enjoy the care of a master or comforts of a home and many a times there are Facebook posts of images of cruelty meted out to these mute animals.
Although there are people from all walks of life, who do care about these stray animals and occasionally provide them food, but have little awareness regarding what needs to be done if they are wounded or ill.
It is this thought that made Sathish Yadav and Ashwin Mukundan Sameeran join hands and form an NGO, Enablers United, to rescue stray animals and provide them shelter. “People are sensitive towards the plight of stray animals, but they are not aware about how to rescue them, whom to approach and they do not know how to assess the risk. I know that people care because I see it at the ground level,” said Sathish, who has years of experience in animal rescue.
Both he and Ashwin have carried out more than 600 rescues each at an individual capacity. “We used to run rescue missions individually, but it was becoming extremely costly for us, as each rescue and rehabilitation was costing somewhere from Rs 30-40 thousand. Hence we thought that we need to formalise into an NGO, train people and set up a rescue team to help animals in distress,” he explained. After being set up on April 27 this year, Enablers United have been daily getting around 15 rescue calls. “We aim to enable people to create a better tomorrow by uniting resources, creating awareness and empowering the society,” he added.
From rescuing injured, abandoned, old stray animals they also try and find proper treatment for dogs who have any physical ailments like tumor. “It is not just about our problems because we can reach out and speak,” added Sathish. His team has also reached out to pet owners to guide them on taking better care of pets. “We concentrate on animal rescue and it is not just stray dogs, but even cats, cows, horses and birds as well,” he said.
Recounting their journey, Sathish said they picked up their first case, an old dehydrated tired dog, at Vidhan Souda and dropped him off at Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA) animal shelter for treatment and then headed out to Hesarghatta to rescue a dog with a tumour on its leg reported by a fellow animal rescuer, who also joined them in rescue.
Currently, the NGO has two rescue vehicles, two animal rescuers, one driver and one rescue co-ordinator. “We have rescue number and callers are required to give us details like, type of injury, picture of the animal (helps them find it), contact number of the person who can help them spot the animal or the site where the animal is in and the WhatsApp location, so that they can navigate on their own and reach the spot,” Sathish explained.
Last month some 81 animals were rescued by Enablers United, but the organisation has bigger plans. “We want to take our rescue mission pan India and for that we would be working towards resources. We currently have volunteering options and also donation option, wherein people can come forward and help us with the funding. The team not only rescues, but even takes the animals to any shelter of the contact person’s preference. “We don't say no! Sometimes if the shelters are closed, we take these animals to nearby kennels or veterinary clinics where they are kept for the night,” he said.
But, how does one help animals at a larger level. “Just like ambulance service or police emergency numbers, there should proper numbers where people can call. And this issue needs to be given equal importance like in the case of humans, only then animals can be rescued at a larger level. This kind of number system is what we are planning in the distant future,” he added.
