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The Welfare of Stray Dogs has sterilised, vaccinated and cared for stray animals in Mumbai, giving them much-needed care.
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Zervaan Bunshah, actor and content creator |
Until around 1994, in order to control street dog population and curtail rabies-related deaths, Mumbai’s civic body used to round up street dogs to kill them. “They were taken to the municipal corporation’s killing pound at Mahalakshmi and were kept there for three days. And if nobody claimed them, the adult canines were electrocuted and puppies were put in chloroform boxes,” explains Abodh Aras, CEO, The Welfare of Stray Dogs (WSD).
This motivated N W Alimchandani and a few Jain philanthropists to establish WSD in 1985 to rescue street dogs by paying a fee. The NGO’s founders realised that killing the dogs had no effect on the street dog population or rabies.
In 1994, armed with data showing that the street dogs’ numbers and rabies-related deaths were still high, the WSD convinced the municipality to stop the practice. “That's when we converted their killing pound into a sterilisation centre. On January 26, 1994, we sterilised the first dog in Mumbai,” explains Aras, who became the CEO at WSD in 2000.
The aim of the organisation has been to control the street dog population in a scientific and humane manner, through an animal birth control or sterilisation programme. The second objective is to promote the adoption of Indies or street dogs and rescued animals. “The third, and extremely important, is to ensure that the street dog or cat population is healthy, by running vaccination programmes and also healthcare programmes,” he shares.
With a centre at Sewri and one at Navy Nagar, WSD, so far has helped 3,00,000 animals. In the last one year, they covered about 32,000 street animals through various programmes including sterilisation, an OPD service and revaccination.
“We also have an on-site first aid programme where we have eight animal nurses and a veterinarian that go to different neighbourhoods and treat dogs and cats on site, so it frees up space at our centre for more severe cases,” explains Aras. For these services and programmes, WSD does not charge a single penny.
Perhaps one of the most integral parts of this work is to sensitise people and make them aware about the human-stray conflicts, for the safety of the strays. So WSD runs an education and awareness programme on dog bites, rabies deaths, what cruelty to animals means, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, etc.
“We go to municipal schools, colleges and public spaces to conduct these educational and awareness sessions in Hindi, Marathi and English. It’s important to tell the young ones that it is necessary to be kind to the stray animals,” Aras says.
Zervaan Bunshah, actor and content creator who has visited WSD’s centre, is all gung ho about the NGO’s work. “WSD has been doing amazing work and it’s a thankless job that they do. They tirelessly work really hard for these poor, sweet creatures, who have been domesticated by us, and who also receive a lot of ill-treatment by humans. So their work is important, as they ensure the stray animals’ health care and vaccinations.”
