Abandoned pets add to woes of crowded shelters: Activists

In a day, the shelters receive between 500 to 3,000 SOS calls. Out of these, more than 50 per cent are to report ill or injured dogs, cats and cattle, and the rest are about smaller animals and birds. These shelters can accommodate between 40 and 1,800 stray animals.

According to Shravan Krishnan, an activist, a major problem is caused by owners who abandon their pets on the streets. He says, “Our organsiation mainly cater to stray animals that meet with accidents, have skin issues like mange, wounds caused by maggots or tumors. We have the necessary funds and infrastructure to cope with this, but find it quite hard to accommodate healthy animals that are abandoned by their owners.” Shravan believes that since the police turn a blind eye to abandoning of pets, people tend to do so fearlessly. This adds to crowding at shelters. “We see so many healthy animals being left outside shelters or on the streets because the neighbours complain about them or a family member might be allergic to fur, they relocate to other cities or the animal grows old or falls ill and people don’t want to care of them anymore. Unfortunately, they can’t fend for themselves out in the streets after living a luxurious life,” he says.

This could be resolved if the police department is more stringent and issues punishments, says Shravan. “We’ve seen so many cases where neighbours get into a quarrel over a pet and the police advise the owner that pet be dropped off at a shelter. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, Section 11, sub-section 2 clearly states that abandoning an animal/bird is a crime. The police have put up CCTV cameras outside some shelters, but no action is taken against those who leave their pets there,” he says. If offenders are arrested or fined as per the law, it may control healthy animals from being abandoned, and the revenue can be used to treat strays.

Sathya Radhakrishnan, secretary of a city shelter, says that according to their 2017-18 annual report, they received around 17,250 SOS calls to pick up hurt or ill animals, apart from many being dropped off at their premises without notice. “We rescued 15,960 animals. This was possible because of the ambulances we have, some of which were donated by philanthropists,” he says.