Appeal for animal aid

[Guest guest]

You must have learnt about the tragic Gujarat earthquake's human victims.

The animals there urgently need our help too.

 

Please forward this email and speak about it to contacts who could offer

donations or veterinary help.

 

I've attached a newspaper article below the appeal for you to get a picture

of what the animals are undergoing there.

 

Thanks very much,

Vadivu

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>From WAN mailing list -

 

The appeal below was received from the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).

The AWBI is the official body concerned with animal welfare in India, coming

under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

 

animal welfare board of india <awbi

 

Mon, 12 Feb 2001

 

AN APPEAL

 

The Animal Welfare Board of India is an autonomous body

established by the Government of India.

Presently, the Board is under the administrative control of

the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment,

New Delhi (Govt. of India).

 

In view of the disastrous earthquake at Gujarat, there is an

urgent need to undertake relief and rehabilitation work for the

animals which are stranded. The Board therefore, appeals to you

earnestly to send money, medicines and also veterinary help in

a large way so that this work could be completed at the earliest.

Cheque may be made out in favour of “Animal Welfare Board of India”

and payable at Chennai or New Delhi.

 

We also request you to kindly confirm the credentials of the

Animal Welfare Organisations whom you want to fund in India

for this purpose.

 

We seek your positive and immediate response to this

appeal on behalf of the animals.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Justice Guman Mal Lodha

Chairman, AWBI

 

Contact Details: -

Animal Welfare Board of India

No. 11, Venkatraman Street, " Srinivasa Avenue " , R.A. Puram

CHENNAI / MADRAS 600 028

Tamilnadu

Tel: + 91 (44) 461 2684/2842

Fax: + 91 (44) 461 2807

E-mail: awbi

Web Site: http://awbi.org

 

 

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Here's an article from the Times of India, published at www.petaindia.org.

What About The Animals In Gujarat?

 

By Ambika Shukla

Every time there is a natural disaster, and they seem now to occur with

alarming regularity, it is heartening to find the whole world respond with

concern and generosity. Aid and supplies are rushed as fast as is humanly

possible to the affected area. Every effort is made to cushion the shock and

sorrow of the survivors.

 

The enormity of the devastation in Gujarat has attracted rescue teams from

all over. Donations of medicines, money, food, blankets, clothes and blood

are pouring in. But even as relief arrives for the people of Bhuj and

Ahmedabad, there is not a whisper of concern for the thousands of cold,

homeless, hungry and wounded animals struggling in the wake of this terrible

tragedy.

 

It is not that there is not enough to go around. There is. India has even

turned down some offers of aid on the grounds it was not needed.

 

Nor is it that not many animals have been affected. Gujarat is home to

India's dairy industry. Which means it must have a large cattle population.

There are also thousands of ponies and mules used at construction sites and

brick kilns. Add to that the millions of chickens, sheep and goats reared by

the meat industry. And then there are pet animals in human habitation. While

people rushed to escape from falling buildings, tethered animals remained

terrifyingly trapped. Many must have been buried alive. But today even as

rescuers search for human survivors and bodies, no one thinks to free

animals crushed under the rubble.

 

Even as we use sniffer dogs to search for human survivors, we entirely

ignore the plight of their fellow creatures. Does only human suffering

qualify for concern? Can we be so willfully oblivious of the pain of species

other than our own?

 

It is no one's case that animals should be rescued before or instead of

humans. No, but what stops us from rescuing them alongside other victims.

What stops us from extending the net of compassion to include all those

creatures affected by the calamity? Just as doctors and medical equipment

have been dispatched to Gujarat, veterinarians are needed just as urgently.

A splintered bone is as painful for an animal as for us. Just as biscuits

and blankets are going to feed and warm people, what about boris and bhusa

for the animals?

 

After the Latur earthquake, a team from BSPCA went to help quake-affected

animals. They found thousands of animal carcasses strewn around. Many,

severely injured but still breathing, lay around waiting to die. Others were

still buried beneath debris after rescue teams had finished pulling humans

to safety. Hundreds were wounded and starving in the open.

 

A 2-man team from Brookes Hospital has gone from Delhi to Gujarat to assess

the relief supplies needed to help surviving horses and mules. Find out what

you can do to help. Contact Karthik Sathyanarayan at D210 Defence Colony,

New Delhi, Tel: 4314787.

If you would like to help the animals in Gujarat with food, medicines,

bedding or money, contact Snehal Bhatt of GSPCA in Baroda at 60 Kunj

Society, Alkapuri, Baroda-390005. Tel: 321914, 328518. In Bhuj itself there

is the SPCA Bhuj, B/9 Nirmal Sinhniwadi Bhuj as well as the Shri Bhuj

Panjrapoli, Vaniyawad. Please remember that in the face of a natural

disaster, animals are even more helpless than people and as much in need of

your support.

 

Your contribution could be the gift of life for a suffering animal!

 

Yitzeling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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