(IN) Animal activist demands proper animal hospital in suburbs

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Dear All,

 

The story came on Sunday's Kalyan-Dombivli Plus which us comes with Time

of India. Reply me your views as well as feedbacks on this.

 

Regards,

Nilesh

PAWS

www.pawsasia.org <http://www.pawsasia.org/>

 

 

http://www.mumbaipluses.com/DombivaliKalyanplus/index.aspx?page=article & sectid=2\

& contentid=20080323200803241717078737bd4dcdf & sectxslt= & comments=true

 

 

Animal activist demands proper animal hospital in suburbs

Posted On Sunday, March 23, 2008

In the absence of a proper animal hospital in suburbs, activists are

finding it difficult to tend to ailing animals from the suburbs and have

to travel all the way to either Thane or Mumbai

Manoj Badgeri/ Dombivli

If the animal welfare activists from the suburbs are to be believed then

the absence of a proper animal hospital in suburbs is creating several

problems. According to the complaints of the activists, there is no

proper space in the suburbs to treat injured or sick animals.

Resultantly the animal activists have to take these animals all the way

to Thane or Mumbai.

There are a couple of animal welfare groups working in the suburbs and

all of them echo the same problem. " Whenever there is an injured stray

or animal the residents call us. We are faced with the problem as to

where to take them after rescue. We get calls very frequently regarding

animal rescue. Taking them all the way to Mumbai or Thane is usually

very time-consuming and can also prove risky, " says Nilesh Bhanage of

PAWS, a NGO dedicated for animal welfare.

It is pertinent to note here that the only other veterinary hospital is

in Parel. " Sometimes people abandon their pets on the roadside to die,

as it is usually inconvenient for them to take the animals to Parel for

proper treatment, " says another animal activist.

Animal activists say that the KDMC is seemingly not equipped to handle

such situations. " The department of the KDMC is ill-equipped to handle

such emergencies. Many times the fire men call us in cases of animal

rescue. We don't understand why the KDMC cannot allocate a space for the

animal treatment, " says another animal lover from the suburbs.

A centre in some centre place in the suburbs like Dombivli or Kalyan is

what is needed. Activists say that the allocation of a cattle shed near

the Pragati College in Dombivli can be used as a temporary hospital, but

it has been stuck in bureaucratic tussle. Says Bhanage, " The shed was to

be used to tend to sick animals. There is a sizeable number of animal

distress call every week and a centre in the suburbs is always needed, "

he says.

Bhanage says that regular communications to the KDMC has yielded no

results. " I have written several letters to the KDMC, but it hasn't

yielded any results. The KDMC must give a thought to setting up such

centres in the suburbs at the earliest, " he adds.

At the time of going to the press, RD Shinde, Commissioner of KDMC had

reportedly assured some action in this issue and called the members of

the NGO for a meeting.

" We have been assured of a meeting with the KDMC. This neglect of the

animals from the suburbs isn't right. I have written a letter to the

KDMC commissioner requesting his help in the issue and if this fails I

am planning to approach the Animal Welfare Board of India and Menaka

Gandhi requesting them to look into the matter, " he says.