(IN): A DOG’S LIFE

[Guest guest]

A DOG’S LIFE

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090802/jsp/calcutta/story_11309158.jsp

 

> A DOG’S LIFE

> A pet falling ill can be a nightmare for its owner. Why is animal care

> abysmal in the city? A Neapolitan Mastiff and a Great Dane on the

> grounds of Bhayrav Kennels in Barasat

>

> Buying chicken-flavoured chew sticks or fruit-flavoured shampoo for the dog

> may take just a walk around the corner these days in Calcutta but if he

> takes ill, an attempt to find an ambulance to ferry him to the hospital will

> just raise a laugh.

>

> Michael Liu, owner of champion Boxers and Dobermans for over a decade,

> guffaws on being asked about ambulances for dogs. “When you don’t have

> proper medical care, how can you expect an ambulance? Pets are not

> considered important here.”

>

> Even as pet parlours and accessory shops for them are mushrooming in the

> city — even some petrol pump stores and chemists stock dogfood these days —

> basic needs of domesticated animals in Calcutta are severely neglected.

>

> *Untrained trainers*

>

> Owners gladly hand their loved ones to trainers twice a week hoping they

> will learn the meaning of “sit” and “stay” (Indians love to teach their dogs

> English), but the quality of trainers is a question mark.

>

> Many trainers simply take the dog for a walk and get him to clear his

> bowels on the roadside. “In Delhi or Mumbai, you have groomers trained in

> institutes abroad. A mobile grooming parlour has been started in Mumbai by

> an acquaintance who trained in Sydney. Here all the grooming parlours do is

> bathe and snip,” frowns Partha Sekhar Chatterjee, international dog show

> judge and breeder.

>

> Lack of proper equipment can have severe consequences. “As most parlours

> don’t have nail grinders, they end up cutting the quick, the soft part under

> the nails containing blood vessels and tender nerve endings. This leads to a

> lot of bleeding,” he says.

>

> *Playtime*

> A dog creche in the city and (below) the pet burial ground near

> Thakurpukur. Pictures by Aranya Sen and Sanat Kumar Sinha

>

> Dogs lack open space where they can romp about, without being shouted at by

> morning-walkers. Kavita Guha, wife of Garden High School rector Indranath

> Guha, has no place near her Alipore home to take her Golden Retriever to.

> “Bhombol was refused entry on the National Library premises, nor is he

> allowed into the Agri-Horticultural Society garden or Victoria Memorial. I

> feel scared to take him to the Maidan as strays there can attack him.” So,

> Guha sometimes takes Bhombol all the way from Alipore to the school premises

> after classes give over. “My friends in Delhi and Bangalore do not face this

> problem.”

>

> *Medical blues *

>

> The dog falling ill can be the beginning of a nightmare for the owner. Good

> vets are rare; good vets — and bad vets — are rarely on time; there is

> hardly a hospital for animals within reach.

>

> “We phoned the vet many times when my Great Dane was on his deathbed. The

> vet said he would come, but finally didn’t, saying he was stuck in heavy

> rain,” says Cherie Tikader, a Class XI student of Salt Lake School.

>

> It’s not merely the callous veterinary. When their pets fall ill, many

> don’t know where to take them. Diksha Seth, a resident of Outram Street, is

> afraid to take her Lhasa Apso to a clinic. “Most pet clinics look so shabby

> I’m afraid Snuggles will catch some infection,” she wrinkles her nose.

>

> Surgery, particularly eye surgery, is a problem. “Most vets lack confidence

> about surgery and try to make do with medicine. A dog with cataract has less

> chance of cure in Calcutta than even Ludhiana. Isn’t it a shame when human

> cataract surgery is so routine?” asks Chandrasekhar Sarkar of North Calcutta

> Kennel Club.

>

> And for other pets, like birds, the search for facilities is more arduous.

>

> The largest hospital for animals is the government-aided facility in

> Belgachhia. It is well-equipped, attests Dr Goutam Mukherjee, vet and

*t2*columnist. It has X-ray machines, both portable and fixed, a USG machine, an

> automated blood and urine analyser, among other things. The equipment is

> worth more than Rs 2 crore.

>

> This is an exception. The regular pet clinic may not be fitted even with an

> X-ray machine. A Salt Lake pet-owner, for instance, has to go all the way to

> Paikpara, a good 40 minutes away, to get the facility.

>

> Dr Chandan Lodh, head of the department of veterinary medicine, ethics and

> jurisprudence of the West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences

> in Belgachhia, which also runs a clinic, agrees. The centre treats dogs,

> cats, birds and even the odd mongoose and monkey.

>

> “We get around 50 cases a day. This proves the dearth of good clinics,”

> says Dr Lodh. “The regular pet clinics cannot afford the kind of equipment

> we have.”

>

> How many pet-owners can manage to go to Belgachhia every time, or on time,

> asks Dr Mukherjee. “There are so few laboratories that we have to depend on

> pathological facilities for human beings,” he complains. Fortunately, the

> parameters for pathological tests for dogs are similar to human beings. But

> vets have to interpret X-rays on their own.

>

> As for an ambulance with oxygen and drugs, there is none. Saviour Pets

> Institute, a Santoshpur facility, has two pick-up vans that work from 8am to

> 10pm only for its own patients. Compassionate Crusaders Trust has a pick-up

> facility from noon to 5pm.

>

> Lack of emergency services is a huge gap. “Private facilities like Saviour

> Pets Institute and Ashari, on the Bypass, do not offer 24-hour treatment,”

> says Dr Mukherjee. The Belgachhia hospital has an emergency ward but it

> functions from 8am to 8pm.

>

> *Money matters*

>

> Why is caring for animals, and pets, such a tough job in Calcutta? The

> reason is a mix of economics and attitude towards animals. “Spending power

> on pets is very low in Calcutta. While vets can easily charge Rs 200 to 250

> in cities like Delhi or Bangalore, here vets are available for Rs 50-100,”

> says Dr Saurabh Shekhar, regional sales manager, north and east of Mars

> International, which sells the popular Pedigree brand of dogfood.

>

> Medical facilities are hit by the lack of a steady clientele. This plagues

> even a procedure as vital as blood infusion. Moitri Veterinary Clinic near

> Lake Market, one of the better-equipped outfits in town, did try to import

> blood grouping kit once. A German company was ready to send the kit, but no

> less than 100 units at a time and each kit cost Rs 1,200. “How many people

> can afford Rs 1,200 just on blood grouping?” asks Kishore Ganguly of Moitri.

>

> In these circumstances, grooming, less cosmetic for pets than humans, with

> procedures such as flea treatment, trimming of hair or paring of nails,

> suffers even more. This is proved by the Paws experience. The Ballygunge pet

> shop, which had opened its Salt Lake branch with much fanfare last year, has

> had to down shutters. “People care about pets in Calcutta but when it comes

> to shelling out cash, they back out,” says owner Shantanu Mitra.

>

> *Last goodbye*

>

> Even the last journey of pets is fraught with indignity.

>

> “Our German Shepherd died at a late hour. None of the burial grounds were

> open. So we had to bury her in a field nearby,” says homemaker Priti Basu.

> Others end up paying the garbage man to dispose of the body.

>

> Another dog of the Basus is buried in Namanusher Samadhi near Thakurpukur,

> a good hour away from their east Calcutta home. “We would like to go over to

> his tombstone on his birthdays but it’s just so far,” she complains.

>

> Many do not mind the distance and space is filling up. Tarun Bhusan Guha,

> president of Nikhil Banga Kalyan Samity, which runs the burial ground, says

> they have 280 graves with tombstones and only have space for 120 more.

>

> Compassionate Crusaders Trust runs a burial ground called Karuna Kunj, in

> South 24-Parganas near Bibirhat, which, unlike Namanusher Samadhi, has a

> hearse. “We reuse a plot after a year by when the body disintegrates,” says

> Debasis Chakrabarti of the trust.

>

> Arijit Mukherjee, cinematographer and avid pet lover, has filed papers for

> registration of a Dog Owners and Lovers Association, whose first task will

> be to set up an incinerator. “It will cost us Rs 18.5 lakh but we can raise

> the funds. All we need from the authorities is land,” says the owner of six

> dogs.

>

> Things are already looking up in another area. Perhaps because people

> travel much more today, creche facilities in the city are improving.

>

> *Home truths*

>

> Tity Das, a former handler, has been housing pets at his Deshapriya Park

> home for about 30 years. “I have separate cages for dogs and cats in my

> two-storeyed home. Owners leave a diet chart and I feed the animal

> accordingly.”

>

> But he is wary of birds. If they take ill they die too quickly, making them

> risky boarders.

>

> Breeder Partha Sekhar Chatterjee keeps dogs at his Gutiarisharif farmhouse,

> en route to Canning. “I have an aquarium, an aviary and a swimming pool.”

> But it takes about Rs 1,500 to transport the pet to and fro.”

>

> Some institutionalised facilities are coming up. Saviour has a creche to

> keep 25 animals at a time. Paws, at Ballygunge Circular Road, can take in a

> maximum of six dogs. “We are overbooked during the vacations and the rest of

> the year we have around 50 per cent booking. We want to increase the number

> of our enclosures to 10 after the Pujas,” says owner Mitra.

>

> Bhayrav Kennels claims to have capacity for over 200 dogs. The catch is it

> is in Barasat. “Our creche has fields, ponds and hillocks. Creches in the

> city measure their area in sq ft, we measure ours in acres,” says proprietor

> Rajesh Kumar Singh. It gets around five dogs a month.

>

> But many pet owners still stay away from family holidays. “When my husband

> and I wanted to visit Tirupati last year I went alone while he stayed back

> with our Spitz. Then I returned and looked after him while my husband went

> to Tirupati,” says Jayashree Nair of Salt Lake.

>

> Some creches can be harmful. “When my cousin left her Spitz at a creche the

> dog returned with fleas!” says Cherie.

>

> It is not easy to be a caring pet owner or animal lover in the city.

> Perhaps a clue to the reason lies in what Arijit Mukherjee was told when he

> approached the chairman of Bidhannagar Municipality Biswajiban Majumdar for

> the incinerator. “He laughed on my face. He said they can barely take care

> of people so dogs were a far cry.”

>

> That is a sad truth. Though Mukherjee is now trying to speak to mayor

> Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya.

>

Sudeshna Banerjee and Brinda Sarkar

>

>

>

>

> --

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