FW: Please keep your pet and street dogs away from Circle of Animal Lovers in New Delhi

[Guest guest]

 

dhartig [dhartig]

Monday, May 11, 2009 3:48 PM

dhartig

Fwd: Please keep your pet and street dogs away from Circle of Animal

Lovers in New Delhi

 

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

smita joshi <smitajo79

Sun, May 10, 2009 at 11:49 AM

Please keep your pet and street dogs away from Circle of Animal Lovers

in New Delhi

To:

 

 

Hi if you hsvr pets or you feed stray dogs, please keep them away from Circle of

Animal Lovers. We have been hearing morbid stories about Circle of Animal

Lovers, New Delhi and when we asked people to email us their experienece, there

has been overwhelming response. Here are the first round of experiences we

received.

 

We have made complaints to the Animal Welfare Board of India many times now. Our

request is to stop Circle of Animal Lovers from taking in any more dogs. And to

stop them from performing Animal Birth Control operations. Circle needs to be

more accountable for the dogs. Mrs. Irani Mukherji, the lady who runs Circle of

Animal Lovers, has been approaced by us but refuses to acknowledge the

mismanagement of her shelter/clinic. We feel that Circle should be punished for

the cruelty they have inflicted on the dogs that were sent to their care.

 

When an animal lovers see an animal in distress and calls Circle of Animal

lovers and the van comes and picks up the dog/animal. The person who called the

ambulance feels the animal lover will be taken care of. Since no one goes there

and follows up, they take advantage of the fact. Per an eye witness, the dogs

are dragged to the first and the second floor of the building and visitors are

not allowed there and that is the last you see of them.

 

Here are some inputs sent/emailed by animal lovers in Delhi and NCR:

1.) As emailed by Ms. Delnavaz Sooi:

" I used to feed a female dog whom I called Ginger. One day she suddenly went

missing. I was informed by the guard that a lady from my complex had Ginger

picked up. On enquiring, this lady told me that she was a dog lover and she

thought that since the residents did not like dogs, she had Ginger sent to CAL.

I contacted Mrs. Irani to get my dog back. I told her that I would come and take

her back and would like to adopt her since I had become very attached to her.

Mrs. Irani refused to release Ginger on the same day & said that she would

release her after a day or two. On the same day in the afternoon, I got a call

from CAL telling me that they had changed their mind, they had decided to

release Ginger on the same day, however Ginger had chocked on the chain by which

she had been tied & had died immediately. "

 

2.) Incident that has been reported by Mr. Akshay of Maharani Bagh:

" A stray pup was run over outside my house and my mom took it to Circle of

animal lovers. At that point it seemed to be doing all right and we paid for an

operation post which the doc said it was getting better. Two days later my mom

called them and the doc said that the pup contracted an infection post surgery

as it ate some meat, and had died. "

 

3.) As emailed by Ms. Rajashree Khalap:

" ...I must clarify that no complaints have been made to me directly as I am not

actively involved with any dog welfare work nowadays. However since I run an

INDog club on orkut and also a club for people who have adopted Indian pariah

dogs/INDogs, I try to help in creating awareness by forwarding appeals and

petitions etc. One of my orkut group members posted a complaint in a blog about

this NGO called Circle of Animal Lovers. I asked some animal lovers in Delhi

about CAL and they said it has a bad reputation and mentioned that others have

complained about the place. I must confess I had never heard of it before, but

as I said, I am not in the dog welfare field. "

 

4.) Here is another incident informed to Smita Joshi by Mr. S. Sekhri of GK1:

He informed me that he and his family were feeding 4 street dogs. They decided

to explore the possibility of finding the animals a home or a shelter. They

spoke to Irani Mukherjee who agreed to keep the dogs at the price of Rs. 5000/-

per dog. Mr. Sekhri decided to explore other shelters as well and visited

Jeevashram as well as Alpha 11. On his way back he called CAL and requested if

he can visit their Gurgaon shelter where he was told the dogs will be kept. He

was blatantly refused permission to go to the Gurgaon shelter. He was told that

he would need a pass from the Saket office of CAL. When he said he can drive by

and collect the pass right away, he was told that it won't be possible. He was

very upset and decided against giving the dogs to CAL. He thinks that if they

are not allowing visitors inside the shelter, there is obviously something they

are trying to hide. I agree with him.

 

5.) Here is a letter that was published in 'The Hindu' mid 2008:

Here is some other person?s bad experience at CAL:

I wish to draw public attention to cruel treatment meted out to animals by a

Delhi-based NGO, Circle Of Animal Lovers, receiving grants from the Municipal

Corporation of Delhi and the Animal Welfare Board of India.

Being an animal lover, I feed several street dogs in my neighbourhood. However,

as the bitches often have several litters, I decided to get them sterilised. On

April 11 I called the Circle of Animal Lovers located at E-67, D.D.A. Flats,

Saket, New Delhi-110017, with a request to sterilise the stray dogs in my area.

I was asked to give a donation of Rs.500. I agreed, and two of the dogs were

taken away by them in their vehicle at 10-30 that night.

However, on April 28 they released only one of the dogs back to the area, saying

that the second dog was still undergoing operation.

Despite my repeated calls to them over the next few days, the organisation was

unable to tell me why the operation was taking so long.

On May 7, they finally said that they had operated upon my second dog, but for

its release they demanded a payment of Rs. 600 more, which I did. Without giving

me an opportunity to see and identify the dog, they made me sign a receipt

saying that the dog had been operated upon successfully and was being returned.

However, I was shocked to find that they had brought a different dog coloured

with gentian violet and insisted that this was the same dog.

This was not true. Also, the substitute dog that was released was badly bitten

and driven away by other dogs of my area. Dogs by nature are very territorial

and alien dogs are never accepted.

I do not know what happened to my dog. Did it die during the operation due to

some negligence or was it mistakenly released in some other area? Despite

several visits to the NGO?s office, no information has been provided about the

whereabouts of my dog.

I request the authorities concerned, including the funding agencies and the

Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), to investigate and help in

recovering the missing dog.

Ajay Thomas,

1-A D.D.A. Flats,

Friends Colony East,

New Delhi ? 110 065.

 

6.) As sent by Jasmine on dogspot:

" We must create awareness among people about the state of affairs with CAL . . .

in our area i never reach out to MCD for the sterlization of street dogs as i

fear that they might not send CAL as a routine process . . . in the past also we

have seen dogs being picked up by the same NGO and not being left back . . .

 

Circle had killed 2 out of 4 of my dogs as well and the third girl was on her

deathbed, and thank my doctors who could save her later on . . . and maybe to

hide their shady deeds they did'nt even clip their ears . . . and even after

this horrid experience irani was trying to be most manipulative and tried to cut

a very sorry figure who suffered from paucity of funds . . . and later on we

gathered that we r not the only one's, almost all people have had a similar

experience with her . . . in fact people go to the extent of saying that if

anyone wants to permanently remove strays they should contact Circle Of Animal

Lover's . . .

 

After this we have had more than 20 dogs spayed/neutered from Sonadhi(Mrs. Sen),

with most satisfying results . . . god bless them . . . Sonadhi has been

releasing the dogs in 4-5 days.. "

 

7.) We would like to lodge a formal complaint against the Circle of Animal

Lovers for their careless and inhumane attitude towards dogs.

 

Three of my colleagues and I, decided to tackle the street dog population around

our office at the DDA Market, Panchsheel Park head on and thought it a wise move

to get them sterilized in batches.

These were not random dogs but ones we truly care/cared about and fed and played

with everyday - they were healthy, strong and well-fed.

The CAL website states that the dogs are treated, sterilized and fed thrice a

day - http://www.circleofanimallovers.org/cal/our_services.htm

We thought that we'd found a good place to send the dogs.

 

On the 30th of March four dogs, 1 female and 3 males were picked up by the CAL

van.

We paid 300/- per dog and filled out a form provided by the employee, stating

that we wanted them all sterilized, vaccinated and that one needed treatment for

Mange, another had an eye injury that needed treatment.

They told us the dogs would be returned in 7-10 days.

 

After a week we began calling up the office in Saket asking after the dogs since

there was no sign of them coming back.

On the 9th of April, we went to the shelter located at C-58, Indira Enclave, Neb

Sarai Valley, behind IGNOU campus.

We were shocked by the place. An open drain ran along the front entrance.

Another ran through the ground floor of the building, simply covered with a

rusting metal sheet.

The ground floor is also where the surgery happens to be located.

 

They were initially reluctant to show us the dogs but after we insisted they

agreed to bring the dogs down from the first and second floors where they were

kept.

One by one the dogs were brought down and it broke out hearts. They were

obviously traumatized, emaciated and scared.

We could see that one's stitches were open and the staff was aware of this since

we'd been informed about when we'd called in the morning. By afternoon, we

expected that they would have done something about it.

We were keen to have all four dogs sent back that day but the staff insisted

that three were unfit to be returned that day.

Only one was sent back that evening. Nothing had been done to treat his mange.

 

On the 12th of April, we were informed that the female was dead.

We got no explanation other than she ate in the morning and died soon after.

After that we kept calling everyday to find out about the two remaining males.

On the 16th of April, one came back. He seemed listless and lethargic but we

thought it would take him a couple of days to adjust to being back in his home

environment.

The following Monday, 20th April, we realized that he was extremely ill. He had

fever and could barely move.

We took him to Friendicoes where he was immediately put on a drip.

A blood sample analysis proved that he had Tick Fever and another test the

following day confirmed our worst fears, he had Distemper and had to be put to

sleep.

 

We then insisted that the one remaining dog be sent back immediately and that we

would look after the still unhealed eye injury and the unhealed surgical wound

where his testicles had been removed.

 

All the dogs came back covered in ticks. Their ears hadn't been clipped to

identify them as having been neutered.

In addition to the 300/- we paid initially, we were asked to pay another 200/-

at the time of each release.

 

After the last dog came back we tried speaking to Mrs. Irani Mukherjee, who

rather than being concerned about the condition of the dogs at her shelter and

the fact that one died while in her care and one soon after, she was very rude

and banged the phone down. This upset us tremendously and we emailed her with

details of the incident and copied AWBI, and other concerned organizations. This

got an immediate response though she seemed more concerned about the fact that

we made a complaint rather than with the unecessary death of two dogs.

 

Sincerely,

Karen D'Souza, Madhavi Singh, Ragini Govind and Punita Singh.

 

8.) An animal lover residing in Shivalik, Malviya Nagar called yesterday(May 9,

2009) and informed that 2 female dogs which were completely emaciated and scared

were dropped by the MCD van which was being operated by Circle of Animal Lovers.

The dogs obviously didnt belong to Malviya Nagar as the person who called was

feeding the dogs in that area. They had been freshly sterilized and one of them

had swelling at the stictches. They were taken to a local vet, who advised them

to be euthanized because of the bad condition they were in. The person who

called didnt realise that she should have taken the van number and Circle..

refused to admit that it was their van.

 

9.) Dear Sir,

 

As a representative of SPCA Noida, I wish to lodge a complaint against the

A.W.O. known as Circle of Animal Lovers, for indulging in activities that are,

on the face of it, violative of the ABC (Dogs) Rules, and even the Prevention of

Cruelty to Animals Act.

 

They were picking up dogs from Sector 17, Noida, (U.P.) yesterday morning,

without verifying status, i.e. whether the dogs are already sterilized and

immunized by the SPCA Noida, which is the A.W.O. operating in the area, in

accordance with a plan submitted to, and approved by the Noida Authority.

 

Verifying status is particularly important because catching dogs needlessly is

an act of cruelty. An animal ought not to be put through unnecessary trauma.

 

A conversation with Mrs. Mukherjee later in the day revealed that they had

allegedly come into Noida, because 'somebody' had told her, that 'THERE ARE TOO

MANY DOGS IN NOIDA' ! Under the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, however, dogs

are not picked up simply because the concerned A.W.O. receives a complaint/call

to the effect that 'THERE ARE TOO MANY DOGS IN NOIDA' ,

 

 

Given below is a detailed account of what actually transpired, and why I am

complaining.

 

 

1) A Mahindra pick up vehicle with 'Circle of Animal Lovers' written across it,

was spotted by a former SPCA Noida employee, called Raju, in Sector 17, Noida,

yesterday, in the morning. Two dog catchers had caught 3 dogs and were trying to

catch a 4th dog, whom Raju has been looking after.

 

2) Raju tried to stop them, but they refused. He then made a panic call to me -

panic call, because in the recent past Circle of Animal Lovers had picked up 20

- 24 dogs from Nithari village at Noida, that never came back.

 

3) I spoke with one of the dog catchers in the Circle of Animal Lovers vehicle

(called Saroj), and asked him to release the dogs at once, and leave. He did so.

 

4) I then tried to contact Mrs. Mukherjee of Circle of Animal Lovers, which I

managed in the afternoon. To my surprise, when I related what had transpired to

her, she got unduly aggressive.

 

5) Mrs. Mukherjee contended that the vehicle (which is, I think, sanctioned

/donated by the M.C.D.) had gone to attend a private call in Noida !

 

6) I then asked her why her dog catchers were catching STREET DOGS in that

case. To my consternation, she said that 'somebody' had told her, that 'THERE

ARE TOO MANY DOGS IN NOIDA' !

 

7) I next asked her if her staff had tried to ascertain whether the dogs were

already sterilized, and immunized, by the organization working in the area,

i.e. SPCA Noida. She rudely answered, 'How will they know?' (i.e. how will her

staff know).

 

8) I then apprised her that SPCA Noida has worked out a sector-wise

sterilization plan in consultation with Noida Authority. She replied that she

will not pick up dogs from Noida -- but the Circle of Animal Lovers vehicle

(sanctioned /donated by the M.C.D., and probably operating with their funds)

would come to Noida whenever she wanted it to.

 

 

I AM BASING MY COMPLAINT ON THE FOLLOWING : -

 

A) Under the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, dogs are not picked up simply

because the concerned A.W.O. receives a complaint/call to the effect that 'THERE

ARE TOO MANY DOGS IN NOIDA' ,

 

B) Before proceeding to catch dogs from an area where another A.W.O. (SPCA

Noida) is operating, the Circle of Animal Lovers ought to have verified the

status, i.e. whether the dogs are already sterilized, and immunized, from the

SPCA Noida. This is particularly important because catching dogs needlessly, is

an act of cruelty. An animal ought not to be put through unnecessary trauma.

 

C) We have received complaints that in the past, Circle of Animal Lovers has

come into Noida, and randomly picked up dogs. For instance, in the recent past,

Circle of Animal Lovers had picked up 20 - 24 dogs from the Nithari village at

Noida, that never came back.

 

 

We are therefore requesting you to look into this matter, and také necessary

action.

 

Thanking you in anticipation.

For SPCA Noida

Anjali Sharma

(Member, Management Committee)

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Animal Lover]

 

Circle of Animal Lovers: A NGO Worker Reports

(E-67, DDA Flats, Saket)

I work in the NGO. There are 30 of us employed here – doctors, drivers, cooks, helpers and office staff. The doctors get over 20,000 Rs per month for 8 hour days, the office staff gets 6,000 to 8,000 Rs. The drivers get 6,500 Rs for 12-hour duties. The cook and the helpers get between 3,000 and 5,500 Rs per month for 14-hours shifts. Non of the workers get ESI or PF. The NGO is engaged in a sterilisation scheme for street dogs – which is part of the street-dog eradication program run by the Delhi government. Although officially the government has assigned the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) for this task, but actually the big shots have decided to let cheap NGO workers complete the work. The MCD pays 445 Rs for the sterilisation of a dog, and besides provides other favours to the NGO management: the NGO gets water and electricity free. The vans are called ambulance and are in a bad condition – but because of the NGO name the police do intervene. The madam running the NGO swears at the workers and even lifts her sandal to threaten the helpers. The 15 workers who stay in the office take some of the restaurant food that was originally meant for the dogs, some of the donations meant for the dogs get messed with, too. The whole process of catching a dog, sterilising it and letting it free is very painful – several dogs die and are buried in the scrub-lands at night. But they are entered as completed sterilisations in the register. The two doctors have to perform 30 to 40 dog operations per day… a doctor let some younger helpers do the work. This increases pain for the animal and the likelihood of death.