Dear Friend of Friendicoes,

Welcome to the first issue of the Friendicoes e-newsletter!

It is with great pleasure that we bring to you the first Friendicoes e-newsletter which has been eagerly awaited by all of you out there. Every month from now we will bring you touching stories and latest news from your very own world of animals, the Friendicoes world of animals!!

Friendicoes SECA has been providing unconditional care and support to the abandoned and homeless animals of Delhi for the last almost three decades. In a couple of months from now Friendicoes will celebrate it's 30 years of service to the animals on the roads of Delhi and we take great pride in a job well done, or at least done to the best of our ability!

We are currently doing over 700 sterilizations each month and are running one of the most successful Spay/ Neuter programmes in the Capital of India. Our City Animal Helpline attends to over 30 calls a day and our Mobile Equine Clinic team assists over 1500 working equines in a month. The Shelter and the Sanctuary provides refuge to over 850 animals who need our love and care. With 8 veterinarians and 10 para veterinarians Friendicoes makes the maximum possible effort to provide the best medical treatment and care to all the street animals and abandoned pets that reach our doorstep. And it would all have been impossible if not for your kind support and generosity!!

Here we would like to say a special thanks to the Fondation Brigitte Bardot for their kind donation of an ambulance which has been vital and necessary in running a successful Spay/ Neuter programme as well as in rescuing a lot of distressed animals. A warm thanks to Animal People for supporting the Equine Welfare Project so generously. And as always our gratitude to all the donors whose generosity and concern for Friendicoes makes our existence
possible.

To all of you out there who are reading these words your contribution, of time, goodwill, and positive thoughts all make a difference in the life of an animal!! That's compassion in action and we hope to have your support as the year wears on.

The Friendicoes Team.

AAA sends gifts for the Working Equines in India

For the working equines of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh the year 2009 brought with it lovely gifts in the form of 535 keens and a new water trough at a brick kiln in Ballabgarh in Haryana. The friends who made these possible were Janet Thomas and Adele Anile of Animal Aid Abroad Inc from Australia. They spent two days visiting the Friendicoes SECA shelter and sanctuary and the different Working Equine stands and brick kilns in Delhi and Haryana, along with the Friendicoes SECA Mobile Equine Clinic Team and understood the need of these animals who are often mistreated and abused and rarely appreciated for the service they provide us humans.

The 5350 keens donated by them were distributed at different brick kilns and Tonga stands by the Friendicoes SECA Mobile Equine Clinic team. The keens which are like padded quilts go a long way to provide relief to the animal from the pressure of its load and prevents saddle sores which are often the result of ropes and loads cutting into the back of the animal.

Janet and Adele also gifted the animals with a water trough at one of the brick kilns which did not have a source for drinking water for the donkeys and mules who work 8-10 hours in the heat of the day without any rest and water. The new water trough has come as a life line to these poor beasts of burden who often collapse due to dehydration and heat stroke.

Our heartfelt gratitude to Janet and her team for their generosity and kind Donation.

Spay/ Neuter in Andaman & Nicobar islands

At the time when the devastating Tsunami hit India in December 2004, Friendicoes SECA was one of the few animal organizations offering hope and succor to the people and the animals of the Tsunami ravaged areas and islands of Andaman and Nicobar off Southern India. Since then Friendicoes with support from its sister concern Wildlife S.O.S. has continued its silent work in the islands of Andaman & Nicobar where the concept of animal welfare is yet to win many supporters.

Our team there headed by Dr. Geeta Gladson has been feeding over 158 dogs on Port Blair and Hut bay islands and providing veterinary aid to about 1200 large animals all survivors of the Tsunami that have now been given surrogate owners through Geeta’s efforts. Dr. Geeta and her helpers go around in her white Maruti Omni carrying food for these animals on the islands and feed them at different points. Recently the team has started a sterilization and vaccination drive in Neil Island to check the population of stray dogs on the island.

These dogs were caught with the help of two great volunteers Nori and Lucan and taken to the very clean though tiny veterinary clinic on the island where Dr Saravanan and Dr Geeta Gladson on behalf of Friendicoes / Wildlife SOS performed the surgeries along with Dr Vardhan of the Animal Husbandry department. The camp lasted five days and over 300 dogs were sterilized. The boarding of the dogs for post operative care was a huge shed made by Nori and Lucan entirely from waste planks and tin sheets on an old foundation of a school hall. The wonderful weather and very clean air of the islands undoubtedly contributed to the dogs quick recovery and most of them were back on the beaches and the huts of the fishermen by the time the team boarded their ship to get back to Piort Blair.We hope to cover the island of Port Blair, Little Andamans and Hut Bay during the coming year and thanks to Dr Vardhan’s kindness in giving us the use of three rooms in the Animal Husbandry building in Port Blair we hope to set up a proper clinic and target to do twenty dogs a day.

Meanwhile our feeding of the dogs on the streets of Port Blair will go on as also the vaccination of large animals and we hope to hold talks in schools and clubs about kindness to animals as well as explain the concept of spay and neuter and get the public involved in it enthusiastically. That should go a long way to controlling the stray dog population humanely and it will in the long run protect the wildlife as on many of the islands the dogs have turned feral and hunt the wildlife including nesting turtles.

This is an unsponsored programme and any contribution towards it will go a long way to help the animals.

Gurgaon Country Sanctuary Hospital Starts Operating

The hospital building at the Friendicoes SECA Sanctuary in Gurgaon is at last fully functional. Thanks to the generous donation of Phil and Trix Wollens of "Winsome Constance Kindess Trust, Australia" and a grant from the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the timely help of Col.Taneja of "Friends of Rural India"and our gratitude to Gauri Prakash Canjel, the Subramaniams and Laxmi and Chander who helped to turn the dream into a reality. The hospital has a fully equipped though simple surgery, and two large halls for pre and post operative care; a small enclosed garden to walk the patients in and adequate no.of kennels to board the dogs. This has been a long time in the making, not simply the building and the kennels but also the creation of adequate awareness in the areas around us; the innumerable meetings everytime dogs were poisoned and the slow acceptance of a humane spay / neuter programme for the dogs and cats around us.

We are glad to inform our friends and donors that the hospital is fully functional now with a team of two vets and two para vets manning the clinic cum hospital and catering to the sick and injured animals of the villages around as well as running a spay/ neuter & vaccination programme for the dogs in the nearby villages. The Muncipal Commissioner has been most encouraging and with his help a fully fledged “recognized” ABC project will be in place soon although government funds may not be available to begin with. Currently however the concept is being explained to the villagers around and surprisingly meeting with a good reception from the sarpanches ( village heads).

This programme is not sponsored by any government body or any trust funds and runs completely on donations made by friends and well wishers. Therefore we would like to request all our readers to contribute towards the same so that the work can continue unhindered.