Sometime in the 1970’s a group of school kids got together and started a kindness club for distressed stray animals under the Defence Colony flyover. The space was provided for by the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi’s regime. It was a small set up with just 2 rooms and a handful of animals. But in no time the shelter grew by leaps and bounds and in April 1979 it was registered as a society and Friendicoes SECA came into existence.
In the last three decades a lot of things have changed. What has not changed is the involvement of Geeta Seshamani (present Vice President) and the late Gautam Barat (ex-treasurer – who passed away in October 2011) who were there from the very beginning. Geeta Seshamani says she took her inspiration from Crystal Rogers, a legend in India’s animal welfare, who influenced a whole generation of young people of her time to help animals.
Friendicoes is now a much bigger shelter under the same flyover in the same location and boasts of an Out Patient’s Department, an in-house clinic for the strays that accommodates about 150-200 animals at any point of time, two operation theaters, a Lab & X-ray unit as well as a sanctuary in Gurgaon that houses about a thousand animals. There is also round the clock ambulance service for the strays as well as an emergency night clinic for pets.
