Animals in urban surrounding face several challenges for survival and street dogs, although street community pets and much cared for by many in India and also protected by law, suffer a great deal when the humans that feed them are suddenly relocated…and this doesn’t necessarily happen only during natural disasters!
In 2019 Friendicoes was besieged with requests that one of the oldest government housing colonies had been demolished in South Delhi and hundreds of community dogs and also a few pets were abandoned or left behind in the half broken ruins of their homes. Some were injured but mostly they were starving as their relocated humans were unable to take them when they were asked to vacate their flats. Needless to say all the dogs abandoned were the non-breeds.
Friendicoes rushed there to find a heartrending sight of dogs guarding gates of houses that no longer existed, many had been injured by falling debris as they wouldn’t leave their “homes” when the JCBs came to knock the structures down. Friendicoes began street feeding of these dogs, 319 to be exact and almost 51 cats . Spay/ neuter was done, injured dogs were treated, vaccinations and baths given, and volunteers joined us to keep the momentum going. Till today we continue the feeding which expanded exponentially when Covid 19 Pandemic struck.
Responding to distress calls from animal lovers of dogs starving in the streets of Delhi during the lockdowns, Friendicoes began a street dog and cat feeding program, to which we added fodder and feed for equines and cows …. monkeys and nilgai/ bluebulls often joined the feeding points. At any given moment we struggled to feed and medicate over 2500 animals through the three long years of Covid. Never before was the dependence of community pets on kind human hands more obvious.
As in all disasters, and this prolonged and confusing pandemic was certainly a disaster, Friendicoes kept up whatever services it could render. Our clinics stayed open, spay / neuter was carried out for the street dogs we were feeding, and over 200 abandoned pets reached our Lifetime Care Sanctuary. Although the lockdowns are now over we still find ourselves feeding over 1200 street animals even today. We request support by donations in kind and seek sponsors so that the program stays sustained.
