Shubha Mudgal, the renowned singer and musician, is a well known pet-lover. Pictures of her pooches, Ringo and Nargis, are all over Instagram. But it’s her recent Facebook post of an abandoned dog found near the main gate of her colony in Paharganj that has gone viral. Not only because it highlighted the journey of the pooch, who’s now housed at the ACGS (All Creatures Great and Small) shelter, but also because she brought up a recurring issue when it comes to helping strays: the lack of availability of ambulances for animals.
An endless cycle
“I am an animal lover, but not one who is trained to handle sick, injured animals or even frightened, terrified ones who may attack in defense. Even for this poor creature, I tried in vain for three days to get an animal ambulance to transfer him to the shelter. Each one asked for details, said they would work out the expense (which I said I would pay) and added they would call back. But they never called back, and when I followed up they said they couldn’t handle the job but would give me the contact for another animal ambulance service. And the cycle would start again,” Shubha wrote.
Having said that, Shubha also pointed out that she isn’t aware of the challenges animal ambulance services face. “I am certain they must be overworked and perhaps poorly paid,” she wrote, asking people to send details of animal ambulance services in Delhi that respond in time.
Infrastructural issues
{{/usCountry}}Infrastructural issues
{{/usCountry}}It’s not easy to get ambulance services in Delhi-NCR, Anjali Gopalan, the Managing Trustee at ACGS, agrees. “These services don’t exist! Whatever is there is via the private domain and really erratic. There is no standardised way of functioning and costing, often holding animal caregivers hostage!” she says, adding, “There is nothing from the Government. The MCD exists but is pretty non-functional, even when it comes to moving large animals!”
“You often have to pay through your noses for the animal ambulance services. We have more than 500 dogs and there is no way of getting resources to take care of these animals. Also, there is only a finite number of animals a shelter has space for,” she says, revealing that ACGS also gets requests form Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh for help with strays.
“Maybe the animal husbandry department, NGOs and animal caregivers can work something out together? As a society, we need to realise our existence is dependent on the that of other animals and the environment,” Anjali concludes.
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From HT Brunch, May 28, 2022
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