Industrial and institutional areas shut, animals left starved, dehydrated

With industrial areas and educational institutes bereft of people and street food outlets and restaurants shutting shop owing to the 21-day nationwide lockdown to

With industrial areas and educational institutes bereft of people and street food outlets and restaurants shutting shop owing to the 21-day nationwide lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus, animals, especially dogs, have been left starved and dehydrated.

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According to animal rescue and welfare organisations, while community dogs in and around residential societies are being fed by residents, a number of dogs and even large animals like cattle, which relied on street food vendors in institutional or industrial areas, have no source of food or water.

“We have about 82 dogs at our dispensary in Sector 55 while there are over 90 dogs at the shelter in Sector 126. The highest number of cases are of starvation and dehydration, because restaurants and street vendors are no longer operating. Also, people who would normally go out and feed these animals are stuck at home due to the lockdown,” Sanjay Mahapatra, founder of animal welfare NGO House of Stray Animals (HSA), said.

He added that while large animals like cows and oxen can still rely on greens, dogs and cats are left with no source of food.

“Most of these starvation cases are happening in deserted areas like Knowledge Park (educational hub), Expo Mart (industrial area) and such. Every day, when we go out to feed animals, we get to see a lot of extremely weak dogs with clear signs of starvation — their stomach thin and tongue hanging out,” Kaveri Rana, president from People for Animals (PFA), Gautam Budh Nagar, said.

She added that with the season changing, it also brings along the ailments such as parvo and distemper, and the numbers currently being reported are higher than usual.

“There are at least four cases of parvo in puppies being reported on a daily basis, which is basically due to an intestinal infection that happens when they end up eating things like polythene, rotten meat or dead rotten animals,” Rana said.

Distemper in both pups and adult dogs is another immunity-related disease due to wrong food habit and stress.

A number of animal starvation cases are also coming in unauthorised colonies and slum clusters where migrant workers used to live, but are now gone.

“Most of the migrant workers have left and those left behind are themselves struggling to meet daily needs, so how would they feed the dogs? Otherwise they take care of their community dogs quite well,” Rana said.

While the animal welfare organisations are also facing a crunch in the number of volunteers and staffers available, the animal welfare department has issued 50 passes to animal lovers and volunteers to feed the community animals.

“There are several NGOs feeding and taking care of both big and small animals and we have also issued passes to them so that they can feed animals without any hassle. Food is also being dispatched in certain regions. There are cases of ailments among dogs, but most of them are because of the season change. We also urge people to keep water and feeders with some grain in their balconies for birds and outside their houses for dogs, at least till the lockdown ends,” VK Srivastava, chief veterinary officer, Gautam Budh Nagar, said.

Meanwhile, a number of volunteers are coming forwards to help animal NGOs with food items.

“There are many who are supplying food items like rice, dog food and milk to shelter homes. These are serious times and we need to be compassionate,” NP Sigh, president District Development Resident Welfare Association (DDRWA), said.

“I rescued a puppy yesterday from my society, got the number of a nearby shelter from Google. The pup was in a bad shape, and so we took a risk and went to the shelter. The shelter was short-staffed and needed volunteers, so I applied and will be getting a feeder’s pass to feed dogs outside of our society areas as well,” Samiksha, a resident of Sector 75, Noida, said.