The first phase of the lockdown last year threw up challenges that called for deeds of kindness, especially towards animals. When the shutdown of restaurants and roadside eateries left many strays scrounging for food, animal lovers, welfare associations and several volunteers — after acquiring special permits — took up a special drive to feed stray animals. This year, in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic and the resultant lockdown, animal lovers geared up once again to feed the strays, but this time extending their care to vaccination as well.
The seven-member team of All for Animals Foundation (AFA Foundation) based in Hyderabad has taken up the 7-in-1 vaccination drive with the help of volunteers, who do it during the lockdown hours when the dogs approach them for their feed.
Srilu Bhopal, founder-member of AFA Foundation, mentions that since anti-rabies injections are given free by the GHMC to strays, her focus is on the 7-in-1 vaccine, which protects dogs against 7 diseases — canine distemper, adenovirus, hepatitis, parainfluenza, parvovirus, leptospirosis and coronavirus. “These are viral diseases that are not just painful but can kill the animals,” she says, adding that a large number of volunteers are able to feed animals from their own resources but when it comes to vaccines, it gets difficult to administer vaccines to all as each 7-in-1 costs ₹300. Srilu has been sponsoring most of these vaccination programmes with some help from friends and family.
Srilu appealed to DGP Mahender Reddy and GHMC Commissioner Lokesh Kumar to obtain passes for feeders and volunteers and to chief veterinary officer Dr. Vakil for medical help.
With support from an animal lover and well-known animal rescuer T V Siva Prakash and AFA Foundation co-founder Archana, as part of the core team, Srilu got her campaign rolling last week. “Volunteers are the pulse beat of AFA Foundation. It is because of their work on the field in interacting and caring that those street animals are safe,” says Srilu.
“All these efforts are to promote a healthy animal-human co-existence, devoid of any fear and also to give a quality life to urban strays,” says Pratima Sagar, secretary AFA Foundation.
The Foundation is also raising funds for ‘The Water Bowl Project’ and the second phase of its ‘Feed the Stray’ initiative. “We have installed 3,000 water bowls and have been feeding more than 3,000 stray animals daily across Hyderabad,” informs Srilu.
However, the Foundation needs money to sustain its initiative and is accepting donations through the crowd-funding site Ketto. Those interested can contribute through https://www.ketto.org/fundraiser/all-for-animal.