Vikash A Bafna from Bangalore has come to the rescue of the strays who he fondly calls his 'friends'. The founder of Friend for Animals trust has been feeding as many as 350 dogs during the lockdown.
Vikash said, "Many animals have been abandoned after their pet parents were hospitalized due to COVID and their families don't want to look after them. I have rescued some of the dogs and along with CUPA, I am trying to find new homes for them. We have found a 2-year-old Great Dane which had maggots on its unattended wounds. Such dogs are high maintenance and a few people realized this after getting them and then gave up on them. Some dogs manage to survive on the streets but others who are frightened get bitten or scared by other dogs and don’t survive.”
Many people who bought dogs from breeders and are now abandoning them, said CUPA's Sanjana Madappa. "There was panic last year when there were rumors that animals spread the COVID virus. We managed to counsel people that this was not true and stopped people from abandoning their pets to a great extent. When people called us to adopt a dog during the lockdown, we did a background check on their commitment and financial condition. And thankfully, no dog adopted from us has been abandoned," said Madappa.
CUPA has been rescuing about five abandoned dogs every day during the lockdown.
Bafna said that dogs are companions for life and they should not be bought as a temporary distraction from life’s problems but should be loved and cherished.
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