Abandoned pets find new homes in the city

Duster is a beagle, who when he was rescued, had ticks, could not bark and was scared. After two years of care and training, he now lives with his new family and feels safe. City NGOs say that approximately eight to ten cases of pedigree dogs being abandoned reach them each month. Realizing that you cannot keep the pet anymore is not a bad thing, provided you do the needful of approaching the correct organization and cooperate until another arrangement is made.While a complaint can be filed to facilitate the case of a missing dog, it is usually difficult to find the owners. If pet registration is implemented strictly, it will be easier to locate the owners
Reasons aplenty
One of the main reasons of people abandoning their pets is unaffordable maintenance. “Veterinary expenses are heavy, especially if the dog is old and unwell. Private clinics charge a lot of money and not everybody knows the other options. There are other reasons too. Recently a man wanted us to keep an expensive dog because his wife did not like it,” says Harmesh Bhatt, head of a welfare foundation in the city. He adds that if medical expenses are subsidized, a lot of people will not give up on their pets.
Rehabilitation and rehoming
Generally, people readily adopt puppies and young dogs but finding a home for an old dog is difficult. A background check of new owners is important too. “You don’t want the next owner to do the same. So following up with the new owners and providing all medical care free of cost is something that NGOs have to do,” says Dr Mugdha Rakshit, a veterinary doctor. If the intermediaries do their work well, a lot of problems can be solved easily.
Taking full responsibility
Sometimes some owners don’t even impart basic training to their dogs and once abandoned, it becomes difficult to start from scratch. Dharmendrasingh Rathod of a welfare trust, says, “Once we find an abandoned dog, our first priority is to provide personal attention. The next priority is to provide medical care and then finding a family for adoption.” He says that on an average they find three to four dogs on a monthly basis.
Bringing happiness
An online community, working on the cause get queries on the social media page. “One needs to do proper homework before getting a dog. You need to factor things in like the nature of the dog vis a vis weather, food, exercise etc.,” says Himani Mod, a core member of this group.