Three puppies are the new strays that have found space in Veer Samar’s home and heart. He picked them up from bylanes near his house on December 12, the day cyclone Vardah hit Chennai.
Veer Samar, a resident of Anbu Nagar in Valasaravakkam, has brought home many such animals.
A few months ago, he rescued an injured cock that was found on the highways between Rajapalayam and Sethur.
The bird had somehow fallen from an overloaded consignment carrying poultry.
“Now, it is this cock that wakes me up early in the morning,” says Samar. “Once, at a village in one of the southern districts, where I had gone as part of a team carrying out a film shoot, I saw a goat at a slaughter house which was soon to be butchered. I bought the goat after paying for it the price quoted by its owner,” says Samar, who works as art director in the film industry.
Similarly, he bought a hen from another meat shop at a village near Sattur.
“I did that when I had done another shoot. I had a tough time in guarding the hen. I kept the bird at the motel where I stayed. When I was away, many attempted to take it away stealthily. When I was alerted about this, I began to carry the hen with me in the car to the shooting site,” says Samar.
Samar has also picked up a wounded goat that was found on the Highways near Madurai. “It had been hit by a vehicle and was heavily bleeding. It was treated for its injures, but succumbed to them on the 15th day,” he adds.
He also feeds around 20 stray dogs in his neighbourhood, with rice, milk, eggs and meat every day.
“Once, on the way back from a shoot around 1 a.m., I stopped at one of the streets near my house to feed the dogs with biscuits. The patrolling police asked me what I was doing on the street at that hour. I was able to convince them of the reason I was there. When I whistled, 10 to 15 dogs came running towards me. The police were amused,” says Samar.
Some of Samar’s neighbours help him by feeding the stray dogs and other pets at his house while he and his family are out of station. There are people who don’t take a favourable view of Samar’s commitment to feeding stray dogs.
“A neighbour came to my house looking for his shoes. As he expected, it was lying within the compound walls of my house. Another neighbour came with his bike to show how a dog had torn its seat and demanded compensation. I have been sorting out such issues amicably,” he says.
