Welfare Of Stray Dogs, Mumbai, India

2 comments | March 27th, 2007 | Trackback

Welfare of Stray Dogs, based in Mumbai, regularly shares its newsletter with me, and the latest one features this picture of Bogie, who was found injured on board a train. She was taken in and cared for by WSD and is currently waiting to be rehomed.

I came across WSD in person back in 2005, during a two day stopover in Mumbai; its founder was at a street fair sharing information about the group’s work and had been to Chicago (where I’m from) so we chatted about that a bit. I asked him if I could trail along with a group of First Aid volunteers the following day, to see what they were doing. Seeing some dedicated volunteers in action, doing work that most people would try to avoid, ended up being one of the highlights of my trip.

WSD First Aid volunteers respond to resident calls about sick or injured stray dogs – they visit the area, try to track down the stray in question (and a surprising amount of time succeeding in what sounds like an impossible task), and provide basic medical care using natural remedies. For some background information on stray dogs, see my post on Stray Dogs Abroad.

When I was there, this was generally done by a small groups of 8-10 ordinary people (with special training in the basics of first aid) working in teams of two or three, one day a week. WSD’s work doesn’t stop there though – they also run vaccination and sterilization programs, to help reach a lasting solution to Mumbai’s stray dog problems. All of this work clearly benefits the dogs themselves, but also benefits people in the area not only because most hate to see animals suffering with injuries or disease, but also because quality of life is improved when people don’t have to worry about the threat of rabies or of dogs getting into fights with each other over territory or mating and injuring people in the process.

If you’re already in Mumbai, you can help WSD by volunteering in a number of different areas. You can also donate funds, join their “pariah dog club” (if you own a pariah, the ancient but frequently unofficial dog breed of many strays, or a mixed breed dog, that is!), or attend one of their many seminars or fund-raising events such as one of the regular garage sales.