The walkers on Boat Club Road were in for a treat last Sunday when members of INCARE brought some of their dogs for a walk to promote the practice the adopting abandoned and stray dogs.
The dogs they were walking were mostly pedigrees: a Rottweiler, a Great Dane, a Labrador and a Spitz along with a mongrel were among the canines that came to the event. The dogs had been rescued over the years. In the adoption awareness drive, the volunteers walked the dogs all around the area, handing out pamphlets and explaining the cause to anyone who was interested. The area is popular among the daily walkers in Chennai as the volume of vehicles is low and the area is quiet. This is clearly one of the reasons the area was chosen for the drive.
Some walkers even joined the procession, telling their walker-friends about the cause.
The police extended their support to the cause and INCARE. At the drive, two policemen helped in managing traffic to avoid any accidents.
Since its inception, nearly two-and-a-half years ago, INCARE has rescued close to a hundred dogs from city roads.
“These dogs have been abandoned for many reasons including maggot infestation and relocation of their owners,” said Maitreyi. “Many female dogs have been dumped on the roads by breeders once they cannot breed anymore.”
Once rescued, the dogs undergo a series of medical tests, get neutered, vaccinated and their health is restored, following which a post on INCARE’s Facebook page is put up so the dogs can get adopted.
“We don’t believe in keeping the dogs with us”, said Nitin Chandan. “We attend to any medical problems they may be suffering from, following which we try to get them adopted into homes where they will be looked after well.”
Virtual adoption is one of INCARE’s most successful ideas. The team realised that although many people might like the idea of owning a pet, not many have the space to do so. Virtual adoption allows people to donate money to the organisation so they look after dogs indirectly. When asked about the future plans of INCARE, Nitin said, “We believe in quality, not quantity. Currently, we can only look after twenty dogs at a time in our facility and we hope to expand our shelter so we can have more dogs.”
