In this newsletter: "Lucky" dog finds a home at VSPCA, our new small animal shelter, new cow rescues, and Sarvani and Sarat's saved monkey.

Did you know that since 1998 we have sterilized and vaccinated 50,000 dogs in our area? We’ve also recenty made news in our region as we are sterilizing another 10,000 street dogs this year with the cooperation of The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation and the Animal Welfare Board of India.

Our successful animal birth control (ABC) programme helps everybody: local people, the environment, and the animals which suffer terribly as a result of over-breeding and fighting. The sight of starving, often injured dogs trying to feed their young is heartbreaking. And yet the cycle goes on, unless we can neuter them. Please help us to continue this vital work!

If you remember our sweet "poster puppy" who helps us promote adoption of all-Indian dogs in a previous email report, please click here to see an updated photo!

We hope to educate people about the advantages of adopting strays and the pleasure they can give their human companions. Lucky (shown above) is the latest story in our continuing daily rescue of animals in need, and is now one of our 128 shelter dogs. Read some of their stories here.

We’ve built a lovely new environment for rescued ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs and mice, sponsored by the Indian film actress Smt. Hema Malini. All are now much happier in their new, safe home with room for more!

For further information on why we had to start this new habitat please see the article “Out of Bondage: It is time to set the caged animals free" in The Hindu newspaper.

"The question here is not whether they are endangered or not but how they are kept," points out Pradeep Nath, founder of Visakha SPCA. "Birds and rabbits are sensitive to fumes and pollutants and confinement to tiny cages for sale in the marketplace develops many problems for these sensitive small animals."

Six more cows rescued

Two of our intrepid volunteers, Kinnera and Sridhar, were disturbed when they came upon five cows and a calf crammed into the back of a small car. They confronted the driver with VSPCA authority, and - because they were being illegally taken to a slaughterhouse - our volunteers seized the cows and brought them to refuge with us. They will now be fed and looked after well. Another two cows were rescued and brought to VSPCA shortly thereafter under even more distressing conditions.

In India, it is illegal to keep monkeys, or any wild animals as pets. Despite that they are frequently kept and ill-treated.

This monkey had been injured by a pack of dogs and the ‘owner’ had tried treating the monkey’s wound with chilies causing immense pain. The neighborhood children, who heard the screaming monkey in distress, got help to bring him to the VSPCA shelter for treatment.

Pictured here are Saravani, and her brother Sarat with the monkey treated at VSPCA.

Recent news articles

• Pollution proves fatal for turtles (25 March 2008)
  VSPCA attributes death of hundreds of turtles to the presence of nitrite content in the vicinity of beaches.
• Article about VSPCA in Animal's Voice magazine by Eileen Weintraub (PDF)
• A new blog entry on the Best Friends Network written by Scott Feldstein
• And another one by Sharon St. Joan!

Help us continue the fight

We realize that education is vital in the battle against cruelty. To this end, we have to find the funds to produce educational materials, and to publicize our presence and our animal adoption programme.

Now, punishing heat takes its toll as we labor to keep the animals alive and healthy in record-breaking heat (over 43ºC/110ºF) early in the season. Our staff and volunteers are keeping their promise to not turn their backs on the animals. We never like to turn down a request for a rescue, nor desert a suffering animal. We have many bills unpaid at present and our hard working staff is owed back wages.

With your help we can make a difference and minimize the awful suffering we see every single day. Your donation of any amount is welcome, please join our effort.

Please note that since our last email report: We are grateful to the kind help from the Steel Plant of Visakhapatnam, Smt. Hema Malini, Smt. Maneka Gandhi; The Animal Welfare Board of India, Ms. Olive Walker, The Winsome Constance Kindness Trust, Compassion for Animals Foundation, Animal People News, Ms. Jane Courtney, Ms. Margaret Gebhard, Mr. Rob Holland, Sharon St. Joan and Best Friends Network, Hungerford Design, artists at Etsy for Animals, Worldwide Vet Service (vet supplies), Visakha Gowrakshna Samithi (cattle feed) --and the following individuals: Robert Andrews, Judith Embry, Sylvia Caris, Claudine Erlandson, Paulomi Joshi, V. Kinnera, Marie and Orange Kids, Katie McHenry, J & S Shan, Keval Tanna, Rajesh Vedula, Barbara Vickers, Victoria Windsor, Jennifer Wooliscroft, Elizabeth Zapata, - our fabulous monthly subscribers: Syd Baumel, Lynette Bevan, Jean Bird, Renee Kehr, Melanie Freeberg, Esther Geisser, Judy Hungerford, A my Kauffman, Kumar Kakarlapudi, Lek Hanshin, Mr. Wunnava Ganesh Madhav, Brian Mann, Bosky Ravindranath, Sandi Passmore, Mrs. Momemaneni Radha, Gina Sopwith, Andrew Wells.

Thank you so much on behalf of all of us at Visakha SPCA
http://www.visakhaspca.org

Please contact us! Give us your thoughts, your ideas, your support at info@visakhaspca.org

All photos © 2008 Visakha SPCA

(This report may also be viewed online here.)

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