Erika and Claire

I had the pleasure of meeting Erika and Claire from Animal Aid Unlimited last week.

From their website:

"Animal Aid is a US-based 501(c)3 charitable organization that runs a busy animal hospital and shelter in Udaipur, Rajasthan India, where ownerless street animals are rescued, healed, loved, and returned to the neighborhoods from where they came.

On their website you will find amazing animals and dedicated volunteers from all over the world working together with Animal Aid’s staff who serve fallen angels with tenderness, respect, and joy. Animal Aid’s purpose is to both bring relief to suffering animals, and to awaken compassion among people. Showing everyone a path for action. They have emergency rescue hotline and a sanctuary for the disabled animals as well."

We didnt realize where the 2 hours went. Usually, I freeze and speak minimally when new people visit me. But I was yapping away this time even though my balance was a bit off. We discussed about their organization, some others like Karuna Society and Visakha SPCA and the work of FIAPO(Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations). Among these orgs, they handle all sorts of things from helping one abuse case of a pet or a stray to rescuing, treating and providing a sanctuary to any animal from cows, dogs to donkeys, Or reaching the community with a message of compassion, about treating animals as sentient beings, about veganism, about the abuse at dairy and meat industry and so on. They work on legislation or campaigns to help any animal problems as caged birds, stray dogs and cats, to stopping establishment of big factory farms and automated slaughter houses. Wildlife protection, sacrifices, animal birth control programs, Vegan meals for the poor, ban on plastic bags, you name it and one of these orgs is already working on it. And still there is so much to be done, so many campaigns to support, and continuous and collective effort to be made.

Just a short discussion about these kind of issues help put things in perspective. Whether you are a compassionate person or not, a vegan or not, you are still a human, capable of evaluating and understanding. You can think and know, about the pain and suffering all around you. You can, take a little time, find some little to do, and make a difference.

Please read about the organizations mentioned below.

Animal Aid Unlimited

Karuna Society

Visakha SPCA

FIAPO

There are many more smaller focussed orgs and rescues all over India. I will post about some of them every few weeks!. Do give these orgs a few minutes of your time and help in any way you can, be it a donation or sending needed supplies or volunteer work on site or administrative(online).