It’s a pawsome world for all!
Held on 25th September 2011, Adoptathon was an adoption camp for Indian street pups and kittens in Mumbai. The event was an initiative of Lioness District 323A2 (Lions Clubs International) and was inaugurated by Lion Ashok Mehta, Ex-Sheriff of Mumbai, together with World for All – Animal Care and Adoptions. More than 105 pups and kittens were adopted. Adoptions are still continuing as there were many who didn’t get pups and kittens that day and are following up with World for All to find their ‘little friend’ soon. Here’s more about this animal welfare organisation.
The humble beginning…
World for All – Animal Care and Adoptions was started by Ruchi Nadkarni and Taronish Bulsara through a small Facebook group, initially named ‘Save the Helpless Animals of Mumbai’ and an idea for a calendar in 2008–09, after which the initiative was called ‘World For All’. “The journey has been a very learning one; I come across new things every day. With more awareness, people are welcoming Indian animals into their homes and we are striving harder each day to increase awareness. Anyone working for animal welfare is indispensable and their contribution is always valuable,” told Ruchi.
The work areas…
“Our forte is Animal Adoptions, we do puppy and kitten adoptions everyday and we constantly improve our methods of working. But that’s not all, we have pre-adoption interviews, post-adoption follow ups, etc. We also take up rescue cases to the best of our capacity as we do not have a mobile van yet. We hold a lot of interesting events every year and are constantly encouraging this as a new career option,” she told.
But the main focus remains ‘Adoptions’ through which they believe, with every animal being homed, especially a female cat or a female dog; it decreases the number of street animals by plenty. “After a litter of pups or kittens are rescued and homed, the female dog/cat is sterilised immediately. More lives are saved and suffering is reduced automatically,” explained Ruchi.
“We also organise workshops for people in the animal community, First Aid Training, Career Guidance, Fund Raising Endeavours, aiding economically backward animal loving families with their rescues, etc,” added Taronish.
The modus operandi…
“We operate via foster families across Mumbai and do not have a shelter for the simple reason that there is a high chance of cross infection and the attention and care given to each puppy or kitten based on their individual needs become limited. Also we home more animals and there is no restriction to the number whereas a shelter would have restrictions to the number of animals they take in. Secondly, homing animals assures the animal good health, love and care and happiness which a shelter may not be able to offer,” added Ruchi.
Benefits of Indian pets…
“Our Indian animals are accustomed to our weather and they are beautiful and looked majestic under care and age does not show on them easily. They are very low in maintenance as compared to any breed dog/kitten, less susceptible to diseases, easy to train and are friendly, loyal and make perfect pets. That explains why they will make better pets for us,” told Ruchi as a matter of fact. Besides, the menace of puppy mills also should be taken into consideration.
The adoption…
“Anybody can adopt and make a difference, be it a couple or a family or an individual alone in the city. But the decision to adopt must not be an abrupt one. It does not take much to care for an Indian dog or kitten but an adopter must be ready to stand by the animal when difficulties come. An adopter must understand that he/she needs not and must not give up on the animal when they have a newborn in the family or they are leaving the country or there is an ill member in the family. There is always a way to stand by them and stand up for them,” told Taronish.
What keeps them going…
“It is the constant belief that every animal has a home waiting for him somewhere and that we are the means by which they can get there. We never give up on believing this and an infant once rescued by us never goes back to the street. We have even picked up animals from shelters and fish markets and homed them and the constant update of their wellbeing in their new homes gives us the strength to carry on,” told Taronish.
“Every animal means the world to us, but of course, there are the few who leave their indelible impressions in our hearts and leave teaching us unbelievable lessons; we call them angels. Some of them include paralysed cats and dogs that either our team has adopted themselves or have homed them with loving families,” added Ruchi.
“People are opening their minds to Indian Breeds and are becoming more sensitive and aware of animals suffering,” added Ruchi.
On a concluding note…
“As a message to the readers, we would say that be sensitive to everything in your surroundings and we want people to understand that it is a World for All and that people must treat the animals around them with compassion. We request people to stop inflicting acts of cruelty on them and to put themselves in their place and realise the pain and suffering they go through. Volunteers can join our cause on Facebook (www.facebook.com/worldforall) and help by sharing our posts, fostering pups and kittens till they find homes, helping us with rescues, funding our cause and also by simply spreading the word and creating awareness. Compassion towards animals needs to get epidemic and we want people to come help us in achieving the aim,” reverberated Ruchi and Taronish.