Lynn D'Cruz
Remember the time when we saw a lost dog in the middle of a busy highway? We drove on as we wondered who takes care of these animals. Remember seeing a pack of dogs rummaging through our rubbish bins to make it through the night? Remember the dogs who were abandoned by Pulau Ketam residents on nearby islands with no food or water to survive on?
These are just a few of the compelling stories about stray animals in our country. What really happens to them? They are not entirely alone.
There is a silent movement of people who take it upon themselves to re-home, feed, shelter, medicate and neuter stray animals. They are not attached to any organisation; they work independently. They finance their passion out of their own modest pockets.
Since 2008, the young Daniya Subramaniam has rescued and re-homed more than 200 dogs and 30 cats through her friends and network on Facebook.
She has linked up with other independent animal rescuers and together they find good homes for these animals. Daniya makes it a point to check on the animals after adoption and if she finds that the animals are not happy, she takes them home, nurses them back to health and looks for a brand new owner.
Like Daniya, there are many other independent animal rescuers who have a day job like everyone else but who spend most of their spare time and savings rescuing homeless and abused animals from cruel authorities and those who would abuse them.
They have found animals who have been trapped for weeks on end and beaten up senselessly to the point that these animals can no longer walk or fend for themselves.
They bathe, feed, provide them shelter. Above all, they give them love and heal them from the fear and pain of abuse.
Like Daniya, another rescuer from Kajang, Puspha Rani, a young mother of two, has been rescuing stray, injured and sick mongrels. She has spent a fortune spaying, neutering, vaccinating them for years.
Pushpa has rented a house in Kajang just to house these stray dogs. She has received summonses from the local council for keeping the dogs. She has engaged the help of two young boys and a lady to help with the dogs.
Pushpa also drives all the way to Broga to feed dogs on an animal farm there, and feeds the strays around Kajang where she lives. She carries packets of bread in her car just in case she needs to feed the strays on the road.
She drives all the way to Seremban to feed almost 240 dogs on a farm there. She drives all the way to Jalan Ipoh to help a man there take care of the 50 dogs he has rescued.
What needs to be seen is that these young women are independent of any organisation and of each other. They get together for moral support but each is on her own personal mission, each rescuer responsible for her own set of dogs. Each single-handedly makes it a point to provide sufficiently for the dogs they rescue.
What drives them? What moves them to stop their cars and dash across highways to rescue an injured animal? What makes them work twice as hard just to feed homeless animals? What motivates them to drive for miles daily to feed neglected dogs on farms? How do they live a normal life while doing extraordinary deeds of self-sacrifice to restore some sense of normalcy to the creatures of earth?
This is the story of two ordinary girls doing extraordinary work.
If you would like to help, kindly contact them at:
Daniya, mobile +6012 969 9194
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1351070389
Puspa Rani, +6012 399 2021
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=719267464
Meet the independent animal rescuers
Produced by Indrani Kopal and Lynn D’Cruz
Video link: http://youtu.be/4hdRhcjsN5I
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