Animal Aid

For the last few weeks I have been volunteering at an organization called Animal Aid, which is an animal hospital, shelter, and rehabilitation center in a village just outside of Udaipur.

Animal Aid was founded six years ago by an American couple who had been coming regularly to India for the last fifteen years. Before I visited the hospital, the founder Erica warned me that many of the animals are in much worse condition than I am used to or have ever seen before, but that it is also a place full of hope and happiness for animals who are given the treatment and affection that they would not be getting on the streets.

I am glad she warned me, because I was a bit shocked when I first arrived. Many of the dogs walking around are “draggers,” meaning their back legs no longer function (usually from being hit by cars) and so they drag themselves around on their front paws. Other dogs have huge gaping wounds that never seem to heal because they are constantly picking at them or scratching themselves. One dog called “Sexy” has a huge tumor on her bottom that was infested with maggots, and in the wound you can still see the bloody holes from where they were literally eating her alive.

The “hospital” was not what I had envisioned. It is mostly outdoors – the building itself has some cement kennels, one teeny kitchen, one medicine room, and one somewhat surgery room. Otherwise, the “indoor” section is built of bamboo, wood, and tin roofs.

As you can imagine, the hospital is mostly full of dogs. There are a few cats, two monkeys, a good handful of donkeys and cows, and some parrots and pigeons. Animal Aid’s policy is that they do not return animals to the streets if they know they cannot survive. So dogs with only two working legs, or a blind donkey, or even a dog who has been at the hospital so long that he has lost his pack and would be attacked by street dogs, have permanent homes at the hospital. Many of the dogs have free reign at the hospital; others stay on chains either inside or in the paddock outside to avoid fights. Dogs who come in to be spayed or neutered usually have an address to where the staff returns them where a local person may have been feeding them or even vaguely looking out for them on the street.

Once I got over the initial shock of so many wounded animals, I found it was a very, very happy place. One of the funniest dogs is Minnie, who had to have both back legs amputated at the torso. So really, her back end is just a round stump, just her butt. But, she is a very happy dog, so she is constantly running around playing. When she hops around on her two legs, her butt bounces on the ground. It seems like it must be uncomfortable since her amputations haven’t healed entirely, but nothing can stop her from bouncing along because she is just too happy. It makes me laugh every time I see it.

Animal Aid loves volunteers because there are so many animals that need extra attention that the staff doesn’t always have time to give. So when I go in, I take dogs for walks (every dog gets at least one walk a day), or I sit with a dog who isn’t eating and try to hand feed him treats. Other times I find a dog who is scared to death of people and sit with her in the kennel and slowly try to socialize her. (Yes, I have my rabies vaccine.)

My favorite dog is a yellow lab puppy who came in with two horribly mangled front legs. One leg they amputated; the other had a compound fracture that they put in a cast. Unfortunately the dog has had to stay in his kennel for several weeks because he is not supposed to walk on his front leg while it heals. If it doesn’t heal, the dog will not be able to survive and they will have to put him down. Fortunately, it seems to be healing well. Now every time I go in, I take the little guy out to roll around in the dirt and get some fresh air. He tries to walk, which the doctors now say is okay because it shows the fracture is healing since he can put weight on it. Mostly we just sit and belly rub in the sun.

Besides the dogs, my other favorite animals are the baby cows. There are two now – one teeny, super soft white cow just recently born, and another reddish cow named Apple who is very ill and not eating well. Both are the sweetest creatures ever, no bigger than a dog, and they are constantly wanting attention. Even the puppies love them. There is one puppy who just refuses to stay with the other puppies, and always curls up with the cows and sleeps in the hay.

Every time I leave Animal Aid I feel so inspired by the founders and so happy for the animals who are being treated there. Here is their website, it’s a fabulous organization. http://www.animalaidunlimited.com/