Animal farm

A new shelter for street animals is set to open its gates soon in Pune

Animal farm

The city is set to get a new animal’s hospital with state-of-the-art facilities courtesy People For Animals (PFA). As of now, there is only one functional animal hospital and three shelters which are more or less dysfunctional, to cater to the entire population of Pune Muncipal Corporation (PMC) and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), which spans almost 300km along with several Goathans.

Images of the animal shelter

The existing hospitals such as Jeev Raksha are equipped but have stopped taking new cases. For 14 years, the PFA and Manoj Oswal, Head of the PFA Pune unit and government-appointed Animal Welfare Officer at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), has been working for the welfare of animals, but the alarming demand of medical care of animals and the voices of the supporters and volunteers have gotten louder and louder to set up a hospital.

Oswal pointed out the hospital will be one-of-a-kind and will cater to street animals who really need help. There is no good animal’s hospital as of now in the city. “We are building this hospital using reused materials without disturbing the environment. There will be the latest medical equipment and everything will be designed as per the needs of the animals and change accordingly. Afterwards, we plan to start a rehabilitation center for the animals,” he said.

Enclosure made with beer bottles

He added that they plan to also work towards preserving the migrating Emu bird and try to provide them an optimum environment in the season when they come to the city. The animal hospital will be built through public participation by using ‘throw aways’. The hospital is slated to be functional in six months time and at the moment they are taking the animals to nearby hospitals for help.

People can participate by donating used glass bottles, used tyres, tubes and rims, old newspapers, dog food as well as leftovers (for cattle). People can also volunteer and sponsor food for the animals and help with the medical equipment.

Other objects made from recycled material
> A dozen bird feeders made from recycled PET/plastic bottles
> Dog beds
> Cat beds
> Dog scratch pads
> Cat scratchers
> They will soon plant over 150 plants in various kinds of bottles and containers
> In all, they have used 10,000 beer and wine bottles for the shelter till now and plan to use 40,000 more to set up the entire hospital and rehabilitation center

Status of completed work using beer and wine bottles
> The dog enclosure is an open area of around 8,000 sq. ft. with a central shade area of 600 sq. ft. This has been made with around 5,000 glass bottles.
> The cat enclosure is around 400 sq. ft. and has been built using 3,000 beer bottles.
> The cattle shed will have several containers made from discarded automobile-tyres.

Facilities in the hospital
> Two Intensive Care Units, (one each for large and small animals)
> The Intensive Care Units will have ventilators, lung machines, warming machines, small and large animal ambulances, an operation theater with a gas anesthesia unit, shadow less lamps, defibrillators and flexible surgical tables.u00a0