Rajasthan Patrika - "DISSECTION ONLINE. Animal Aid Co-Founder Claire Abrams has sent copies of the MoEF ban to Udaipur colleges urging their immediate enforcement."

Animal Aid has mailed copies of the Ministry Environment and Forests’ ban on the use of live animals in educational institutes to Udaipur colleges (Pacific College of Pharmacy, Bhopal Nobles College of Pharmacy, Geetanjali Institute of Pharmacy, Mohanlal Sukhadia University and Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology), urging them to join educational institutions across India in enforcing the new guidelines immediately.

Experimentation on live animals in educational institutions should now be a thing of the past, thanks to the wide availability of more humane, non-animal teaching tools. The old approach that uses live animals involves the acquisition and disposal (killing) of animals on an ongoing basis which is not only inhumane, but also expensive and wasteful.

The MoEF states that effective alternatives in the form of CDs, computer simulations and mannequin models are available; they are not only effective as absolute replacements for animals in teaching anatomy or physiology but are also superior learning tools in teaching of pharmacy or life sciences.

Animals at Animal Aid were recently graced with two weeks of love and joy from an English volunteer, Tom. Among the many animals’ lives that were brightened thanks to Tom’s affection and care, he made a very special connection with one of our handicapped dogs whose condition improved in literally leaps and bounds we believe in great part because of that bond.

Tom described his time with Jimmy beautifully in his own words:

Tom and Jimmy Superfly

Afternoon walking: Me and Jimmy Superfly
By Thomas Goodwin, April 19th, 2012

I head down to the dogs’ handicapped area. Jimmy is lying down, head up and bright-eyed. He has good teeth, a full-fluffed red-gold coat and a good coloured tongue. I step over the fences and bend down to pick him up. We have a little wrestle-dance to work out how we are going to proceed. We find it and lift-off – with a squeek and a squirt of pee no doubt -  into cradle-pose to step out of the enclosure. I put Jimmy down and I get the scarf under his tummy just in the right place – out the way of plenty of marking opportunities to follow. We get balance on our front feet. The back ones are wobbly and don’t really catch the weight so well, so I lift the back from the scarf – we are set.

There are a multitude of different styles employed here. Each dog has their way: a drag, a lumber, a crawl, a lollop and the rest. On first sight, it’s so touching, and funny and sad and wondrous all at once. Each and every one is unique, but the most important thing is each and every one goes for it with all they’ve got and with all they are. They are themselves and no-one else and this demands the highest respect, beyond degree of ability, they are agents in the world, faultless and so beautiful.

We head out, a drunkard pair – awkwardly stop-starting in a chaos of rhythm. No-one knows who is steering this ship, not even us, and we couldn’t care less.  Let’s head to the shade of the tree and the bushes.

Arriving here, 30,000 times more possibilities of scent are available for us to share. He sniffs and I am with him. Jimmy bites off half a leaf from the bush, then again, and then some more. This beautiful fragrance comes to me – a kind of sage-mint. I had no idea – I wouldn’t eat it myself but he loves it. Thanks for opening that scent door for me Jimmy.

We go on. He attends to the undergrowth and I enjoy a welcome breeze to counter this desert air. I watch the ants pass back and forth along a branch, he goes for the donkey dropping.

And when we need to leave our own scent mark, we find the position, I re-arrange the scarf and he lets loose. I don’t know if accuracy is important for dogs when leaving scent. Ours won’t be very concentrated but it will definitely be original. No doubt whose that is, they’ll say.

His feathered tail sways and my face smiles, our hearts free. We head back. We stutter and stumble, but the most amazing thing about all of this – is that we do it together – me and Jimmy Superfly.

Modern Indian Dairy Production

A generous donor has come forward to support and boost India’s blooming farmed animal, vegan outreach movement by proposing to give financial support to dynamic, committed individuals across India who want to help animals through grassroots-level farmed animal outreach.

Animal Aid has taken on the task of coordinating this exciting effort.

If you are an activist/educator in India who is interested in organizing and delivering presentations and video showings to at least 500 people in a month, then this may just be the perfect opportunity for you.

Activists will be asked to document their outreach work, make a monthly report, and share results and issues in fun, informal online group discussions among fellow activists.

Hens in battery cages

A monthly stipend of Rs 5,000 is being made available to activists who join this programme and meet the requirements.

Presentations would include an enthusiastic introduction including local or national animal issues to give context, and guidance to the audience about how they can help farmed animals (reduce consumption, go vegan).

Why is this an opportunity you don’t want to miss?

1.       You’re already an activist and with this financial support you do more!

2.       This is the chance to share your ideas and trouble-shoot with like-minded activists across the country

Write to Claire Abrams at info@animalaidunlimited.com to learn more and join the collaboration for farmed animals.

Please pass this along to activists in India!

When you’re working for animals, sometimes you have to see a sad, dark-side of humanity.

But more profound than that, you get the incredible opportunity to meet the most tender-hearted people in the world. It is a privilege to see people’s lives changing right before your eyes as so often happens at Animal Aid.

While bottle feeding a new-born baby calf, or, comforting a puppy who’s been run over by a car, consoling a weary donkey as her wounded back is bandaged, it’s dazzling to witness people recognize their own amazing power in a new way, and the meaning of their lives takes on new clarity.

We think we have captured some of that magic in this video.

Please share this video widely…India’s street animals deserve the best!

One of our most momentous events for animals in Udaipur took place on March 25th when we brought together 45 of our most active animal protectors to launch the Monthly Animal Protectors Meeting.

On the surface, the most gratifying work Animal Aid does is the rescues of individual animals and their heart-warming recoveries.

But the bedrock of Animal Aid’s strategy for doing the most we can for the most animals is through bolstering local, Indian participation in animal rescue, cruelty prevention, and the defense of animals’ rights.

Above: Animal Aid Co-Founder Claire Abrams facilitating the Monthly Meeting. Below Left: An Udaipur animal lover writing to local officials to stop cruelty. Below Right: Attendees sharing their distress over a recent abuse case.

After having responded to 25,000 emergency rescue calls over the last 10 years, we are in regular contact with hundreds of local people who want to help animals. School-teachers, housewives, chai-walas, shop-keepers, doctors, lawyers, craftsmen and business owners are among Udaipur’s most faithful street animal protectors.

We are so proud of Udaipur’s animals lovers for recognizing that animals need us to work together.

Animal lovers have been requesting Animal Aid to launch and facilitate a monthly meeting so that they can meet other like-minded people in Udaipur to strategize and tackle animal problems together.

The meetings will include thought-provoking films about issues affecting animals local and beyond, and an open-mic format where anyone can raise problems so that practical action can follow. Animal Aid representatives will try to ensure that every meeting includes reports of previous months accomplishments, and ends with clear plans of action for the following weeks.

In this first meeting, the issues centered largely around the way the municipal governing body in Udaipur continues to mistreat dogs in clear violation of the law. Almost daily 5-10 dogs continue to be rounded up and dumped in the jungle. This is not only a horror to every animal lover but it against the law.

To address the problem the meeting attendees decided to draft letters to the Commissioner in charge of the city dog catchers to voice their protest against the continuation of the practice and demanding it be stopped.

Other issues were anti-dog neighbors who harass dog lovers taking care of dogs on their street, cows and buffaloes tied up 24/7 in dingy sheds in dairies around the city, and donkey laborer owners who tie coarse plastic on the donkeys’ legs to hobble them creating life-long disabilities.

The meeting ending on the beautiful note of many people offering to share their phone numbers with each other to help solve problems for animals.

Welcoming children to Animal Aid is one of our biggest pleasures but they generally come only two or three at a time.

Many of the children from Maharana Mewar Public School said that they fed and played with dogs outside their houses; about a quarter of them brought cameras because it was such a special experience they wanted to capture it; and they were all really willing to learn how to pet dogs by following our tips: crouching down first (so that the dog isn’t afraid), slowly extending their hand towards the dog’s nose for the dog to smell, and then gentle stroking the dog’s forehead.

Free the Children is a Canadian-based charity which sends high school students around the world to poor communities to help build schools. Udaipur’s chapter of Free the Children has sent several groups to Animal Aid to tour and learn about what we do to help animals and to give them ideas about what they can do in their home country to help animals. We also like to plant the seed of volunteering in Animal Aid after they finish high school.

The group included a young woman who said with tears “I’m not crying because I’m sad, I’m crying because I’m so inspired to see so many dedicated people.”

We rescued 3 puppies last night who were literally stuck to the ground, unable to move their legs, terrified and covered in tar. A vat of tar had spilled where road work was going on in Udaipur and the puppies had gotten trapped in it. Locals who saw the puppies called our helpline and we rushed to rescue them. Amazingly none of them were injured though we can only imagine the horrible things could have happened to them had they remained stuck to the ground for any longer. The tar was centimeters thick on their stomachs and feet, and took almost 2 hours for us to clean. They are the sweetest of puppies who graciously sat through the long process and were SO happy to be finally able to stand up and pee when their legs were freed! We are so happy to have been able to save them!!!

This is a story about a street dog rescued by Animal Aid after she was shot in the leg with a shotgun. We named her “Shanti” which means “peace” in Hindi. Shanti is a shining example of grace and patience. It is a story about how the recognition and help Shanti received by Animal Aid helped elevate her status in the minds (and hearts) of the neighbors of her street.

By going to neighbors and sharing her harrowing story immediately after she was shot; by sharing news of her progress with the neighborhood in the weeks that followed, and by taking the time to go door to door with Shanti on the day of her release, we ensured that Shanti will have several families taking up the privilege of helping her in the weeks, months and–we hope–years to come.

Animal Aid provides one-on-one attention to every recovered animal we release. We always make sure that someone in the immediate neighborhood is fully aware of the animal’s recent history and has pledged to feed the animal and to keep a vigilant eye out, promising to call us if there are any problems in the future.

Follow Shanti from the day she was shot to her happy ending reunited with her neighbors.

Warning: this recovery story is graphic and gory with an incredibly beautiful ending. Though the “before” photos are difficult to look at, we just had to share this boy’s beautiful “after.” We rescued him with his whole ear being eaten away by maggots. Most of the dozens of dogs rescued each year with maggot wounds are male dogs who get into fights with each other during mating season and bite each other’s ears and necks. The puncture wounds that would otherwise heal and cause no serious harm become infested with maggots (in a particular fly season) that eat away at live tissue. It is even MORE frightful than it sounds. It’s hard to imagine the physical and mental anguish that animals in this condition go through. When we respond to emergency calls like these the dogs are either shaking their heads continuously, or running non-stop trying to escape the pain. And so we are overjoyed to be able to take 100% of that pain and suffering away and bring this gorgeous boy back to full health…from total pain and near-death to NO PAIN and full-health within a matter of weeks. (Also, to keep him away from fights next year he has been neutered.) We thank every person in Udaipur who calls us to report injuries and every donor who makes life-saving marvels occur.

This photo was taken minutes after he was admitted in the hospital, before treatment.

He was anesthetized during this procedure to remove the necrotic tissue along with his ear that was hanging on by a thread. Removing the necrotic tissue is done to stop the spread of infection and promote faster healing.

Just 10 days later! We were thrilled to see the speed of healing.

And there he is. Healed, and looking forward to life again.

Just to see that "happy-tongue" that dog-lovers know and love is THE biggest reward we could ever get for rescuing him.