When one wishes to transform the world we live in, the focus is often on the human suffering around us. However, with this human dimension taking precedence, a focus on other life forms sometimes takes a backseat. The following story is thus one that is centred around our animal friends, in particular our street dogs. Based on our telephonic interaction with Founder, Megha Jose, and Operations Lead, Ms. Mary Chandy, we bring to you the journey of ‘The Pawsome People Project’, a Coimbatore-based NGO in this space of animal welfare since September 2019.
Image source: The Pawsome People Project
While working at an MNC in Bengaluru, Megha came across the first episode of the Netflix documentary ‘Dogs’, in which she saw the impact that a service dog had on the life of a kid with epilepsy. A dog lover herself, this struck a chord with Megha, whose elder sister is hearing impaired, wondering whether a service dog could have helped make things easier for her sister while growing up. Busy with life in Bengaluru though, she did not further explore this thought. However, all this changed soon thereafter when she moved back to her hometown of Coimbatore to join her father’s business, and with time on hand, started thinking about the concept of service dogs again. Coming up with the idea of training street dogs to be service dogs, she hoped to facilitate their getting a home while at the same time using their assistance for humans in need. She thereby researched animal welfare organisations in the city and approached Ms. Mini Vasudevan of ‘Humane Animal Society’ to discuss the same.
Based on their discussions and with a better understanding of the current issues in this area of animal welfare, she took the feedback given to her to keep this as a long-term goal and start working on the two immediate problems faced in this line of work of helping street dogs, namely lack of manpower and lack of funds. This led to the initiation of an Instagram page, with the primary focus being the Animal Birth Control programme, while also looking to help via rescues, fosters, and adoptions. To start with, 25 strangers signed up, including the current Operations Lead, Ms. Mary Chandy, and met every weekend with the Humane Animal Society to locate and take street dogs for their sterilisation, with 20 sterilisations being undertaken a month. But it soon became clear that to help bring about real change, they would need to scale up their operations. Therefore, within 5-6 months of being founded, they organised Tamil Nadu’s first pet festival to act as their fundraiser, which was a one-day event attended by 4000 people. Raising around 12-13 lakh rupees, holding an adoption drive, and increasing their volunteer count to more than 100, the event was a great step forward. With funds raised and volunteers added, they were set to move onto the next step, unaware of the hurdle that was yet to unfold.
Image source: The Pawsome People Project
Within two months of the pet festival, the world went into lockdown as a result of the pandemic. Unsure as to how to proceed, Megha contemplated donating the raised funds to the Humane Animal Society. However, around this time, they started getting information through their volunteer networks that many street dogs were starving and dying since meat shops and restaurants were all closed. The Pawsome team thereon approached the city’s collector and obtained permission for their volunteers to move around and feed the street dogs. Receiving donations from pet stores and individuals, 1500 dogs in Coimbatore were fed on a daily basis from March to May 2020, with this initiative being carried out during the second lockdown as well, giving the team a lot of satisfaction in seeing dogs that were malnourished become much healthier. With waves of the pandemic starting to settle, Pawsome planned to use this volunteer network to tap into local communities to become aware of and sterilise dogs that were yet to be sterilised. But the next challenge arose as a result of the changes that the pandemic brought about, such as the work-from-home format, which meant some volunteers moved back home away from the city while others started getting busy with their own lives. The volunteer strength, which was earlier between 160 and 170, fell to 20.
Pawsome thereby started undertaking various individual projects, hoping to once again build their volunteer base, with Megha overseeing major decisions from the UK, where she was now undertaking her MBA, while the groundwork was taken care of by the core team of 10 volunteers, including Ms. Mary Chandy. However, the challenge of increasing their volunteer strength persisted. After finishing her MBA and getting back to the city this year, Megha and the team reassessed their work, feeling that they were moving away from their core focus by carrying out different one-off projects. With respect to their main work of sterilisation in particular, they understood that with the coming of more organisations dealing with sterilisation of street dogs in the city, the need was being taken care of, therefore deciding to shift focus to the ‘rescue’ component, for which they noticed a rise in calls they were receiving even beyond their capacity to cater to it all.
Image source: The Pawsome People Project
Having recently hired two rescuers who have undertaken their paravet training in Ooty, Pawsome has begun concentrating on rescuing street dogs in need. In the month of October 2023 alone, they attended to 104 of the 124 distress calls they received, which was a huge jump compared to the 105 rescues they undertook in the entire year of 2022. Injured dogs, pregnant dogs needing assistance with birthing, and dogs with rabies are rescued and treated, with the treatment expenses taken care of by Pawsome and the van for the rescues lent by the Yamee Foundation on a partnership basis. Pawsome, in its next phase, looks to hire a veterinarian and a rescue van of their own to help treat dogs on the spot where possible. They also hope to open a rehabilitation centre since some treated dogs require follow-up treatments and checks, but they currently lack the space to house them, and once released back where they were found, it becomes tough to track them since they run away upon seeing the team again. In addition to opening this rehabilitation centre, they hope to train here in the future, street dogs to be service or therapy dogs, which continues to be their goal.
Since starting operations four years ago, Pawsome and its team have continued to face various hurdles but have made it possible to help sterilise 889, adopt 218, foster 177, and rescue 635 street dogs. The real difference that has allowed them to create this impact on the lives of our animal friends has been their choice to adapt to various situations and continue moving ahead, thus also making this story an example that can be extended to various aspects of one’s own life!
