Isha is a sweet girl of about five. She now runs around with a sprightliness that would put a ballet dancer to shame. But she wasn’t this way when she was picked up a couple of months back by Blue Cross of India Rescues from the outskirts of Chennai.
She had a hernia the size of a soccer ball in her lower abdomen and could barely walk and was in great pain and discomfort. A complex surgery was done immediately to fix the hernia. After that it was a long haul – a month of post-operative care. Isha regained her strength steadily, amazing the caregivers with her ability to bounce back.
With every week, Isha grew in strength and has almost transformed into a brand new healthy, happy dog; no longer in pain or discomfort, always up for a cuddle, and enjoys a nice snooze in anyone’s arms.
During 2022, Blue Cross of India rescued 11,000 animals,
spayed or neutered nearly 8,000 city dogs and cats and rehomed nearly 2,000 animals.
To help Blue Cross save even more animals, click on the donate button in the upper right. You can specify that you’d like your donation to go to Blue Cross! Many thanks!
Musuni Letura, Kenyan wildlife expert and friend of Forest Voices of India, has created this video of the annual migration of the wildebeests and the zebras – the largest, or one of the largest, animal migrations on earth. It is an amazing sight. Please enjoy watching!
“Oh, my God! Is that Brook? I couldn’t recognize him. Look at his gorgeous fur!” one of the Blue Cross volunteers exclaimed while all heads turned to admire the transformation of Brook, the once mange-infected dog.
You could see the look of pure joy and satisfaction on the volunteers’ faces. Indeed, nothing matches the moment of witnessing the result of a job well done!
Flashback to a few weeks ago when the same volunteers met Brook and his friends for the first time, things were polar opposite. With patches of hair loss exposing his skin, he looked uncomfortable.
The volunteers jumped into action with an unspoken single-minded resolve. While one gently caught hold of the startled dog and comforted him, the other started bathing him with medicinal shampoos. This way, like clockwork, the purpose-driven volunteers started treating the mange-infected dogs, one at a time, with utmost gentleness and compassion.
While a few of the dogs were happy to bask in the attention and care of the volunteers, most of them, who seemed traumatized, came around in their own time. Pacified, bathed, nourished, and cared for, all they needed was time, the great healer, to make the real magic happen. As the days filled with diligent efforts and patience rolled by, the progress was so subtle that everyone was happily startled that day when Brook pounced on the gates, anticipating the arrival of volunteers to show off his sprouting fur, visibly blossoming into a new life inside out!
Sadly, mange is a skin disease common in street dogs and puppies, caused by malnutrition and the stress of street life. They all appear beyond hope, but as we have witnessed in the many miracle dog stories like Brook, even serious cases can be treated effectively.
This is not just wishful thinking but the firsthand experience of Blue Cross, India’s largest animal welfare organization, located in Chennai, in the south of India. And with the dedicated caregivers and diligent volunteers by their side, Blue Cross of India is working to create a better life for these fur angels, one Brook at a time!
May 2022 bring blessings for the earth! Happiness, peace, protection, and well-being for all the trees and plants, for the mountains, the oceans, the rivers, the forests, the deserts, and all wild lands. May all wild creatures be blessed and free in the wild – and all animals everywhere be safe, protected, and happy. May all the peoples of the earth be blessed and touched with a spirit of kindness. May ancient traditions be once again revered and respected, honoring the Earth and all Her children!
In December of 1959, just outside the gate of a house, two very small puppies (later named Shaggy and Grimmy – after Grimaldi) were in a tight spot. Water from a storm was rushing into a storm drain where the two puppies, about three weeks old were clinging to branches and bits of rubbish as the water rushed through. A teenager, Chinny Krishna, who was 14, was holding onto his father so that he didn’t slip, as his father leaned way over, at some risk to his own life, to rescue the puppies. His dad managed to pull them out of the drain, and they brought them into the house.
Chinny’s mother wiped them dry and bottle fed them baby formula. They stayed and lived to be around 14 or 15. His mother, sometimes with his sister Viji’s help, did all the work of looking after their animals.
The rescue of the puppies from the storm drain was, in some ways, the beginning point of Blue Cross of India – now known throughout India and internationally, as the earliest, the largest, and the most effective of the modern-day animal shelters in India.
Today the name Blue Cross of India is more or less synonymous with animal welfare in India. Known throughout India, Blue Cross is based in Chennai, where it officially began in 1964.
Founded by Captain Sundaram, Usha Sundaram, and their son, the young Chinny Krishna (now Dr. Chinny Krishna, Chairman Emeritus of Blue Cross), over the past sixty years, the organization has grown from small beginnings to a huge animal welfare group that spays/neuters and vaccinates against rabies 10,000 animals each year, while sending out its ambulances on rescue missions all over the city of Chennai to save injured animals on the street, running an excellent veterinary service for the public, taking in street animals in distress – dogs, cats, cows, and others and finding loving homes for them – just to touch on a few of their primary activities. The leadership of Blue Cross has been instrumental in ensuring that India has some of the most enlightened animal welfare laws in the world.
In the future, we will write much more about all the current work of Blue Cross, but here for the moment, are just a few stories about the beginning days of Blue Cross – one of the most beloved animal organizations in India. These are told from the perspective of Dr. Krishna, who was then the young Chinny Krishna.
Though his dad was a highly effective voice for animals and one of the first of the modern animal advocates, it was Chinny’s mother, Usha Sundaram, who spent endless hours from early morning until late at night feeding and caring for the first rescued animals. She was also – amazingly – the first woman pilot in India and flew alongside her husband (who was a pilot who often flew various dignitaries) on flights when he served as the pilot for Prime Minister Nehru. With her duties to care for the animals at home, she did not fly a lot, but was sometimes indispensable to help with flying the Prime Minister or his guests.
Rescuing animals – big and small
Another of the early rescues was a small brown Indian squirrel, one of those with three stripes down his back, as a baby, had fallen from a tree, so they brought him in and took care of him. The squirrel became quite fond of Chinny’s dad and liked to rest in his necktie. He used to run around freely in a room. After a while, they began taking the squirrel out to try to get it wild, which eventually succeeded. After five or six months, he spent most of his time outside and then moved out back into the trees, where he lived his life in freedom. Now, of course, care of wildlife is well regulated by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, but in those days kind people simply did their best to help.
A great idea
By 1959, the future Blue Cross already had quite a few animals and had some volunteers coming in to help.
Mr. D. Devasigamoli who was the vice president of the SPCA, was a frequent visitor to their house. He was a former football (soccer) player and was the national president of the football society of Madras.
One evening, early in 1960, he dropped by their house and they began to talk about what more could be done to help animals. The SPCA at the time was not as actively engaged as it might have been with animal rescue, and they felt that something more was needed to help animals. They formed an organization which, for the first couple of years, was called the Animal Aid Association. After that, they called it Blue Cross.
Soon, his dad had converted his car into an ambulance. One of the early animals that they rescued was a small calf.
Dawn Williams, Resident Manager of Blue Cross with a calf
A bull finds a home
The delivery men who delivered milk to people’s houses used to bring along an actual cow with them. At each house the man would milk the cow, then leave the milk in a container. When Chinny was 15, someone called their family to say that a small male calf had been abandoned, probably by one of the milkmen. Chinny went on his bicycle to check. In a neighborhood of fairly large single houses, there was a young calf, about three weeks old, lying down outside one of the homes.
Chinny cycled back home, reported this to his parents, and his mom and dad drove back in the car to pick up the calf. The calf was not looking good and was very dehydrated. A veterinarian friend of theirs, Dr. Narahari came by to attend to the calf and treated him – after which he perked up quite a bit. In their house there was a big bathing room with a boiler, about fifteen feet by fifteen feet. The calf spent most of his time there until he got bigger and graduated to going outside to roam in the yard and the garden. They didn’t give him a name because, by now they were realizing that it wasn’t good to become too attached to each animal. Some of them they were able to find homes for. Two years later they found a good home for the bull with a family who had a large house on an acre of land in an area of Madras called Adyar.
Check back for future stories about Blue Cross and the kind and compassionate animal welfare practices in India.
Photos:
First photo: Sharon St Joan
Second photo: Blue Cross of India
Third Photo: Blue Cross of India
Fourth photo: Sharon St Joan
“This is what happens when you instill in the children the values of life, love, respect, kindness and compassion for animals. Mamai and her two cute dogs are so friendly as a result of her participation in LAWCS’ humane education program. The dogs are relaxing because they have trust and confidence in Mamai.”
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“The results of our humane education are real and physical. The connection between the kids and the animals is so fascinating. This is Cecelia and her lovely pet dog “CHAMPION ”. According to Cecelia, her participation in LAWCS humane education program has greatly cemented her love and affection for animals.”
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For more information, or if you’d like to donate to the Liberia Animal Welfare and Conservation Society, please visit their Facebook page or their website at https://liberiaanimalwelfaresociety.org
Photos and text in quotes: Liberia Animaal Welfare and Conservation
Society
Kangaroo wouldn’t pose for a photo, so this is another bonnet macaque. Shantanu Kuveskar, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
First, Kangaroo isn’t really a kangaroo (because this is India, not Australia). Actually, he is a bonnet macaque, a monkey, who weighs seven and a half pounds (3.39 kilos). On November 3 of last year, he had an accident. Some very kind people rescued him and he was transported from a southern suburb of Bangalore to the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre. Monkeys, of course, climb to get from place to place, and he had been swinging along on the electric wires over the main road in order to get across it when he was electrocuted.
For any birds or animals, electrocutions tend to be really serious, and his prognosis for survival was indeed grave. For three months, he received lots of treatments and then had to have three of his limbs amputated. (The photo is of a different bonnet macaque, not Kangaroo.)
Amazingly, he was a cheerful monkey through everything. He recovered and nothing seemed to dampen his spirits.
When he was moved into the large monkey enclosure which had special platforms for easy movement, he was with other young, orphaned monkeys. Dr. Roopa writes that “Kangaroo immediately took charge of them all, in spite of his handicaps, and he could be seen, grooming them, playing, and enjoying their company.”
With just one leg, he used his tail to help him balance, and he hopped with great ease just like a kangaroo, hence his name. With his handicaps, he wouldn’t be able to be released and the plan was for him to live permanently at the center. Being a clever monkey, Kangaroo made his own plans. He watched and observed the routine at the center, and one day, while the keeper was in the enclosure doing cleaning, he managed to slip right past him and out the door.
Of course, he wasn’t going far. Now he still lives at the center, but he’s free to move anywhere and can be found hopping from tree to tree, having the time of his life, just as if he had all four limbs.
He gets a delicious dinner – a plate of his favorite food like shelled ground nuts, banana, cucumber, corn, sweet potato, pomegranate, carrots, and beans is placed up on the roof for him, which he polishes off. He has a good friend and companion now – another resident monkey, Taatha, which means grandfather, who is there for lifetime care and is also free to move about the center.
Thanks to Dr. Roopa’s expertise and the good efforts of his caregivers, Kangaroo is strong and feels well.
Despite all he has gone through, he is an amazing monkey, with an indomitable spirit. He’s made new friends and has done very well for himself – now living out his life in a great place – with no electric wires, no cars, or pollution – just an idyllic, beautiful green forest, with people to feed him.
Under the leadership of Dr. Nanditha Krishna, the CPREEC (C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Environmental Education Centre) in Chennai, India, has restored 53 sacred groves, over the past thirty years – bringing back the original flora and fauna and restoring these small forests with the same species of plants and animals which always lived there in the past, providing once again beautiful tranquil lands which the people living nearby had treasured in the past. Each village in India once had a sacred grove. Now, the village people themselves maintain and care for these restored sacred forests and the abundant wildlife that live there.
These ancient sacred groves represent one of the amazing traditions of India, which has traditionally valued and preserved the life and the beauty of the natural world.
Dr. Nanditha Krishna is an environmentalist, art historian and well-known author of over twenty-five books about the art, culture, and the natural world of India. Among these are Hinduism and Nature, Sacred Animals of India, and Sacred Plants of India.
Listening to this short video, you will be transported to the city of Chennai where you will be among the tall, peaceful trees of the CPREEC and CPRA Foundation centers, yet not far from the busy city life of nearby streets.
