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!
It was the seventh and final visit by the Mobile Hospital (MoHo). Shero was back in the game as he caught the ball mid-air. Only a few weeks ago this had seemed impossible.
It all began when Shero set out to play with the young humans on a fine summer evening. The sun and her orange wings made way for the calm allure of the full moon. The birds serenaded their lovers with a sweet spring melody. Children spilled into the streets of Adambakkam, armed with cricket bats and makeshift cricket stumps. It was time for Shero to join them. He loved to run after the ball and fetch it. He was an integral part of the playing twelve!
As he galloped eagerly to the playground, he stopped, only for a moment, to admire a feathered friend settled on a tamarind tree. Before he even knew what had happened, he blacked out. A motor vehicle had hit him.
Shero was hurt, and he had a difficult few days. He crawled under a car where he felt safer.
Just when he was about to give up, he saw his favorite human, Varghese, drop to his knees and peer under the car. He was going to be saved!
In a few hours, Blue Cross of India’s spanking new Hospital-on-Wheels arrived. Dr. Silambarasan looked grim when he saw Shero’s leg. He was given several injections to combat an infection.
Mr. Ramachandran drove the Hospital-on-Wheels regularly to Adambakkam along with Dr. Silambarasan and Dr. Naveenkumar till Shero’s wounds healed completely! The Hospital-on-Wheels was donated to Blue Cross by the Austrian organization, Vier Pfoten, or Four Paws, who do outstanding rescue work in many countries. The MoHo, as it is called, is enabling Blue Cross to provide top-notch care to animals right where they are, without having to transport them back and forth to the Blue cross shelter, away from their neighborhoods. This makes a tremendous difference to the well-being of the dogs and other animals being treated.
Caring for Shero was a long recovery process, spanning over seven visits of the MoHo. Each time, Shero showed improvement. First the infection was curtailed. Then, the wounds healed. Slowly, he started using his leg again.
Today, Shero is happily a member of the playing twelve again! He is back in action. And just like so many other street dogs, he has learned to be extra aware of potential dangers. Safer now that he is extra cautious, he loves running and playing!
Street dogs develop uncanny abilities to navigate their surroundings safely and to live out their lives in freedom. There are many, many millions of street dogs in India. It has never been part of Indian culture to kill or to harm them.
While it can be a bit of a rough life, their life has many joys as well – including the freedom to run and play.
They are not adapted to living indoors – either in a home or in a shelter, and as long as they are spayed/neutered and given all their shots, they are well adapted to living their lives in the neighborhoods where they live. They can live on well into old age and enjoy their lives – among their friends and playmates, both animal and human.
The healing of Shero is a testimony to the number of lives the MoHo has helped save. Just two months since the inauguration of the mobile hospital, and we have been able to save so many like Shero!
Shero has barked the good word to his friends about the MoHo, which is here to serve them!
“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!
Forest Voices of India is a U.S.- based 501 C 3 organization that helps support four charities in India…
A young boy is enchanted by a blue butterfly and by the tall trees he walks among, along with his classmates on a nature outing into the forest. They do a detailed study of the eco-system. Twenty years later, as a successful businessman, he avoids making investments that might harm the wilderness. Instead, he looks for ways to invest that will build eco-friendly environments to restore nature. In the back of his mind – always – he remembers the blue-winged butterfly.
A young woman from a disadvantaged background has not been able to finish school. It’s difficult to find a job and she feels at loose ends until she takes a handicrafts workshop which teaches how to make delightful objects out of environmentally friendly, natural materials. She is also taught how to start a business selling handicrafts. Happy making lovely objects – she looks to a brighter future ahead.
Along with a group of her peers, a middle-aged woman has been taught how to start her own business. No longer feeling trapped sitting at home, she has some extra money now to help support her family, and she feels a renewed sense of purpose – along with a sense of peace.
These and many other programs run by the Ramaswami Foundation (the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation) and their sister organization – the C.P. Ramaswami Environmental Education Centre — bring about dramatic changes in people’s lives. They reach tens of thousands of people in six different states in south India – not just bringing a sense of fulfilment to individual people but transforming people’s relationship with the natural world – bringing life to both people and the earth.
Over the past thirty years or so, the Ramaswami Foundation has restored 53 sacred groves – small forests. These vary in size from just a couple of acres to two or three hundred acres. Each is closely connected traditionally with a nearby village…
To be continued…
Photos: C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation and the C.P. Environmental Education Centre
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If you saw Cleo getting her chin scratched on a soft couch today, you’d never guess where her story began.
It was a starless night when Blue Cross of India first discovered her.
Her beady eyes surveyed the new surroundings. Alone under the night sky, tucked inside a wet cardboard box on the lonely road, she didn’t dare to stir, the thudding of her heart echoing in her ears. Was this really happening, or was her brain playing cruel tricks on her?
Minutes turned into hours without any sign of her beloved human coming to take her back – fear and confusion overpowered her.
Cleo left out a soft purr that sounded like a “Why?”
After what felt like infinite time, the sun’s soft rays filtered through the nearly bare branches, and she was startled to meet a pair of eyes that reflected her own surprise!
The flutter of hope took a U turn when she realized that the pair did not belong to her familiar person, and fear gripped her heart. But that pair of eyes stared back at her with something familiar, something she thought she’d lost forever, that she ached for – something that felt like love.
The human stepped near, and Cleo’s defense kicked in, but she was too exhausted and traumatized to escape the approaching hands. She let herself be carried out of the flimsy box. A pair of soothingly protective arms wrapped her trembling body covered with fleas. Cleo clung to them, wishing away the worst of her days.
And you know what? The wonderful days that followed Cleo’s abandonment proved that wishes do come true! Because she had just been rescued into the arms of Blue Cross. She was immediately treated and cared for, body and soul.
While one Blue Cross team was doing a splendid job of nourishing and showering her with all the love in the world, the other team had been appealing to the world to give Cleo her the forever loving and responsible home that she deserves.
After just a few days, a lovely human named Rebecca reached out to Blue Cross to adopt and take her to her loving home. Well, who could resist this adorable snowy bundle of curiosity and innocent fun?
In Bangalore, in south India, following a recent cricket match, fans of the winning team set off loud bursts of firecrackers to celebrate.
Around dark, Anand Nair, Supervisor of the WRRC center (the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre – Bangalore), received a call from caring people in an apartment complex, saying that they had found a young barn owl, who seemed disoriented, confused, and unable to fly. Apparently, she had been very frightened by the loud, startling sounds and couldn’t fly back to her usual roosting area.
Anand asked the people to approach the owl carefully, holding a towel in front of them and then to wrap the towel around her gently in order to restrain her, then place her in a cardboard box.
He had also asked them to put a few air holes in the box before putting the owl into it, and once the owl was inside the box to tape the box securely and put it in a quiet, dark place, then wait until the WRRC could send a transporter to pick up the owl and bring her to their center for treatment. The kind people, with great care, were able to do all this successfully, so that the owl, once inside the dark box, could begin to calm down a bit.
When, a little later, the owl arrived at the WRRC Centre, with gentle secure handling, they were able to cover her face to reduce her stress. And after a short while, they were able to weigh her. She weighed 330 grams.
They gave her a physical exam and treated a few superficial injuries, then placed her in a sky kennel for further observation and recuperation. In the south of India, it can be cool at night in the winter, and not being warm enough would only slow down recovery time, so they placed a heating pad near the owl to keep her warm during the night.
Very soon she was feeling better and could be shifted to an owl aviary to check her flying ability. Dr. Roopa Satish, the chief veterinarian and licensed wildlife rehabilitator, kept a good eye on her progress.
Initially she just hobbled from one branch to the next but soon was gliding effortlessly and silently in the aviary.
As soon as the relevant permission has been received from the Forest Department, she’ll be taken back to her home range and be released at dusk in the presence of the forest officials and her human friends from the apartment complex.
Even though none of us can stop all loud noises and bright lights in a city, the more we can each remember to think about the birds that are all around us, wherever we may live, the greater chance we may have to remind others about birds, so we can all learn to be thoughtful of the birds who live among us, often unseen and unnoticed.
Barn owls are found all over the world.
This barn owl has recovered and will have a good chance to live a long happy life, thanks to the kindness and quick action of all the people who cared about her wellbeing.
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
Just as they did during the lockdown a year ago, Blue Cross has been giving thousands of meals every day to the street dogs in Chennai, in the south of India.
During normal times, many street dogs hang out around tea shops and restaurants where customers give them handouts. During the lockdown these businesses have all been closed, and the dogs have been left with no source of food, so the feeding by the Blue Cross volunteers has saved their lives.
Chefs to the rescue
This has been a huge undertaking. Blue Cross has coordinated cooking the food – dog food in India is cooked and is a healthy mixture of rice and other nutritional ingredients and supplements. They have worked with chefs in restaurants and hotels who have volunteered to cook the food. When the restaurants were closed, the chefs came in every day especially to do this, while Blue Cross provided the ingredients. This has been a very large expense for them – around $600 every day, and this is in addition to feeding the one thousand or so animals who they care for, at any given time, at their main shelter.
Blue Cross has organized many dozens of volunteers to distribute the food to the dogs; some of these kind people also feed the dogs during normal times, but now it’s risen to a whole new level. They also bring along food for cows and other animals out on the street. Last year Blue Cross was able to arrange an understanding with the police for the dog feeders to be out on the street during the lockdown, and this has continued this year. In some cases the police themselves have helped with the feeding.
A native breed
Most of the street dogs in India are a native breed of “All-India” dogs that arose naturally and was not “bred.” They are of medium height, with short fur and ears pointing up. For thousands of years they have existed in Indian cities. They tend to be shy, quiet, and very adept at crossing the street while avoiding traffic. They are quite used to being out on the street. The five thousand or so humane shelters in India do not and have never rounded up the street dogs to kill them in shelters. It would not have occurred to them to do so. They simply help those animals who are injured or in distress.
In 1964, Blue Cross of India began the first, continuously running, spay/neuter program in the entire world. This program has been going ever since and has never stopped; it paused only briefly during the two lockdowns for the pandemic. It is efficient and effective and is known as the ABC program because, as Blue Cross’s co-founder and chairman emeritus, Dr Chinny Krishna, says, “It is as simple as ABC.”
A long history of helping street dogs
The ABC program has always included rabies vaccinations, which have brought rabies under control throughout the city of Chennai (and eliminated it entirely during several years), saving the lives of both animals and people.
The ongoing, dedicated work of Blue Cross caring for the street dogs of Chennai has had a powerful influence on the care of dogs and other animals in cities all over India – although India has traditionally, true to their culture and philosophy – been a land which values kindness towards all animals. The ABC program maintains a steady, stable population of the dogs, who are calm and well habituated to their neighborhoods, where they can live peacefully for many years.
In addition, Blue Cross runs a very active ambulance rescue service for animals in distress, helping many thousands of dogs and other animals each year. Dogs found on the street who have formerly been pets are taken to the Blue Cross shelter and placed in the adoption program to find loving homes.
Please help Blue Cross, if you can. They have undertaken the monumental task of feeding the street dogs during this time when they have had no regular source of food. A little goes a long way. Bless you and thank you.
By Tyag Krishnamurthy
Honorary Joint Secretary – Blue Cross of India
Board member – Forest Voices of India
Hunger has no pause button. Blue Cross of India perhaps had its busiest two months ever, starting at the end of March 2020 when the first of several lockdowns started. The entire ecosystem that street animals in India depend on for survival was upended by the lockdown. Their primary source of food – streetside eateries, restaurant discards and the largesse of passers-by disappeared overnight. To avert starvation on the streets, Blue Cross started a street animal feeding program the very next day of the lockdown announcement. The feeding program was internally code named ‘Karuna’ and the name struck a chord. ‘Karuna’ means ‘compassion’ in Sanskrit. The program was very critical, and so it was started despite a severe staff and funding shortage (as Blue Cross ran the rescue team, shelter, and hospital with less than 40% staff – all camped inside Blue Cross, while continuing to pay all the staff who were non-residents and unable to come in everyday).
At the end of the Karuna program (June 1, 2020), Blue Cross of India had cooked and helped serve over 100,000 meals to street animals (primarily dogs but many cats, cows and horses too), potentially averting mass starvation. Our feeding program started the second day of the lockdown and has covered many areas in the city. Till May 17th, the peak of the program, four batches of food were cooked every day. In total about 3,000 meals were cooked fresh every day while following strict hygiene and health safety protocols. We created overnight what we call the most critical ‘last mile’ – a network of citizen feeders, who became the backbone of this program in what has emerged as one of the best examples of deep community participation to care for animals in a crisis of unprecedented magnitude. At peak we had 150 citizen feeders.
The Karuna program also galvanized many new citizens to think about the starving animals, and many such pitched in with food cooked in their own homes, on days when Blue Cross was unable to provide meals. With the easing up of lockdown since May 17th and opening of most areas, we have now ramped down, but continue to feed in those non-residential areas which are still not open.
Volunteers step up
Vignesh, an animal lover from Tiruverkadu ranks at the top of the Blue Cross list of citizen community feeders. He has fed over 8,300 animals from the food donated by the Blue Cross since the initiative began the day after the lockdown. Kind-hearted people like Vignesh, Devi (in Ambattur, feeding over 5,800 animals) and Sowmya (in Puzhudivakkam, feeding 5,300 animals) have been the backbone of a long list of 150 citizen community feeders.
Aaditya, a resident of Tambaram who was home-cooking and feeding street animals in his neighborhood, started as a community feeder. After just a few days he signed up as a full-time volunteer for the Blue Cross and has spent entire days distributing food on one of the four routes operated. He says, “I thought to myself – if it was so tough for me to cook and feed 50 animals, how complex it would be for the Blue Cross to do this for thousands! So, I decided to help.” Many new volunteers like Shrey and Bhargav signed up during the peak time of the program to help, while other long-time volunteers like Neelakantan and Vaijayanthi have been regularly helping with food distribution.
150 citizen feeders
Vinod Kumar, General Manager – Admin, Blue Cross of India, says, “On the day of the lockdown, the first thing we did was to change our helpdesk announcement, urging callers to feed the strays on their streets. Our feeding program started the second day of the lockdown and has now covered many areas in the city.” At the peak of the program that lasted till May 17th, four batches of food were cooked every day – Hotel Green Park helped with one batch, while the in-house team at Blue Cross’s Guindy campus cooked the other three batches including one for the 1,800 odd shelter animals. In total about 3,000 meals were cooked fresh every day while following strict hygiene and health safety protocols. “Much of this is made possible with the support of our donors and patrons like Help Animals India based in Seattle USA, Four Paws International, HCL Foundation and local support from Aavin, Jain International Trade Organization, Aranya Foundation and Tamil Nadu Animal Welfare Board, who have donated in kind,” adds Vinod.
Velu TM, Manager – Special Operations and one of the key people in the field says, “We initially began feeding animals ourselves, in non-residential localities, but realized it will not be feasible to cover more areas with our limited personnel. We created a network to help, with over 150 citizen feeders, who we supply the food to every day on four different routes that cover many localities of Chennai. At its peak the reach of the feeding program spread as far as Puzhal Lake area in the north, Tiruverkadu in the west, Sholinganallur along Old Mahabalipuram Road and Selayiur/Tambaram in the south. Some community feeders also pitched in with food cooked in their home, on days when we’re unable to provide meals.”
Cooking and more cooking
Dawn William, General Manager – Disaster Management and Rescues who was managing the back-end cooking at Blue Cross says: “Our day started at 3 am as we had to cook many batches, load up, leave early and finish distribution/feeding before it gets too hot outside. Our kitchen ran without a break for nearly 50 days of peak demand as we need to care for and feed the hospital and shelter animals in Blue Cross too with very limited manpower. We never thought we could muster the manpower or the cooking capacity to pull off this operation, but every available employee and volunteer stepped up; every available resource went into dealing with this emergency.”
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Editor’s Note: Dogs in India are generally not fed packaged food. Instead, food is cooked for them. As you will notice from the photos, it is made mainly from rice with other ingredients and supplements added; it is very healthy.
Blue Cross of India runs a very active spay/neuter/anti-rabies program (please see below). It has paused during the lockdown, but it will resume just as soon as it is possible to do so.
Forest Voices of India
– conducts charitable fundraising services for environmental charities, especially in India.
How you can help
Blue Cross of India
– Is the first, the largest, and the most widely known of India’s modern-day animal shelters
– Blue Cross’s ambulance service rescues thousands of animals every year: dogs, cats, cows, pigeons, and others.
– Blue Cross’s spay/neuter/anti-rabies program for community dogs is the longest, continually running such program in the world, beginning in 1964; it has lowered the numbers of dog bites in Chennai and has dramatically reduced incidents of rabies there – for some years down to zero.
To help, click on Donate, and choose Blue Cross of India.
