Citizens for Animals

-the voice of the voiceless
‘Help those, who cannot help themselves,’ if we all follow this, the world will become more beautiful. And it will be the advent of a new world full of mutual respect, happiness… and fun. But gory incidents such as massacre of street dogs in a few cities of India, especially Bangalore, bring us to the verge of collapsing humanity. To fi ght such inhuman practices, a welfare organization, Citizens for Animals (CFA) was formed to take the moral responsibility of protecting unfortunate animals. Here, Rishi Dev, the founder member of CFA exudes his vision and mission of this powerful welfare organization.
Remember Tagore’s famous teaching ‘Move alone and people will join in your mission later’… Surely, with this thought in mind, a few good men joined hands together and started an organization – Citizens for Animals (CFA) on March 18, 2006. It might be a challenging journey for some, but for people like Rishi Dev, it’s their passion to serve the voiceless.
Their objectives
The main objective of CFA is to spread awareness among people. Their aim is to bring about adoption of street and abandoned dogs, building a nationwide network of animal lovers, keeping a check on any cruelty on animals by any individual or organization, following cases with the government agencies on policy matters, holding Animal Birth Control and anti-rabies campaign, conducting rallies and protest against any indiscrimination against animals.
Their projects
To achieve these goals, the organization has been conducting many projects since its inception. They conduct antirabies camps, adoption programmes and awareness camps. Besides, they are also planning to set up high facility street pup training programme, adoption center and hospital for animals.
Heartbreaking realities
Animal shelters face the problem of a large number of abandoned animals and this number is growing tremendously. Pet parenting demands responsibility. Those who are not ready to provide adequate care, simply abandon their pets. Lack of awareness and irresponsibility among pet parents further aggravates the situation. Illegal breeding, lame animal laws, ignorance and poor practice by law keepers end the life of pets on the streets and animal shelters.
Mitigating measures
Intervention of government with powerful laws is a must to check the uncontrollable growth of animal population on the streets. Unhealthy breeding should also be stopped by law. At the same time, conducting awareness programmes through animal welfare board of India, municipal corporations and NGOs will also help to reduce the problem.
Inculcating values in the young generation is a good measure to stop cruelty towards animals.
Garbage is the source of food for the strays. A successful waste disposal diminishes the chance of food intake and it will ultimately lead to the reduction of stray population. Tremendous growth of animal population and the spread of rabies can be checked by Animal Birth Control programmes and vaccination. The government should provide adequate grants and funds to NGOs to conduct such activities in a better way. By adopting street dogs, we the people can make a huge difference.
Their strength
They represent the common man and that is their biggest strength.
To conclude, Rishi expresses his compassion, “There is no higher relation than protecting and serving all God’s creations and the art of living is not in the survival of the fi ttest, but in mutual coexistence…”