Mangaluru: There has always been a balance between civilisation and stray animals. This balance continues to persist even during the COVID-19 lockdown as there have been many people who have stepped up to care for these voiceless, yet lovable beings.
Over the past few days, we have seen and heard heartening stories of people coming together and feeding stray dogs, cats and cows who have been struggling to find food during the lockdown.
Many of these feeders are ordinary everyday citizens who feel a deep responsibility to take care of the animals who depend on humans for food, water and at times shelter. They are not affiliated with anyone, nor do they seek adulation or fame for their work. While they have been taking care of the strays since long before the lockdown, times are especially hard right now due to constraints of funds and movement.
“There are many people around who have been feeding strays, but they are limited to certain areas because of the lockdown,” explains animal activist Tauseef Ahmed.
He added that in some areas, there are people who feed anywhere from 10 to 30 dogs in their localities. “But there are some areas where people want to feed the strays, but they either don’t have sufficient funds, resources or don’t have enough food to feed the hungry animals,” he said.
For those who follow Tauseef on Facebook and Instagram, you would have seen that every day, he delivers bags and bags of dog, cat and cattle feed to community feeders in the city.
“There is a bigger picture here. I thought that if I can reach out to the community feeders, more animals can be fed rather than me just targeting 10 to 30 dogs every day,” he reasoned.
Since the lockdown began, the animal activist, popularly known as “Mr Rescuer”, has already distributed 1,000 kgs of readymade animal food, rice and cattle feed to community feeders in the city, who have in turn fed their local strays.
“I had kept a target of 1,000 kgs when the lockdown began. Now that target has been reached. Henceforth I will provide food only to those who are genuinely finding it hard to feed their strays,” he said.
Asked how he has been funding his noble work, Tauseef said that he spends out of his own pocket, however, there have been a few people – like family, friends and strangers – who have been generous enough to donate.
Tauseef has already spent around Rs 1,45,000 on the food, about Rs 80,000 of which has come from generous donors who want to support the cause.
“One day, I spent about Rs 4,000 or 5,000 on dog food and I put the bill up on social media. People started reaching out to me and asking if they could donate. They said they wanted to support me as they were not able to go out and feed,” he said.
“Even students started sending me Rs 100 and Rs 200 on Paytm. They said it is from their pocket money and asked me to use it however I want. It was very sweet of them,” he added.
Soon, word started spreading and more people started to donate.
“Incidentally, I achieved my target of 1,000 kgs of animal food exactly one month after I decided to take this initiative,” he explained.
Asked how many animals have been fed through the #WeFeed initiative, Tauseef said, “I have no idea how many have been fed. I can only keep track of how much I have spent and how many kgs of food I have bought and distributed. Anyway, this is not a competition. The objective is to make sure that stray animals don’t suffer, not publicity.”
Every day, he makes it a point to deliver food to the community feeders. As Mr Rescuer puts it, there are about four to five people who have been waiting for him to deliver the food every day. “If someone is in urgent need of food, I give them the first priority. I manage things like that every day,” he said.
However, Tauseef reaches out only to those who have been feeding the strays regularly. There have also been cases where those who can afford to buy the food themselves have asked to him to donate food to them for their own dogs. “I don’t take cases like that. I give food to people who have genuinely been feeding local animals for a long time and are finding it difficult during the lockdown,” he added.
Now that Tauseef has met his target of distributing 1,000 kgs of food, he plans to only distribute to those who have financial constraints.
“I also have financial constraints. Donations have also stopped and there is only so much I can do with my limited resources. My health is also taking a toll since I have been travelling almost 40 to 50 kms every day,” he said.
He also added that if the local administration decides to help, he will continue his work.
“The worst part of the whole situation is that the local administration has not extended any support at all. I don’t want to blame anyone, honestly speaking. They are all doing a great job when it comes to handling the situation but when it comes to this (feeding strays)… it’s not like they are unaware of these things. The media is writing about it, news channels are covering it. When you know people who are genuinely doing something about it (the hungry strays) why don’t you (administration) reach out to them (community feeders)?” he asked.
He also cited other administrations and governments that have either taken it upon themselves to feed the strays or sanction funds for the same. “Here to issue passes they were looking up and down. We are feeding out of our own pockets. We are not even asking them for money. When we are able to do so much with the help of other feeders, friends and family putting money, imagine the kind of reach we will have if we get funds from the government. We are not asking for crores and crores of rupees. A few thousand rupees a month can help us reach out to so many more (animals),” he explained.
“If they don’t trust us they can at least form their own team and feed and do something,” he added.
Meanwhile, Tauseef and others have noticed dead birds around the city, birds with seemingly no injuries at all.
“The birds dying because of the lockdown came as a surprise to me also. A lot of pigeons and other birds have been falling either due to hunger or dehydration,” he said.
Tauseef believes that this is because godowns have been closed due to the lockdown. Normally, pigeons, sparrows and some other birds flock around the godowns and wait for food grains to fall on the ground so that they can feed.
“I have been going to the main godowns and have been scattering some rice and ragi grains in the hopes that the birds will have something to eat. I have noticed that almost all the grains are over whenever I go back, so I am assuming that they are eating,” he said.
Another issue he pointed out was that birds generally get affected badly during the summers because of a lack of water.
He says that if individuals place a bowl of water and some food grains outside their homes or in their balconies, it will help the birds a lot.
To Tauseef and the other feeders, the lockdown has posed some challenges as the number of hungry animals has increased. What is even more challenging is the situation we are living through, as you never know who is infected and who isn’t.
“Maintaining distance and avoiding people is not something we can do as feeders. There are a lot of things to consider. It is definitely scary and risky,” he added.
