Over 100 cats, dogs in poor health rescued from animal trust in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: More than 100 animals - dogs, cats, pups and kittens - were rescued from Yahshua Animal Trust in Tambaram West in a joint operation conducted by animal welfare organisations, activists, TN police and TN Animal Welfare Board on December 18. The rescue operation was conducted after Prakash Ganth, founder of Heaven for Animals (HFA) filed a complaint with police.
"For the last one year, we have been getting a lot of complaints from people who had been leaving abandoned animals with the shelter. They said that when they went to follow up on the animals, they would not get any response, and also said that the animals were not being kept in hygienic conditions," says Ganth.
Shruti Vinodh Raj of TN Animal Welfare Board, says, "In the last week, we got many complaints offline and online. So a joint initiative was taken by a few animal welfare organisations and activists to inspect the shelter to help animals in distress."
Besant Memorial Animal Dispensary (BMAD), MARS, People for Animals, Hope for Kritters, ROA Shelter by Dinesh Baba, LARA Animal Care Trust, JAWZ and other individual activists were involved in the rescue.
Ganth says that all the animals were malnourished. "Many were very sick, you could see that they were being fed only once in several days as their bowls were empty. There were also some dead animals. A cat had died and was being eaten by other cats. In another cage, a Labrador had given birth to four puppies, two of which had died, and they were all confined to the same cage."
Yahshua Animal Trust could not be reached for comment.