This Covid19 lockdown has been hard on everyone. Every single human being has been found complaining about it at some point or another; of how they are unable to visit their friends, of how they miss eating food at a restaurant or watching a movie in a theatre, among others.
But one sector of the society that has been facing the struggle of the pandemic, without uttering a word of complaint, are the stray animals roaming around on the streets. Their source of food immediately vanished as the country went under lockdown and unlike humans, they couldn’t even express their despair.
That is when Karnataka police swooped in like heroes and saved the day for our four-pawed friends. In a conversation with Indian Masterminds, IPS officer Bhaskar Rao talks about the same.
STARVING STRAY DOGS
According to Mr. Rao, a few days after the lockdown was imposed, Assistant Commissioner of Karnataka Police, Mr. Ninga Reddy Patil noticed a behavioral change in a few stray dogs. They had become visibly inactive, apparently due to starvation.
He noticed that most dogs that were earlier active were now found sleeping under vehicles most of the time.
“We realized that most of them were starving due to which they were becoming weak. That is when we decided to feed nutritious foods to these dogs daily. The food is being prepared in our community kitchens and fed to them regularly for their betterment,” stated Mr. Patil.
NUTRITIOUS FOOD FOR THE FURRY ONES
Mr. Patil who heads the dog squad at City Armed Reserve (CAR) has decided to feed the same nutritious food to the stray dogs, which is prepared specially for their dog squad.
“We feed them the same nutritious food as our dog squads. Every day the menu changes and we ensure that they get at least one nutritious meal every day. They don’t get enough nutrition from biscuits that are fed to them by residents,” says the IPS officer.
As many as 400 dogs are being fed nutritious food every day. Their menu comprises rice and chicken once in a day or rice and egg with carrots and vegetables. At times, they are even given branded food meant for the police dogs.
Mr. Patil started with feeding about 100 stray dogs at a graveyard in the Indira Nagar area. “Some dogs had littered and there were many puppies which were starving. We started feeding them milk and nutritious food to the mothers. We then started expanding to other areas. We now have 10 members of our team feeding strays in other areas as well.”
CAR – SOUTH
The dog squad team has set up another kitchen in CAR South, next to the kitchen serving food to the canines, where nutritious food will be prepared for the strays in the city. The police have further teamed up with volunteers who will pick up the food and distribute it to the street dogs.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, CAR (South), Mr. M. Yogesh said, “We are feeding the dogs with good quality food. For this, we have also received many donations from animal lovers, and we are cooking at least 25 kgs of chicken to feed the strays. We are preparing the food in our campus and sending it out with volunteers in our vehicles.”
Due to lockdown, the stray dogs of the city were not getting leftovers and scraps of food from restaurants. The officers requested residents of the city to feed the strays in their area and keep them hydrated.
Even though there is relaxation from the lockdown and hotels and restaurants have started opening gradually, the Karnataka Police is still feeding meals to more than 400 dogs in the city.
