Street Dog Seva

There are so many animals on the streets of India. Often, we see them suffering, but we feel like there’s nothing we can do about it. But of all the animals in the streets, it is perhaps the dogs who suffer most. In the West, you don’t find many stray dogs, because they are routinely collected by the government and euthanized. But India has a no-kill policy towards dogs. This is definitely positive, however, the vast dog population is left uncared for.

Firstly, these dogs don’t receive any vaccinations, thus they are prone to contracting diseases like rabies. The World Health Organization estimates that 18 to 20,000 people in India die from rabies every year, most of them children under the age of fifteen. The real number, however, is probably much higher as many cases go unreported. But we can safely say that India accounts for at least one third of the total number of rabies deaths in the world every year.  Although rabies is 100% fatal, it’s also 100% preventable through vaccines.

Further, if stray dogs get even the simplest sicknesses, they can die.

Karuna Maiya Gets a New Lease on Life

Meet Karuna Maiya - one of our beloved street dogs in Vrindavan.

Earlier this year, Karuna Maiya’s puppies were run over by an auto rickshaw in Vrindavan’s Loi Bazaar. The loss of her children was devastating for her, and she simply gave up on life. She was laying on the ground waiting to die when Ocean of Devotion’s Braj Animal Care team found her. 

All her bones were sticking out and she had a large wound in her chest, apparently from an attack by another dog. We knew we had to feed her every day and give her medicine to help her survive. But more than that, she needed to know that she was not alone in this world. And so, we sat with her every day caressing her and talking to her. 

She was so weak that we had to tear flatbreads into tiny pieces and feed them to her bite by bite. Now her wounds have healed and she is much more energetic. She can be seen walking confidently around the marketplace, and she can now eat by herself.

Fluffy’s Miraculous Recovery

This is Fluffy, another Vrindavan street dog. Fluffy lives on the verandah of the Shri Radharaman Temple in Vrindavan, where he spends his days begging for food and love from those who live in the area and those who visit the temple. 

This summer, Fluffy contracted a terrible skin disease called mange. Mange is a very painful condition caused by small parasites that burrow down inside the skin. The intense itching caused Fluffy to scratch off most of his fur and large patches of his skin. The resulting wounds became severely infected and Fluffy almost died.

But by Radharamanji’s grace, Ocean of Devotion’s team were there to help. Under a veterinarian’s guidance, the team gave Fluffy antibiotics and special pills that kill parasites. We also applied betadine, a type of antiseptic liquid, on Fluffy’s skin. We also made sure Fluffy had sufficient food to eat every day. 

Within a couple of months, Fluffy was healthier and stronger than ever. Just see his transformation!

The most amazing thing? Fluffy’s entire treatment cost only about £11 ($15/₹1000)

We believe that all of Vrindavan’s animals deserve to be free from hunger and terrible, painful diseases – many of which can be easily cured with just a little care. We have already begun a feeding program and continuing medical care for Vrindavan’s street dogs. The feedings are scheduled twice a day – once before dawn and once after dark, when the crowd thins and there is less traffic to disturb the animals.

With your help, we hope to extend our program to serve as many animals as possible, so that all of them can live a healthy, happy life. Over the next year we hope to have a complete vaccination program in place for the street dogs, emergency medical care for sick and injured dogs, and an expanded feeding program covering the entire Vrindavan area. In addition, we would like to establish a centre to help us serve the animals, with office space, storage and free accommodations for volunteers.

Please join us by volunteering in person in Vrindavan, or by clicking below.