Our Resources for the animals
“The world does not belong to us, we’ve only been given a space to live in and we need to learn to share this space with other creatures as well”
Facilities
For the homeless and wounded
Animal Shelter
At Kolangattukara
Animal shelters play a crucial role in our communities as they continuously work to safeguard lives of injured animals, reunite pets with their owners and find new homes for animals that are lost without a permanent home or for those animals who cannot be left on the streets. It is often a thankless job as we bear the responsibility of balancing space to house all the animals, coordinating pet adoptions and developing homegrown campaigns to encourage people to be responsible and spay and neuter their animals. We do all of this while trying to convince people to look first at animal shelters for that special family pet instead of going to a breeder and buying a pet.
At PAWS Thrissur we have the facility to house forty five to fifty dogs and ten cows at a time. Though the total demand for shelters is much higher, all we can do is to ensure that all animals coming into our care are treated completely and get adopted post recovery or are released back into the environment we got them from, post sterilization.
The upkeep of the shelter is a tedious job as it involves continuous care giving and a lot of resources in the form of food, medical equipment vaccinations and medicines. Our volunteers keep visiting the shelter to carry out important duties such as wound dressing, feeding and even cleaning. We have a full time staff who takes care of the overall well-being of the animals.
Operation Theater
Full fledged at our shelter
By 2020, we were 8 years old and still struggling to get dates at the university veterinary hospitals to sterilise the animals that we rescued, before they could be released back in their territories after treatment.This was causing an overcrowded shelter and we were soon unable to take in animals that were in distress from accidents and illness. We decided that the issue had to be addressed and that it was time for our next milestone. We decided to construct an Operation Theatre at our shelter with state of the art facility so that even outside vets could bring their cases in to operate. The main objective of this was to facilitate quick sterilisation of animals post treatment so that they could be released at the earliest. Surgeries that were getting delayed, like limb amputation or fracture pinning, tumour removals and many others could also be done at the earliest at out Operation Theatre, thereby reducing the time delay for suffering animals.
It was in 2021, that our Operation Theatre became full fledged, with help from Sreejith Keshavan and Sidharth Ram. We have all the machinery required for regular surgeries such as Cautery, Anaesthesia machine, Operation table, OT lamp, Multiparameter monitor, Autoclave, Refrigerator, Medicine trolley and so on. Within our limited space, we have managed to develop the best facilities for surgery. Regular surgeries are conducted by one of the best surgeons in Kerala, consultant veterinary surgeon, Dr (Maj) Sudheesh Nair. Surgeries performed at our shelter include spaying and castration for dogs and cats, limb amputation and tumor removal as well. In the coming year we also plan to take in surgical cases from outside so that it will serve as a source of income for the organization.
Ambulance
To rescue animals in need
2013 brought us a wonderful gift in the form of an ambulance sponsored by the Canine Club of Thrissur. This allowed us to expand our reach and attend to animal rescues within the entire district of Thrissur. It was presented to us at the International Dog Show conducted by the Canine Club on the 4th, 5th and 6th of January 2013, at the Veterinary College, Mannuthy. We are extremely grateful to the President of the Canine Club, Retd SP.T. Chandran, the Secretary Mr. Augustsine, for their initiative and all the others of the governing board who have been generous enough to spare a thought for our stray, injured and abandoned animals as well.
FLOOD RESCUE BUILDING
For protection during floods
As soon as life was starting to get back to normal after the floods, we had a few groups like Team ResQ reaching out to us asking what kind of help we would want for our shelter. We remembered how (during the floods), we had to go through a great deal of trouble to make sure that none of our animals were drowning in water and not even being able to reach out to our shelter attender was worrisome. With such nerve racking thoughts in mind, we decided that we would need to build a tall construction of 15 ft high, to keep our animals safe from any flooding that could happen in the years to come. But we had no funds to step forward. When Team ResQ approached us, we discussed our needs with them and they were more than happy to help. The lower portion (ground floor) is to house our cattle. There is a small room next to it to stock cattle feed. Onto the top, will lead a ramp so that the dogs can be taken up in case of any floods that occur.
While we completed the first stage of work of the flood rescue building in 19-20, there was still a lot more work to be done. We needed to construct a ramp for the animals to get to the top, a truss and roofing sheets needed to be put, the floor had to be done, railings on the sides, as also plumbing and electric work. For this we needed more funds and we were at a loose end. That’s when generous people like Sreejith Keshavan (Vaalue Plus, Chennai) and Anand Siva from Mumbai, extended a helping hand to pull us out of the crisis. We were able to finish the entire work and we are now well equipped to face any floods that could hit Kerala in the future.
Cattle Area
Free space for cattle and planting fodder for them
The number of cattle that we had at the shelter gradually increased and we had no infrastructure to house any more cattle. When we started building the structure for flood rescues, we planned the ground floor as a shed for the cows as well. We scaled up the area in such a way that 30 cents became grazing lands for the cattle while they are also taken daily to graze in the nearby fields. The whole area was fenced using chain links. We next plan to complete the cattle area which is a pathway leading to the cow shed to enable vehicles to reach the shed even during the rainy season where the ground becomes extremely slushy.