INDIA: BLUE CROSS AMBULANCES SAVE 11,000 ANIMALS A YEAR! PART ONE
Tripod, in this account by Dr. Chinny Krishna, Chairman of Blue Cross of India, is just one of tens of thousands of animals whose lives have been saved by the Blue Cross ambulance service:
In early October 2006, a little dog had been badly injured when she was hit by a motorcycle in Chennai. The student driver involved telephoned the Blue Cross, and the little dog was collected in one of their ambulances. The vet on duty was sure that nothing could be done to save her rear leg, and reluctantly, amputated it. The next day this young dog was happily greeting visitors to the Blue Cross office where the staff had kept her.
She was a most friendly dog, and everybody felt that with her playful nature, she would be adopted within a few days. Two months passed but no one seemed to want a three-legged dog, no matter how playful and friendly she was till, finally, my son, Rudra visited one evening and was immediately captivated by her friendliness and beautiful eyes as she lay on a chair wagging her tail. He picked her up and only then did he realize that she had only three legs. After a few minutes he put her down and went round the shelter, and the three-legged dog followed him everywhere with her eyes following his every move.
Rudra decided to take her to his home, and while driving home decided to call her Tripod. Fifteen minutes later Tripod was in her new home playing happily with the other dogs who shared Rudra’s home. She’s been happily part of the family ever since.
Two new ambulances
Now, some very generous people have given two new ambulances to Blue Cross of India. Their extraordinary ambulance service picks up 11,000 animals in distress every year.
Throughout India, there are a number of Indian animal welfare groups that run a 24/7 ambulance service to pick up injured animals.
Any hour of the day or night, any day of the year, if a resident of Chennai, in the south of India, comes across an animal in distress, he or she can call Blue Cross of India, and an ambulance will be sent out right away to rescue the animal.
When the animal arrives at Blue Cross, she will be treated, even in the middle of the night, by an emergency vet. There is always one on duty. In most cases, these are street animals who have no one to pay for them. Blue Cross provides excellent care for them—and donations to Blue Cross cover the costs. (You can help with this too, if you’d like to. Your help will be much appreciated.)
Because Blue Cross has been operating this service full time for many years, some of the ambulances were a little the worse for wear, and some new ones were very urgently needed. The nine ambulances in their fleet were always busy non-stop, and if one or two had gone out of operation that could have meant that an injured animal might have had to wait to be rescued, so it was really important for that not to happen. Now, with the two new ones there are eleven ambulances altogether—all kept busy rescuing animals in distress.
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation’s generosity
Some really kind people came forward to help this essential service. The Brigitte Bardot Foundation in France gave a really wonderful, generous donation to cover the cost of an entire new ambulance. But when Blue Cross went to purchase the ambulance, they found that the price had gone up in the meantime! Well, it was okay anyway. Aslok Leyland, the ambulance company, very kindly reduced the price again, just to help out the animals, and absorbed the extra cost.
And a second new ambulance!
The Rukmini Devi Arundale Trust and the Animal Welfare Board of India helped too!
A second new ambulance was donated, half by the Rukmini Devi Arundale Trust, who gave $10,000 (450,000 rupees) and half by the Animal Welfare Board of India, who gave another $10,000—and together that was enough to cover the cost of the second ambulance!
Receiving the two new ambulances was a very special occasion, and the event also celebrated a complete upgrade of the Blue Cross cat area!
A lot of changes have taken place at Blue Cross in the past little while—and they all mean that one of the largest and most effective animal groups in the world has gotten even better!
A new General Manger has been hired, Dawn Williams; he’s an ex-commando with the Indian military, and he keeps everything ship-shape!
Blue Cross will now be charging families who can afford to pay for vet care. This will help out with the expenses, which are really enormous, due to the size of their operations and the number of animals they help—and will enable Blue Cross to continue to cover the expenses of the many community animals who have no one to pay for their care.
So if a family brings in their dog or cat to be seen by the vet, they’ll pay $ 1 (50 rupees) for a consultation and a first dose of medication—or a rabies vaccination. An IV, if needed, will be $2. A five-way multi-vaccination will be $5. Any other treatments needed will be dispensed mostly at cost. All the unowned street animals will still be treated free of charge, just as before.
Continued in Part Two....
How you can help
To read Part Two, click here.
To visit the website of Blue Cross of India, click here.
Top photo: Narayanan Hariharan / Tripod
Second photo: Blue Cross of India / All the people who had something to do with Blue Cross and the ambulances:
Brian Dalton, Acting Consul General of the U.S., with his dog, Devi, Dr. Nanditha Krishna, Sathya Radhakrishnan, General Kharb, the Chairman of the Animal Welfare Board of India, Marion Courtine representing the Rukmini Devi Arundale Trust, Mrs. Kharb, Dawn Williams, the General Manager of the Blue Cross, Mrs. Sunita Shahaney, Dr. Chinny Krishna, the Chairman and co-Founder of the Blue Cross, Mr. Ram Shahaney (sideways), the Chairman of Ashok Leyland, Shantilal Pandya (member of the Governing Body of the Blue Cross); Dr. Saleem Aslam, Member of the AWBI; V. Ravi Shankar, Treasurer of the Blue Cross of India
Third photo: Narayanan Hariharan / A puppy at the Blue Cross
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