A few years back, a leading national daily ran an expose` on a fledgling animal rescue organization. The organization in question had been creating quite a ripple by roping in some very big names as patrons and sponsors. Their names were being splashed all over—in the papers, on the television… everyone was talking about them.

That the reporter featured them in a front line national newspaper was therefore no big deal. The big deal was that the article was accusing them of selling the rescued animals to Government sponsored research laboratories as specimens to be experimented on. The newspaper and the writer had the proof to back their claim. So when the said animal rights activists invaded the offices of the newspaper asking for an apology, they couldn’t really do much other than raise hell.

At that point of time, it was big news. Big news because one of the patrons of the organization was the then Minister of Animal Welfare. It was on her intervention that the research lab agreed to return the dogs, that they insisted they paid for.

Fast forward to 2008. A leading daily publishes a news concerning a brother-sister duo who had been running an unlicensed animal care centre from their home. A large number of people who love INDogs but for some reason or the other are not able to keep one at their homes would pay the duo to provide lodging and take care of the animals. A very noble initiative indeed.

The siblings would have been hailed for what they were doing, had they not been watched. Last morning, a big team from the Calcutta Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (CSPCA), along with the Kolkata Police, raided their home. There, in dingy cages were 11 dogs and one cat. Their living conditions were unhealthy to say the least.

The thing that concerned everyone the most was that several of the animals, that people had paid them to care for, were missing and unaccounted for. The duo didn’t budge on police questioning, so right now, no one knows what happened to them. In the mean time, their sponsors are distraught and heartbroken.

Can you expect people to trust animal rescue organizations if rogue institutions like these keep putting their own interest above that of the animals? What happened was a big step backwards towards the animal rights movement in India, and should be a cause of grave concern…

But wait a minute! Remember the organization that was ratted on a few years back? What happened to them? It so happens that today that organization is the poster child of animal rescue in India. They are still raved about, and most people, not involved with animal rescue, but who want to help animals anyway, approach them first for help.

Humans have a short memory span… perhaps that is why animal rights have continued to be a lucrative business for some. In the meantime, the watchdogs and the whistle blowers of the animal rights movement are watching. It’s a tussle, and we hope the good guy wins at the end of the day.

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