Love blooms at Mother's Heart, stray animals feel special

Kolkata, Feb 16 (UNI) When the entire city was struck with cupid on the Valentine's day, displaying love in open parks and at groovy discos, a few philanthropists were fallen for stray animals.

Several school children joined hands with the members of 'Mother's Heart', a NGO working for the sick, hapless and abandoned animals and conducted an awareness campaign to spread a message of compassion and love towards these unfortunate ones.

The students, who participated in the campaign, collected funds by selling pink rose buds at the malls in the city. They urged the public to treat these animals with love and encouraged to adopt them.

''I love animals and our school also supported this noble cause.

I strongly feel for the stray animals because the pets get all the pampering from their owners. Nobody cares for these animals,'' said Joyeeta Sen, a student of class seven.

''Me and my friends are in the mall since morning and feel quite happy and satisfied as we have done something fruitful,'' added Shashank Sinha, another student of class ten.

Shree Bhattacharya, the founder of Mother's Heart, told UNI '' On Valentines day, we pray for whom we care, but we never think about these animals. So we decided to make them feel special also.'' The NGO, which was registered in 2003, have been working for these animals since 2002 without any government help.

''My husband and I were fond of animals. Our ancestral house has five cats and seven dogs, They are like our family members. It will be mean if I call them animals,'' Shree said adding that they had started this home in about 1800 sq ft of land in Sasruna area at Behala.

The spartan shelter, started by Shree and her husband is now a home to about 30 cats and 42 dogs.

When asked about their area of operation and mode of functioning, Shree said, '' Kolkata is a big city so its not possible for our 40 members to collect them from every nook and corner of the city, however, we have collected them from Alipore, Behala, Park Circus and many more places.'' The NGO sterilises and vaccinates these animals. There are two veterinary doctors who contribute to the shelter without any charge, she said adding ,'' Strelisation is neccessary to reduce the population of these street dogs as they become pain for the local commuters.'' '' We depend on public donations here. People are very supportive.

They call, in case they find any wounded animals. We treat them and send them back to their own habitat, '' she added.

The shelter home also provides facility of short stay for the pets of the owners, who leave for a vacation.

However, Shree feels that government should provide some financial aid or land for better functioning.

UNI