Highest participation in recent fund collection drive
The Streeties Management Group (SMG) of Panchshila Park took voluntary ownership of looking after the well-being of 60 odd stray dogs in the colony in February 2019. Since then, it has been taking direct care of neutering, inoculation, injury management, feeding coordination, and winter shelter provisioning, especially of those streeties that do not have a specific primary care giver. It also helps in better coordination for the upkeep of those stray dogs that are looked after by primary caregivers, by making available a directory of doctors & agencies, and by providing medicines and clothing, if needed. The SMG also interfaces with neighboring colonies like Sadhana Enclave and Shahpur Jat to handle inter colony movement, especially during events like Diwali etc. when dogs run away due to noisy firecrackers.
Every six odd months, the group seeks contributions from the residents to help manage the above actions, any other exceptional items (e.g., 5 of our strays were proactively kept in a shelter for 10 days, to prevent them from being picked up during the G-20) and to donate to organizations like Friendicos that help us nurture an effective strays’ management ecosystem in our colony.
This year, we had 83 contributors, the highest till date. Appx half of them each came from S block and N+E block respectively. The S block raised almost 2 times the funds as compared to N+E block, which is commendable. Unfortunately, S block already had a deficit because of big spends, so almost half of the collections went toward covering that.
Although the contribution has come from less than 10% of residents in our colony, we are grateful for the generosity of those who went out of their way to do so. It is noteworthy that few good Samaritans have contributed to the kitty, even though they have moved out of the colony.
In the recent past, the social media has reported incidents that paint the strays as evil entities, causing grievous injuries and even death. Whenever such posts get shared, some of the residents raise a war cry to get rid of the strays and restore the pristine quality of this A grade colony. They want “some action” to be taken. Little do they realize that, as per prevailing law, strays cannot be removed from their natural habitat. What we have done at SMG is to try and ensure that we control the population explosion through neutering, manage the risk through inoculation, keep the dogs generally less aggressive by handling their injuries, need for shelter and coordinating their feeding with the caregivers, so that they are in peaceful co-habitation with the residents.
It is a pity that such residents fail to see this role and, whilst they are quick to raise strays related issues, they inexplicably and rarely make any contributions to help the situation. We would really urge everyone to come forward and open their hearts to help us effectively manage the well-being of our stray dogs. They can contribute financially as well as with their time and network of relevant institutional contacts toward this purpose.
Whilst our next fund-raising campaign will happen in the April-June 2024 quarter, residents are free to contribute at any time and may contact the undersigned for details of where and how to do it.
