Karuna Society for Animals and Nature

KARUNA’S  PAINTED STORKS RESCUE PROJECT AT VEERAPURAM, INDIA

Every year the Painted Storks arrive in large numbers at Veerapuram, a small village on the border of Andhra Pradesh. This year they arrived one month later than usual and their number is estimated  3000. They occupy every tree in the little village and build their nests. The painted Stork is a protected bird by the government of India and protection it needs.

Survival becomes more and more difficult as the birds face many difficulties. By nature, when the autumn storms come , many young chicks fall from the nests. Many die but the ones that survive need to be rescued, fed and nursed as they cannot go back to the nest. The summer drought causes the lakes in the surrounding area’s to dry up and the adult birds find it difficult to find food for the young ones. They have to fly far away and sometimes don’t come back. Their difficulties caused by humans are even more serious. The birds are shot down for food at the Karnataka border, they don’t return to the nest and their young starve to death. The fishermen chase away the birds, they dont allow them to fish; a conflict of interest!

To support the Painted Storks in their effort to survive, Karuna Society builds a nursery every year in the village, appoints one attendant to nurse and feed the birds and buy fish in large quantities. Wounded birds have to be brought to the Karuna Wildlife Center in Puttaparthi for treatment and by the end of the season hundreds of birds have to be fed.

PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN

Wildlife Trust India is supporting our rescue efforts with a grant but this is just not enough.  We will need an extra $700 a month to cover the costs for feeding and care.

UK blues & folk singer/music-theatre actress Dana Gillespie (probably most well known for being Andrew Lloyd Weber’s original “Mary Magdalene” in Jesus Christ Superstar), was in South India recently. She paid a visit to Karuna Society and spent time with Karuna’s two and four legged inhabitants.

Dana said about Karuna “Despite the very disturbing stories and scenes of abuse, abandonment and injuries, the animals at Karuna are obviously very well taken care of and seem so happy to be there. They all receive such great medical care, comfort and love, I am so happy to see what incredible things Karuna are doing”.

Compassion for rescued cattle

Dana meets rescued Humpy

These animals are very fortunate

UK blues & folk singer/music-theatre actress Dana Gillespie

I am so touched by the kindness that is shown to all the animals

(probably most well known for being Andrew Lloyd Weber’s original “Mary Magdalene” in Jesus Christ Superstar), was in South India recently. She paid a visit to Karuna Society and spent time with Karuna’s two and four legged inhabitants.

Dana said about Karuna “Despite the very disturbing stories and scenes of abuse, abandonment and injuries, the animals at Karuna are obviously very well taken care of and seem so happy to be there.  They all receive such great medical care, comfort and love, I am so happy to see what incredible things Karuna are doing”.

In December 2010 this female dog was brought into Karuna’s clinic by her owner, suffering with severe burns.  The neighbor had tied her up and set her on fire to punish her for entering his compound.  The owner filed charges against the abuser at his local police station.

With the care and dedication of the staff, the dog was a survivor. We called her ‘Firefox”.  Her burns were treated with colloidal silver bandages, homeopathic ointment, pain killers and antibiotics. She was doing really well on the treatment.  We predicted it would be a few months before she could return home.

On January 11, our dear Firefox passed away.  The healing of her burns was coming along really nicely but due to her compromised immune system she was vulnerable to catching distemper and was not able to recover.  She passed quickly and peacefully, wagging her tail only hours before she went unconscious. We shall miss her sweet disposition and gentle nature.

On December 4th, 2010, the Commissioner of Anantapur Municipal Corporation organized a meeting at our cattle hospital.

Anti-Plastic Bag Campaign for Cows

Recently, Karuna Society received 36 street roaming cows from Anantapur the largest town in the district. Karuna immediately provided these cows with medical treatment, fodder and shelter.  One of these cows died suddenly and the postmortem showed it was caused by plastic ingestion of 40kg. The Karuna Board members held a series of discussions with the Commissioner resulting in this important meeting.

Emergency surgery was performed in presence of the cattle owners to show how much their cattle suffer when they let them walk free in the streets to feed on garbage in town instead of natural feed. Two cows were operated on.  One cow had 42 kgs of plastic removed while the other had 32 kgs taken from its stomach.  Each operation took approximately 2 hours. Unfortunately, the first cow died two days later despite the best efforts of the Karuna staff.  It already had been in a weakened state for too long before the surgery.

The first cow that was operated on who unfortunately died

Second operated cow that is doing really well

On the day of the event, the Municipal Environmental Engineer, the Sanitary Inspector, the President of the Puttaparthi Gram Panchayath as well as regional cattle owners were invited to witness two such operations. The media was also invited to film and report this news to raise public awareness.  Reporters from seven media channels and all district newspapers attended.

Plastic bags being removed from stomach

Incision being made at cow's stomach

After the event, the Commissioner showed the footage of the operations to all district officers.  A decision was then made that from March 1st, 2011, plastic will be banned all over Anantapur District.  In addition, they decided that Karuna’s cattle hospital would be the best place to operate on cows that are suffering from plastic ingestion as the necessary facilities and inpatient care is available.

In all big and small cities in India, cows are often let loose on the streets to scavenge in garbage and to save the cost of natural feed and grass. There are an enormous number of plastic bags in the street garbage.  Many contain leftover food that attracts the cows to eat them.  These polythene bags are stuck in the cow’s first stomach (Rumen).   These plastics cannot be digested but accumulate over time resulting in a slow death as the cows are not able to ruminate with proper grass and feed. There is no space left in the rumen to start natural digestion. They only survive on the waste food; they slowly starve to death.  In addition, the poor animals are in constant pain.  Calves born from affected cows are small in size due to lack of food and space caused by packed rumen plastics. As much as 65 kgs of plastic has been removed from one cow’s stomach during a life-saving operation performed at Karuna’s cattle hospital.

Surgeons operating on cow

Stitching up of incision

Unfortunately, the owners of the street cattle roaming the streets are not real farmers. This is a most abusive business for the animals. Many are bought from farmers at the cattle market for very little money. The new “owner” simply leaves them on the road to fend for themselves. They mark the animals as their property. Whenever it suits them and the animal “looks fat”, they sell them off for a lot of money to an unsuspected real farmer or for slaughter. When the farmer feeds natural feed and grass, the animal dies from indigestion and the farmer and the cow are both victim of a cruel and immoral practice.

If we think only about Anantapur town there are still hundreds or more cattle left on the roads. They are sentenced to a slow cruel death. This is a cruelty most people are not aware off, when they see the animals walking in the street. Think about the big cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, how many animals are suffering.

To this date, seven rumenotomies have been performed. For three animals the surgery was too late to save their life.  Four are doing well and are under observation. For some time we will continue the surgeries every Saturday.

The cost for each operation will be Rs. 5000/- approximately $100 per cow.

Please consider helping us to fund this much-needed service to help these cows that are suffering greatly and which will die without your help.