Stray dogs find home abroad

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 25

Kazu, a stray dog, was lying in a pathetic condition in a market in Patiala a few months ago. Its limbs were fractured and it was tied to a pole by miscreants. Kazu is now not just safe and sound, but also enjoying love and comfort at a home in the US.

Another dog, Raja, was found limping and bleeding. It too escaped death and is now living in Suffolk county in the UK. A couple, Eilir Rogers and her husband Charles adopted it when they read its story on Facebook. The adoption story was carried by the British media, which called Raja a miracle dog.

Hounded by locals, 48 stray dogs from Patiala have been adopted by residents of the US, Canada and England who came to know about their plight via social media.

Volunteers of the Patiala chapter of a US NGO, Guardians of the Voiceless, are in the forefront of this exercise. They say most of the dogs were wounded and on the brink of death.

“Some locals have kept 10 or more stray dogs in their houses. There are only a few people who torture canines,” said Pankaj Arora, who heads the NGO in the state.

Each dog passes through a long visa process before being adopted by someone abroad. “Several tests are done. The adoption of these dogs, called street/ desi dogs in foreign media, is quite a rage now,” said Arora.

“Kazu is termed as more intelligent and devoted than pedigree dogs by his adopted parents,” he said.

In an e-mail message, LuzMaria Gomez-Guemez, founder vice-president of the NGO, said: “Kazu fought hard and survived miraculously. Adopted by Tera and her husband Michael, Kazu is living an incredible life. He is enrolled to become a therapy dog soon. He will be visiting elderly people in nursing homes, besides patients in a hospital.”

Among the volunteers is Rahul (16) from Uttar Pradesh, who started making kennels for stray dogs outside a shop he was employed for washing utensils. He is famous as the “most beaten-up dog lover”. “I was ridiculed like stray dogs. We understood each other. I will continue my work, come what may,” he said, recalling the beatings he has got.