Stories

Great Danes Left To Die Rescued By IDA

As narrated by Fizzah Shah, President, IDA

Danabhai Jewellers, a reputed Jewellers at SantaCruz (W) had originally kept four Great Danes and a German Shepard to guard their showroom. These dogs were never kept properly and were always neglected. Out of the five dogs four were male and one of the Great Danes was a female who was not sterilized.

Following a complaint received, I descended on the store on Thursday, 23rd April'09 and found two Great Danes, one male and one female, both were extremely weak, maggot-ridden and full of ticks. The female was reduced to a bag of bones and had injuries on her body and paws. The male was suffering from a severe skin infection and his eyes were full of wax. They were kept in the sun without adequate food and water. It was evident that the owners never paid any attention to them. They had no proof of any licenses or vaccination administered to them. When one of our volunteers offered to give them water, the caretaker said that we will give him water as per our schedule. Their feeding bowls were also very filthy. The store owner claimed that two of the five dogs were taken away by an unknown person and one had been poisoned to death. I spoke to their veterinary doctor, Dr. Karkare who pleaded with me to take these dogs away from these inhuman human beings.

On making further enquires, I learnt that the un-sterilized female Great Dane was kept along with the other four male dogs and was harassed by all the male dogs when she came on heat, much to the delight of the onlookers. I was shocked to learn that the watchman used to tie the female dog and watch a live performance of the four dogs harassing her. The neighbors also informed me that she had littered dead puppies on three occasions.

I filled an NC against them at the Santacruz (W) Police station for the ill treatment of the Dogs under section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act,1960. We have not received much response from the police as they must have been under pressure from these so called big shots. However, they advised me to take them to court and penalize them u/s 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 as the NC did not give them authority to take action against the offenders or culprits. I have submitted all the relevant papers to our lawyer and have discussed all the possibilities of taking them to task.

The dog have now been taken to the animal hospital at Parel. It was surprising that the owners did not object when the dog were taken away. Both the dogs are responding positively to the treatment. We will be sterilizing the female so that she will not be harassed by the male dogs and can live peacefully.

Very recently, I had spoken to Dhanbhai Jewellers regarding their future plan for the dogs. They said that they do not want to keep the dogs anymore and were planning to give them away to somebody who will be able to take care of them. As my major fear is that the dogs may land up in wrong hands, I refused to give them back. Once the dogs have recovered fully, I plan to make a combo offer of both these in-separateable, Male and Female, docile Great Danes. If any one is interested in adopting both these dogs together, they requested to kindly contact me either by e.mail or on phone.