It’s that time of year where India celebrates National Animal Week all around the country. This National Week is colloquially termed as ‘Prani Saptah’. This Animal week falls on November every year and is hugely celebrated by the Govt. Veterinary Department nationally.
The purpose of this event is to ainly create awareness amongst the locals and farmers to help them generate more income by rearing livestock and poultry. In a developing country like India, where 70% of the population is still dependent on agriculture, it becomes important to educate the locals about new schemes and subsidies provided by the Govt. to farmers. Thus, the Veterinary department in kalimpong also organises such an event in villages for three days.
In this event, kalimpong Animal Shelter is requested every year by the Govt. veterinary wing for Animal Birth Control camps. Due to numerous accomplishments by Kalimpong Animal Shelter over the past years on eradicating rabies and helping with the stray dog population in this small town, KAS is honoured by the Veterinary Department to be part of this event year after year.
As KAS specialises in Animal
Birth Control, KAS Vet, Dr. D. P.Pandey with the help of his team members
conduct open flank spay at the event. Owners are always given prior notice to
camps so that they could bring their ailing dogs for treatment or cats/dogs for
spaying. Students from the village Primary School also visit during the event
to learn about ‘Animal Welfare’ and ‘humane education’.
Children get excited to see the spay/neuter prorgramme conducted by Kalimpong Animal Shelter and they watch in awe. They’re even sensitised about rabies, animal birth control, adoption, etc when they visit KAS stall during such events. It becomes ideal for children to learn more along with the practical knowledge which KAS instills on them. Seeing such performance by KAS team, some children also aspire to become Veterinarians in future and thus, save lives of animals.
This year, Prani Saptaph was held in Pedong and Darjeeling where KAS actively participated and enlightened the crowd. On November, 17th, 2018 the first event was celebrated in Dungra, Kalimpong by the Govt. Veterinary Bloc. The event started by 9 till 5 in the evening with some refreshments and musical performance. The locals had brought in their cats and dogs for vaccination against rabies and some for spaying. On that day, Kas operated on 17 dogs and 1 cat with total vaccination on 43 cats and dogs.
Subsequently, on 18th and 19th November, Prani Sapta event was held on the outskirts of Darjeeling, Sukya and Takdah. Kalimpong Animal Shelter team then left for ABC camps in Darjeeling early in the morning. It was a cold day with a little bit of sunshine. But to help the dogs, KAS managed some heaters to keep the dogs warm during the ongoing spay thereafter, guided them about the post-operative care for their dogs. Community dogs were also caught, spayed and vaccinated. Despite the cold, KAS team operated on 14 dogs and vaccinated 10 dogs against rabies.
On the third day mainly the last day of camp in Takdah, KAS operated on 21 owner dogs and 1 cat. Thirty five cats/dogs were also vaccinated against rabies. Altogether; it was a successful camp for KAS. The govt. Veterinary Bloc felicitated KAS with a token of appreciation for offering help to the locals and for reconnecting the bond between humans and animals.