Date:31/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/31/stories/2008123150630200.htm

New Delhi

Bring home your ‘puppy love’

Staff Reporter

People For Animals offering a large number of puppies for free adoption

NEW DELHI: In a thoughtful animal-friendly initiative, People For Animals in collaboration with Select Citywalk, Saket, is offering a large number of healthy, smart and affectionate puppies for free adoption at a flea market here this Wednesday.

Aptly named “Puppy Love”, the puppy adoption corner has been designed in the form of a manger in keeping with the Christmas spirit. Puppies will be at the stall every week on Wednesday.

“At the recent Select City Christmas Bazaar, PFA was able to find homes for dozens of animals. The public response was overwhelming. With the puppy stall attracting visitors from morning to night, Select City has decided to make it a weekly feature. Since then we have found homes for a hundred lucky puppies,” says Ambika Shukla of PFA.

Bollywood actor Rahul Dev, who is an animal rights supporter, will visit the stall to encourage people to open their hearts and homes to Indian dogs.

Urgent need

“We are exhorting people to buy shelter puppies because they have very high susceptibility to infections in a shelter. They urgently need to find homes. Since few people bother to visit shelters to choose pets, this is a wonderful way of taking pups to them. Children who have pets have been shown to be more intelligent and responsible than those who don’t have animals,” says the animal rights crusader.

Better suited

Stating that local dogs are better suited to the country’s climate and conditions, Ambika says they make bright, beautiful, loving and loyal companions. “If instead of buying dogs, people were to adopt pups off the street or a shelter, we would soon have no strays left to suffer on the street. We are also providing a lifetime vaccination for these puppies.”