Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Nov 25: Animal lovers are aghast at the way pets are being given up by their owners with impunity. Therefore they have been putting pressure on Karnataka government to make it compulsory to have collar IDs or microchipping compulsory for pets. Speaking to a Bengaluru-based tabloid, Animal Care Trust managing trustee, Suma Nayak, revealed that her trust had got in its shelter four abandoned Labradors during the last two months. She said that this is happening in spite of Labradors being counted among the most human-friendly animals.

Suma expressed unhappiness at the way pets are treated by people. She confessed that her trust receives calls about abandoned pets once a week on an average. "Labradors are the most abandoned pets. Dachsund and Doberman too get abandoned. The owners of pets, she reveals grudgingly, most of the time choose to call the trust at the last moment. Reasons for abandonment vary like family getting shifted to an apartment complex where rules to not allow pets, going to a foreign country or shifting to a different city. Some abandon pets because of the fact that these breeds have higher chances of developing skin infections and treating it requires patience and perseverance.

She revealed that in the past, the trust was rejecting requests for adoption of pets because of shortage of space. However, of late, the trust has begun to take to social media seeking someone to adopt the animals which are given up by their owners. Once a willing person is identified, he is directly linked to the person who does not want his pet anymore, she explained.

Nayak therefore is insistent that the government should make licensing and microchipping of pets compulsory because people do not hesitate even to orphan and leave behind their pets in secluded places.

The trust's facility at Shaktinagar now has two black Labradors picked up from certain areas of the city. She notes that the dogs are healthy and the trust wants to give them only to the right owners. However, she revealed that sterilization of female is not advisable because they normally put on weight thereafter.

Suma says that Labradors are very cute when young but when they grow up many feel it burdensome to look after them. Therefore, several owners just abandon them and leave them to take care of themselves. She is thankful to social media which helps in quickly finding out missing pets now-a-days.