Bangalore Is Planning Its First Ever Cat Shelter And They Need Your Help

With the horrifying case of Bhadra the dog who survived being thrown off a balcony by two medical students from Chennai, India has received yet another wake up call about the sorry state of animal welfare in the country. Although outrage spread like wildfire across social media and ‘activists’ everywhere came out of the woodwork there are some people who have dedicated their lives to the betterment of India’s abandoned animals. Two such people are Jayaprakash Satyamurthy and his wife Yasmine Claire who have been working together for a decade in the animal welfare community of Bangalore. Together, they have decided to launch a one-of-a-kind venture to set up the first fully-fledged cat sanctuary in the city.
Jayaprakash is a part of the welfare trust called Animal Aid Alliance and he also run’s the cat adoption page Moni’s Home For Needy And Hungry Cats on Facebook while Yasmine has been an activist since she was a child. Their dedication to animal rescue has finally come to fruition with this project. They want to build a shelter with at least half an acre of space, quarantine sections, facilities to house both adult cats and kittens, an operating theatre, on-call vet and even a dispensary and clinic for people to bring their cats for treatment.

Both these long time animal lovers are eager to make this dream a reality but they have been facing innumerable problems along the way. The investment they need for land, construction and running of such an ambitious facility is hard to come by. As a result, they turned it over to the public and are now hoping that crowdfunding will see them on their way.
Although there are many shelters that take in cats there are none that provide the safe and specialist environment they have envisioned. He and Yasmine are of course great cat lovers and they hope that their set-up will save and protect many cats in the future. When asked what his favourite part of working with cats Jayaprakash simply says ‘Just being with them. They are elegant, wise and, given respect, love and time, very loving.’
They are on the lookout for shelter managers and full time staff as well so anyone who wants to get on board with this amazing journey can do so. They’re also welcoming any and all volunteers, so whoever wants to spend their weekends wading through seas of kitten-y love, this is your chance! We hope that people will realise the need for this shelter to become a reality and that sometime soon we will celebrate the opening of Bangalore’s first cat shelter.

 You can visit their page on Milaap to do your bit for the kitties of Bangalore

Featured Image Courtesy: Moni’s Home for Needy and Hungry Cats

Words: Shireen Jamooji