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I began my internship with RAWC (Raksha Animal Welfare Center) to further understand and experience the relationship between people and animals, architecture of the city and what it provides for animals, and further several internal interrogations. To document per say this type of an internship where the learnings and reflections happen through shared knowledge and daily interactions with humans and animals which all form intangible elements, a blog might be the most suitable.
Why a blog? There were many things in my 7 weeks of internship which felt too crude to document or to share, to someone who might have not experienced this kind before (as i had not too). Perhaps writing about it would be a softer way to talk about it and to articulate the nuanced feelings that came with it.
CAT TRAPPING
ABC ( Animal Birth Control ) of dogs and cats, of strays and pets is one of the main founding core of RAWC. Field/Ground has always been a place of learning as it is where you observe, you learn and you experience things. A chain of community (rescuers, feeders and lovers) makes cat trapping easier. It is with their trust that the locals are willing to give their neighborhood cat as it's just like their own. Interacting with them and convincing why ABC operations are important generates awareness step by step. Taking a cat, it's postoperative care, and releasing it again to their respective neighborhoods grows the trust between the NGO and the neighborhood.
ABC operations
On the day of Tuesday cat trapping and bringing in of cats and dogs for ABC operations happens. So an NGO balances the free operations of strays by charging some amount to the pet owners. Wednesdays and Thursdays are reserved for operations where the most of it contributes to the ABC ones. Male cats can be operated 5-7 together at a time while female cats and dogs (both male and female) are to be individually operated.
Male cats operations were easier to begin with as an observer and to assist. Injecting them, shaving, scrubbing and cleaning their balls and carefully taking them to OT forms the most of it. Getting the nerve to see a female cat's operation took some time as I myself have a spayed cat. It's a more delicate and careful process where incisions are made to remove their ovaries. Careful noting of their breathing and heart rates is of utmost importance.
MUSO
RAKSHA foundation and MUSO (Museum of solutions) have several collaborations where shared learning is appreciated. On 29th May some of the kids along with their teachers came to visit the RAWC center. Prior to visit they had a task of designing their own animal welfare center. Visiting a center afterwards helped them understand what all and how much space is required. What are the different aspects needed to be taken care of while making it.
They were brave kids to be all affectionate around those injured animals. All kinds of questions as to why these animals are abandoned, what happened to them, etc were asked by them. It's a great initiative for children as they start to question, interrogate, witness and learn about the real world existing outside of their holes from an early age.
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