Claim OwnershipThe Indie Dog
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© Radha Thomas
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The street dogs of India (#TheIndieDog), there are just so many of them. More than 30 million, according to some estimates. We need to urgently feed, neuter, rescue, vaccinate, adopt and care for these dogs. Neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city and eventually, all over the country. This podcast is about enabling dog lovers to get actively involved through stories of hope and happiness, and also provide a few resources to be effective.We begin our journey in #Bangalore.
28 Episodes
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Maybe some of you know that I’m a jazz singer, maybe some of you don’t. I’m not bringing that up randomly, there is a reason why I mention this. During the pandemic, I ended up making a bunch of virtual jazz videos with musicians from Russia, Argentina, France, Italy… all over the world really. And oddly, as I got to know the musicians, I discovered that there are streeties / rescue dogs everywhere. Many of my online musician friends had dogs under their feet as they played f...
I first met Bismi Anil about 6 years ago when my streetie Brownie had disappeared. Vanished. I hunted for her for a month and gave up hope. Then a girl I knew on FB posted a picture of a doggie that looked so much like a little Brownie that I had to have her. So we trudged all the way to Whitefield from Cooke Town… a two hour drive each way… to find that this little doggie didn’t want to come home with me. She ran up a winding staircase and peered at me suspiciously from the top. I was c...
ALAI (Animal Lives Are Important) is a dog rescue organization, about 5 years old here in Bangalore. Well it’s not in the city, but in a place called Mitganahalli about 15 kms from the heart of town. It’s well known in dog rescue circles in this city and Sajesh, the founder is legend. If you talk to people in Electronic City, or the Nandi hills and other outlying areas of this city, beyond the limits of the BBMP, where veterinary clinics and hospitals are scarce, people talk about ...
Prestige Golfshire, in the Nandi Hills, is possibly one of Bangalore’s most beautiful residential areas. 275 acres of landscaped villas, with an 18-hole golf course, pool, tennis courts and other wonderful amenities that make life just special, besides being close to the airport and not that far from the heart of the city.But this is not a real estate commercial. This is about what’s happening at around, oh, let’s say knee level. Yes. It’s about dogs. Ownerless, rudderless, street and vi...
If you’re taking care of street dogs in Bangalore, I guess anywhere in India, it’s a heart breaking, pocket emptying, frustrating but ultimately very rewarding and joyous experience. Once you begin taking care of streeties… you mostly cannot stop. It becomes a lifelong addiction. Because these dogs are on the street, they are way more susceptible to road accidents, pack fights, diseases and so on that your pet dog is mostly spared.So sometimes, even the most logical and rational hu...
When I first started podcasting The Indie Dog, one of the first stories was about a little dog named Inkling and a lovely lady named Vinita Rabbi.A little background: Inkling’s mother was Inky, and her uncles we believe, were Pinky and Ponky. Yes I named them, because I saw the three of them one night, and had to come up names quick, so I could report their presence in Cooke Town on our dog squad Whatsapp Group.This was during lockdown and before we could get these three spayed, along came In...
There’s something about the street dog community that feels like one belongs to a very special, very loving, very intimate family, even if you’ve just met someone. You can tell just by the work they do in rescue - rehab - fostering - healing or fund raising, that the connection is strong.Some months ago, my niece Arundhati Krishnan asked me to come to a puppy adoption camp run by Anwesha Majumdar… who is a little buzzing dynamo … she runs an organization Indie Tales of Hope…. And she’s b...
Warning: this is a very graphic and heartbreaking story. You may not be able to stomach the details. Just saying. It’s a story about medical and surgical heroism combined with human beings who refused, point blank, to let a streetie go.I’m talking to Archana Sreenivasan today. She’s an artist, illustrator and animal rescuer. She used to be a resident of Cooke Town, and an active feet-on-the-street member of the Frazer Town Canine Squad… But at one point, sometime during the pandemic, when the...
Now this is a podcast about The Indie Dog and one might think that it has only to do with native Indian dogs. But actually, it’s about dogs in India that fend for themselves on the streets for many reasons. Some are born on the streets and these dogs have a slightly better chance of survival because of inherited abilities. But many dogs are just dumped, because their owners have had it. Dogs with pedigrees, dogs with lineage, dogs that have been bought at great cost. Dogs that guard...
If there’s one thing about adopting a doggie or two and raising them… it’s that nothing is ever predictable. Especially in a city like Bangalore where dogs can disappear without the slightest warning. People will dognap them knowing you’ll pay ransom. Or they’ll just wander off... especially streeties who remember the freedom of the open road. Sometimes the noises of our multicultural, fire cracker-led religious holidays and birthdays of politicians… well they just drive dogs berserk. An...
Doctor Lee is a Korean acupuncture / acupressure specialist, who was introduced to me by a friend. I’m having some awful hip issues and figured I’d give it a shot. As it turned out, despite the excruciating pain of his Korean Torture (he laughed when I called it that) the problem didn’t go away. I think it was by way of distraction, but he kept talking to me while he twisted and prodded and poked and pulled, also asking me to talk about myself. In the middle of some heartfelt yelps,...
This year in February, there was a big deal being made of the date 02-02-2022. Many people thought it was a lucky date. But if you were you were a doggie named Duke it was the worst possible day for you. Duke was lost… alright let's call it what it is… he was bloody abandoned on Wheeler Road Extension, around the Village Supermarket, here in Bangalore. Someone driving a dark blue car hit Duke straight on, despite the very bright streetlights and despite the fact that it...
In 2022, for some reason, right after the pandemic, there have been a number of deliberate acts of violence against the street dogs of Bangalore. From CCTV cameras we have been able to determine that the culprits are often young men. Cruelty to animals (and other children) starts at a very young age, sometimes three or four year. The very same age where it’s possible, with the right intervention, the right role models and therapy, we could be instead creating a future of compassionate, animal...
On the 23rd of February, 2010 a posh residential building in Bangalore named Carlton Towers caught fire. There were many, many illegal aspects in the construction of that building… and as a result the fire engines were unable to get to all the residents in time. Several lives were lost that day, and many people were left injured. Some irrevocably scarred for life.Maneesha Ramakrishnan and her two small sons were in that building. They watched people jump to their death… as they feared for the...
Harini Raghavan is an HR professional with a deep passion for animals. She is extremely active in advocating for the rights of animals. That’s another way of saying, she lobbies and cajoles and pleads with the government to do their job, please, did you hear me say please.Harini and a few other people set up Citizens for Animal Birth Control (ABC), which is an organization. The key here is not the word ‘organization’ but the word ‘Citizens.’ Because it is mandated by the government...
Vaibhav Mungole worked in the IT industry for maybe a dozen years. A dozen too many. He was fed up. He wanted to get out of town, maybe move to a small village, a farm, something, anything to get out of the city.But other forces were at work.Specifically, a doggy named Eddy, that came into Vaibhav’s heart and soul about ten years ago.The area of Bangalore they lived in didn’t have dog parks where Vaibhav could provide Eddy with a chance to socialize or play with doggies of his ilk. Eddy was a...
Mehvash Arslan has been a resident of Cooke Town for the past 10 years or so. She works in an NGO that helps small businesses like the local tea walla, or the isthri lady. But her involvement is unusual. She has accidentally… or deliberately… found herself rescuing older, very sick, severely disabled, even blind dogs, usually without much chance of survival. Sometimes these dogs make it and sometimes they don’t. But that doesn’t stop Mehvash from turning her world upside town to give so...
Vera DeJong is an artist. And her husband George Penner is a baker and jam maker. They are not doctors. They haven’t been to vet school or nursing school. But if you listen to these stories, puppy after puppy, I swear you’ll want them by your side if your dog has a medical emergency. For a decade or more, with intuition, mindfulness, empathy, YouTube and Google, they have they’ve saved the lives of hundreds of puppies, because there was no vet available in those beautiful hills of Kodaik...
When I first Saakshi Kewalramani, she wasn’t quite 17 and she was already heavily into animal rescue, rehab, feeding and, fund raising. This is now almost two years later and Saakshi wants to be a veterinary surgeon. She is trying to gather practical experience before she joins school next year. This is the story of a little very mauled and mangled dog named Nexa that Saakshi found in the army quarters near where she lives. It’s the story of a struggle for life while losing an eye and a...
In many part of the world, if there’s an animal in trouble, there’s someone to call to get help, Immediately. That’s not the case here for obvious reasons. We can barely take care of our humans… so expecting special treatment for animals is unrealistic. Yes, there are numbers for Cupa, Care, the BBMP, other animal shelters, but there’s so much pressure on them with the number of domesticated, freely multiplying animals… that they cannot cope. You could end up waiting forever. The animal ...
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