It’s all going to the dogs !

As I mentioned in my previous post – 50% of all profits in perpetuity from the sale of the Poonchh collection will go to support  strays dogs. Specifically from this edition of the sale, the proceeds are ear marked for the new initiative by the team at  ‘The Voice of Stray Dogs’ (VoSD) .

VoSD is a not-for-profit organization for stray dogs. It is in the process of launching India’s 1^st private ABC (Animal Birth Control) and stray dog healthcare project. Initially all ABC surgery and healthcare for street dogs will be provided through its fully equipped mobile hospital operating in Bangalore.  To read more about this initiative please click here.

Here is the mobile van in it’s delightful new avatar.

(Update– You can see pictures of the inside of the van here.)

As the project scales more vehicles and cities will get added to provide an ecosystem of world class private animal welfare.

VoSD was initially set up with the charter of investigation & reporting, analyzing data to help form legal, civic and media opinion on stray dogs. The initial goal was to keep stakeholders in the stray dog ecosystem including  municipal corporations, AWOs & NGO’s honest through correct actionable information.

Through this phase VoSD has created a large amount of freely available investigative and analytical data on stray dogs in India, including to support litigation as court evidence. Over the last 6 months VoSD has also provided significant inputs by way of donations of computers and laptops to various agencies including CUPA (Bangalore), Save Our Strays (SOS) (Mumbai), Friendicoes (New Delhi), Sarvodaya (Bangalore) and many other NGOs to aid better information capture, record keeping and sharing . So far 15 such laptops and computers have been donated.

However an acute need was felt to create an Animal Birth Control (ABC) program independent of the monetary and operational mandate of municipalities and NGO’s since neither of the 2 entities lay emphasis on operational and capital efficiency with their complete dissociation of revenue and results. It was felt that a revenue generating business model that can scale is the answer to the problem of institutionalized cruelty perpetrated on dogs by the existing ecosystem.

‘The Voice of Stray Dogs’ (VoSD) Mobile Stray Dog hospital has on board a fully equipped Operation Theater to provide ABC and other medical intervention to Stray Dogs on location in Bangalore and veterinary support. This mobile hospital will provide free ABC surgery for dogs, provide healthcare for dogs on location and will include a helpline and education on dog related issues as a free service.

VoSD will generate revenue internally to fund this venture and will not engage in revenue activity with the present ‘ecosystem’ i.e. municipal corporations, government or donations etc. VoSD will also hire the best available legal, management, journalistic, veterinary and other talent over time.

Services delivered by the VoSD mobile hospital include-

Free services for Stray Dogs: All services provided FREE and on location across Bangalore, including:

• ABC surgery
• Road hit and accident attention
• Recuperating kennels for up-to 8 dogs initially

Allied services for Stray Dogs:

• 24 hr on road assistance for stray dogs (initially this will be an 8 hour service)
• Counseling/ Helpline on dogs for citizens
• The Voice of Stray Dogs legal team support

Revenue generation for operational expenses of Free Services:

• Paid services for pets
• Vet, dog food delivery, grooming, kennel- housing pick & drop etc. Doorstep delivery of service to customers
• Merchandize to be sold to fund stray dog services

How’s this service different: • No government money • No ‘donations’ accepted • Designed ground up to be transparent & participative including operations • Will allow us to hire the best talent • Designed for a quality of service delivery not as a ‘best effort’ service

How can a citizen participate: • Use VoSD paid services • Buy ‘VoSD Exclusive’ merchandise • Buy a ‘nominal’ shareholding and have access to accounts & operational details (this will be available in due course).