EMERGENCY APPEAL: VSCPA’S Main Shelter has Flooded. We seek your support urgently!
Due to incessant rains, followed by depressions, and cyclones over the past few months, VSPCA’S main shelter has severely flooded! This time around, it is much worse than it has ever been before, including when Cyclone HudHud hit the Andhra Pradesh coastline in 2014.
The shelter has been so severely impacted by heavy rains that our animals and our staff are in danger of drowning with the waters continuing to flow into the facility. Currently, the water is up to the average human’s waist level. We are shifting all animals in lower lying areas of the shelter, the senior animals, and those severely injured, to higher regions to protect them from the flood waters. The waters are stagnating too with the ground so saturated that there is nowhere to flow.
At VSPCA, we took the necessary safety measures at the time, pertaining to cyclones and heavy rainstorms when constructing our main shelter. Unfortunately, climate change is really upending our planning. We simply could not anticipate the amount of heavy rains, depressions, and cyclones our city will be hit with.
Due to the flooding intensity, the facilities in which animals’ non-perishable food, fresh foods, medicines, and other materials needed to support the animals are kept, are heavily damaged and a lot of the food and medicine are in ruin. This impacts our ability to feed all the animals residing in VSPCA’s shelter and outside.
We humbly request our well-wishers and donors to help us in any and all ways possible, even if you can offer physical help. If any of you can come to the shelter to monitor the animals overnight, we would greatly appreciate your kindness. We are also asking for your thoughts and prayers. With your support, we will do our best to retrofit and rebuild our main shelter.
We reiterate our call for volunteers to help our team on the ground – to be with us at the shelter during these hard times – and help us out.
The pictures tell our story, but it is hard to put into words the fear and anxiety experienced by the staff and our animals. Any small amount or any help you can offer can truly help us tide through these very hard times.
On behalf of the Animal Community,
VSPCA Main Shelter One
OZONE VALLEY Boulevard, Marikavalasa Rd, Madhurawada, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh 530048, India
VSPCA