News Updates

2006 Year-End Report

Dear Friends of VSPCA,

This has been a year of tremendous challenge and remarkable effort for VSPCA.

During the past year, droughts and harsh rains compounded the urgency and difficulty of undertaking our rescue missions throughout several districts in Andhra Pradesh. All this as we continued to rebuild our shelter, decimated by last year’s cyclone which caused Rs. 32,000,000 (or $71,112 USD) in damages. 

Despite all these difficulties, we continued to attend to animals affected by the weather disasters in neighbouring districts. With the financial assistance of WSPA and individual donors, we were able to provide medical facilities for 32 surrounding villages in six districts. In the process, we rescued, treated and vaccinated more than 52,000 farm animals.

This year, VSPCA also began an ABC (animal birth control) programme for cats. This will augment our ABC and SOS rescue programmes for dogs which have helped over 27,500 animals these past ten years.

So what has your money helped us build for our 630 cattle, 78 shelter dogs, 37 shelter cats, 170 ABC dogs, 10 ABC cats, 43 birds (pigeons, crows, love birds, parrots, mynah), 13 star tortoises, 11 monkeys (Rhesus, Bonnet and Macaque) and 1 mongoose in our care – and for our blossoming humane education campaigns? We are very proud to share this itemized list:

1. Cat surgery room.
2. Cattle office and research room.
3. Dry hay storage facility.
4. Green grass cutting facility.
5. Monkey enclosures.
6. Three vermicompost sheds. These produce a tonne per day of natural fertilizers to feed our plants and for sale from cow dung, urine and plant waste materials.
7. Enclosure for star tortoises.
8. Mongoose enclosure.
9. Pigeon house.
10. Aviary
11. 13 cattle sheds.
12. Puppies’ pound in a natural environment.
13. New cattle supply storage room for special high protein feed.
14. Workers' rest room.
15. Improved electricity facilities.
16. 400 feet of new boundary wall around the shelter on the West and North end which was damaged by last year's storm.
17. Entire road and drainage facilities.
18. Interpretation room.
19. Two 20,000 litre (each) water storage tanks.

Ironically, our successes have added to our challenges. The improved protocols we've provided for dogs and cats being rescued has resulted in more animals surviving which we are grateful but our humane awareness programming – i.e., encouraging people to spay and neuter their pets and adopt strays - is slow in catching up due to the idea of pets still just catching on in our area. For now, “success” means more animals coming to us in need of care and adoption.

As you might expect, our biggest problem presently is that we are overcrowded and need more land. This is a must, because once again our “success” - our good reputation all over Andhra Pradesh – is drawing requests for help from as far as 700 kms away! We cannot watch a dog lying bruised on the road or look the other way when we see abandoned puppies roaming the streets or abused animals left to fend for themselves. If we do nothing, we will be responsible. If we refuse to take in new animals we will get a bad reputation and no one will listen to our ethics. Help us help the needy animals of Andhra Pradesh.

Our efforts to consolidate and spread our mission would not be possible without your unstinted generosity, your advice and guidance and your true compassion.

On behalf of all the grateful animals and all of us at VSPCA, I extend my heartfelt gratitude for your timely help and our warm greetings and countless thanks

Pradeep Kumar Nath
VSPCA Founder and President

A note from your VSPCA editor and representative, Eileen Weintraub

We are sorry to say but VSPCA will be out of funds by February. We know your resources are limited and that the world’s needs are great. But please remember your hard working animal shelter in Andhra Pradesh and join us with your prayers, advice and kind support. Help us continue our important programmes by donating whatever you can.

Read the latest report from our visiting expert veterinarian sponsored by the Animal Rescue League of Boston.

Visakhapatnam was recently in the news when Pradeep Nath arranged for a steam boat to pull a beached pilot whale back into the deep sea. VSPCA veterinarian Rajeshwar treated the whale with an antibiotic and pain relief medication.

Since our last report we have received donations and help from these wonderful people: Srikanth Abburi, Robert and Sherri Andrews, Syd Baumel (and for editing expertise), Jean Bird, Lisa Davers, Janice Emich, Esther Geisser, Lek Hanshin, Derek Hogue (for email formatting and our web site), Judy Hungerford (and for graphic design), Glynis Jennings, Bosky Ravindranath, Nicole and Monty Schmidhofer, Gina Sopwith, Priya Subramaniam, Students of Western College of Veterinary Medicine - University of Saskatchewan, Marguerite Vkiekander, Ellen Waggoner, Andrew Wells and Elizandra Zapata. Special thanks to Ms. Olive Walker who through the great help of Animal People News generously finished the funding of our electricity facilities.

Kind regards,
Eileen Weintraub

PS. Read a new report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization on how the production of 50 billion farm animals for food each year contributes more to global warming than all the world's cars.