Mannargudi: Girl spurns marriage to take care of stray animals

Mannargudi: When people generally neglect stray cattle or run away from stray dogs for one reason or another, a postgraduate girl here is taking extra care of such animals and dogs, with wholehearted support of her family and friends.

Ms. Shanthini, hailing from Mannargudi in Tiruvarur district told DC right from her childhood, she has been affectionate to animals, birds and used to help suffering stray cattle and dogs if they were injured in any road accident.

For such a noble cause, she even refused marriage proposals coming her way, despite pressure from her parents, relatives and friends. Shanthini says she is actively involved in such “Jeevakarunyam” activities for the last 11 years.

She said her father is a carpenter and her mother a housewife, while her younger brother is a motor mechanic. “All of them are extending their fullest cooperation to my stray cattle care drive,” she says.  

In fact, Shanthini is now maintaining 14 injured dogs and cats at her residence for the past few months, and the injured animals are recovering.

Urging people to appreciate that water is common to all organisms and human beings, she appealed to the people to place a small container in front of their houses or in the open terrace and pour water into it for the benefit of stray dogs and birds which have sometimes lost their lives due to water scarcity.

She said under the auspices of “Water for voiceless” NGO, for the past several years concrete bowls have been placed in more than 50 places in Mannargudi town itself and her ambition is to spread this noble cause across Tiruvarur district.

Someone who feels like a caring mother to these animals, Shalini’s future plan is to set up a trust ‘Moksha Animal Aid Trust’ for the purpose. This would particularly help to protect “our traditional hybrid variety of dogs (Naatu Naaigal),” she mused. This is at a time they face extinction.