The State’s Animal Welfare Board of India that is currently functioning through the animal husbandry department of Chennai, Tamil Nadu is all set to help the stray animals during this lockdown period by providing food to them. This news was shared to The Times of India by the Director of the Animal Husbandry Department, A Gnanasekaran.
He mentioned that similar to last year’s lockdown, the department will provide food for the strays in this year’s lockdown period too. The department has already begun its work towards feeding stray dogs, cats and cattle in the city of Chennai and throughout the state of Tamil Nadu, India.
The Animal Husbandry Department has organized 1,250 kg of rice from the rice mill owners association. The AAVIN milk producers in Tamil Nadu have agreed to provide skimmed milk powder worth ₹ 1 lakh. The milk powder provided will be used in feeding the newborn or young stray animals.
The food and milk powder collected will be handed over to the state’s animal welfare organization. The department has distributed these food items to various animal lovers or animal organizations who feed the strays in their respective localities or districts.
Circulars have been sent to all the district collectors so that they can coordinate with the recognized animal welfare organization in their respective districts. The district collectors will issue an animal feeding pass for the organizations so that they do not face any difficulty while feeding the animals during the lockdown.
While speaking to The Times of India, an animal welfare activist, Shravan Krishnan stated that his team has received the animal feeding passes from the department and feeding the strays in the city during the lockdown has become much easier compared to before.
The animal husbandry department will also help feed horses apart from stray dogs and cattle. 25 bags of wheat bran will be distributed to horses’ owners. This initiative is taken to help horse owners who were not able to purchase food for them during the lockdown.