With the world becoming online, let's have virtual adoptions too! Virtual adoption entails supporting an animal's care financially under an NGO or a rescuer. It is one of the most effective ways to contribute to animal welfare without worrying about a housing space, office or college schedules, convincing family members to get a pet, or being present for the pet 24*7.
According to Wildlife Protection Laws, 1972, it is illegal to have urban wildlife and wildlife as pet animals. Many wildlife enthusiasts find it difficult to spend time with wild animals through volunteering or pursuing a career in this direction. Virtually adopting an animal at our facility opens the door for you to be a part of a wild animal’s healing journey.
PFA Wildlife Hospital has been functioning for more than 25 years. Over the years, we have grown in terms of medical infrastructure and rehabilitation practices. We have improved our surgery and treatment techniques and have had the honour of imparting this knowledge to veterinarians and rehabilitators from various countries. As part of outreach, we have sensitised many students and employees about the needs and plight of urban wildlife. However, rapid urbanisation and growing population makes the city more inhabitable and unsafe for urban wildlife. As a result, the number of rescue calls are ever increasing and the current financial support is not enough to cater to all inpatient rescues.
For many of these rescued animals, healing from injury and subsequent rehabilitation can take months. The healing time depends on the nature of injury and the coping strength of the animal. Fractures, wounds due to electrocution, etc take a lot of time to heal. Due to the intensity of these injuries, the medical costs are also high. Displacement is another major concern. We have attended rescue calls where either the parents of a young wild animal could not be found, or the young ones got displaced due to harsh weather conditions. Survival for these young ones becomes difficult. These babies then come to our shelter and are with us till they are grown enough to survive in the wild. They go through training and rehabilitation at our center for months. Their medical needs involve supplements for immunity, because no matter how hard we try, a mother's love and feeding style cannot be replaced.
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| Treatment of a Night Heron (left), an injured crow (right) |
Some animals come to us in horrifying conditions. Severe electrocution leads to amputation of limbs/wings, vision impairment, and weakness, which renders the animal unfit to survive in the wild. These animals then become a part of our lifetime care program. Our efforts go into making their lives as identical as that of the wild and ensuring the animal is physically and mentally content. Our lifetime members are an important part of our lives. We have grown to consider them a part of our family. Their presence motivates us to save more lives. To sustain our rescue operations and to improve living conditions of our lifetime care animals, we need virtual adopters.
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| Left: Plaster of Paris cast for a Night Heron with fracture, Right: Crow with a humerus fracture |
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| Electrocution victims, Slender Loris and Flying Fox |
When you virtually adopt an animal, you are relieving us of one major responsibility - financial backup. All our efforts then go into spoiling our animals with tender love and care and focusing on their recovery. Your monthly contribution goes into purchasing food, medicines and supplements for the in-care animal. The contributions are also used to enrich our rehabilitation units. Our rehabilitation units are customized for every species. For macaques, the enrichments have to be big and spacious to mimic a forest. For birds, the units have to mimic a tree patch or an urban setting. They also have to be separate since birds get anxious from human presence. Even for bats, we mimic cave-like enrichments since they are nocturnal. Virtual adopters contribute to all these services which lead to complete recovery and happy release of the animal. You will receive regular updates on their well-being, mischievousness, and cuteness!
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| Left: Building of a Jackal Hide, Right: Artificial incubation for 4 Common Trinket eggs |
You can choose short term or long term adoption. Some of our rescues will be with us for a couple of months before release, while some will take many months. You can also adopt one of our lifetime members if you wish for a long term commitment with a wild companion. Visit our website for details -
https://peopleforanimalsbangalore.org/adoption.
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| Macaques in-care |
It is amazing how humans can connect with others virtually. Our ability for compassion, empathy and forming relationships is what keeps the world going. Keeping this in mind, our virtual adoption programme aims to bridge the gap between humans and urban wildlife. It helps humans to form connections and empathise with the sufferings and joy of their adopted animal. It brings us closer to reducing human animal conflict and creating a world where every sentient being co-exists peacefully.
Authored by Praanjali Shukla, Volunteer at PfA Bangalore
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