Can An Animal Lover Be Cruel To Nature? I Vandana Anchalia I Founder of Kannan Animal Welfare | The Mohua Show | Ep73

In this episode, Vandana talks about how  KAW has helped more than 1000 dogs living in poor conditions,  about rehoming  hundreds of rescues locally as well as overseas, and why we need to unlearn before we call ourselves animal lovers!

When you think of memes, you think cat. When it comes to the rescue of stray animals, however,  we look the other way!

With an estimated 79.9 million homeless cats and dogs in the country living in shelters or streets, estimates suggest that India has the highest relinquishment level compared to countries like the US, and China.  In Episode 73, the host, Mohua talks to Vandana Anchalia, Founder and Director at Kannan Animal Welfare.

In the year 2014, after Vandana  lost 37 rescue dogs in different shelters across NCR, she strongly felt animal welfare should be held to standards of quality and strays should not receive subpar care. In 2015,  hence, she founded KAW with an aim of providing quality care to all strays.

Instagram: @vanchalia
Website: https://www.kannananimalwelfare.org

----------------------------------------------------------
► Visit Our Website: https://www.themohuashow.com/
-----------------------------------------------------------
► Facebook   : @themohuashow
► Instagram  : @themohuashow
► Twitter        : @themohuashow
► Youtube      : @themohuashow
► Linkedin      : @themohuashow
-----------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: The views expressed by our guests are their own. We do not endorse and are not responsible for any views expressed by our guests on our podcast and its associated platforms.
-----------------------------------------------------------

#TheMohuaShow | #Podcast | #MohuaChinappa | #VandanaAnchalia | #KannanAnimalWelfare | #IndoAsianStyle | #AnimalLovers | #SuccessStories| #Mohua | #TMS

Thanks for Listening!

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

Mohua: 0:07

Hi, welcome to the mohua show. My name is Mo Chinnappa and I am an author, entrepreneur and ex housewife. This podcast is about everything from business to technology to arts to lifestyle, but done in spoken. Amen. Daddy say. Hi, in today's episode, we have been dinner. And Julia Bandra is the founder and director of cow cow is canon animal welfare. Now, when I spoke, Vandana, she mentioned to me that she believes that animals are equally deserving of quality care and respect, and which is so true. Considering the number of road accidents we see where you know, the dog or the cat is just lying totally unattended for days on end, she founded cow with an aim of providing quality care to all strays define the subpar standards of animal care in our country. Bundeena to begin with, first and foremost, I would really like you to tell me what is the biggest issues in animal welfare that is happening? You know, presently,

Vandana: 1:08

I think, if you talk about the biggest issues, I think it's mostly lack of awareness, lack of awareness that, you know, they deserve the same kind of treatment as we do. And this is a bigger problem in India, because, you know, India is already dealing with so many other issues with regards to humans, that animal lives does not matter a lot to other people. So there is less of government initiative, there's less of personal initiative. Unless you find a crazy animal lover, you won't see people being kind to animals in general. So I think lack of awareness is the biggest issue right now that animal welfare is facing in our country, worldwide, you know, developing countries, they have kind of come up with stricter laws, and you can see a lot of change happening in the world. But that is not the case with India right now. So yeah, I would say lack of awareness is the biggest challenge for us.

Mohua: 2:06

So tell me, Vandana, what was that point? You know, were you always an animal lover, right from the time you were a child, because I remember, you know, during honours, three drives and books, there was all always about a dog talking to a cat and a cat talking to a dog. And we believe that animals did, you know, communicate and respond with each other? And of course, we forgot it over the years. What was that point in your life where you felt that, you know, this was your calling,

Vandana: 2:31

so I wouldn't deny that I was an animal lover. Um, I do not know how one defines an animal lover is, but yes, being from a giant family, you know, we were always taught to be non violent to animals. We were vegetarians, you know, by, by the fact that I was from Emory families, we were feeding the dogs outside our house, we were kind to animals around us basically never heard them. But if you speak of this whole craziness about starting a nonprofit organisation, and you know, pursuing this as my passion was not something that I had identified, at that point in time, it only happened very recently, that was in 2014, when I saw one of my neighbours, like beating a dog to almost death. And, you know, it kind of it just kind of disturbed me to a point that, you know, being silent about something is fine, you don't want to pursue an issue is fine. But if your silence results in somebody's death, that's just not acceptable. And, you know, it's that was a point when it all started and I even I did not know, at that point in 2014, that, you know, this is going to take a turn in such a serious way where in you know, in like, in next two years, I will have, yeah, I am saying that, you know, once you start rescuing, it's almost like, you start seeing animals in distress. It just happens to you naturally. And I think it started with one but then you know, we went on to I went on to personally rescue a lot of animals near my house. And then at some point, I realised that you know, this is not enough because you're, you're always seeing suffering and then the whole idea of this creating an organisation game. So that is how cow came into being. But yes, I was an animal lover. I always loved animals from the time I was a child. I was a kid I mean,

Mohua: 4:29

so you know, it's really interesting when you say this, because you know, I keep thinking about the fact that yes, I can handle suffering of any sort. You know, if there's a cow who's suffering or a dog suffering or a human being suffering any suffering whatsoever does disturb me, but somewhere I don't know if I can really say that I'm out of this whole Nexus because I do carry leather. I do carry bags and you know, there is I do carry a lot of products. I wear a lot of stuff, you know, on me, which definitely has cost some animals somewhere that's been, you know, treated very badly. And so it's it's such a ecosystem that we live in. How do you think, you know, as someone who's been advocating towards and working towards such a big cause? And we also know that you had a crowdfunding? And, you know, which is amazing for the kind of work you do, because very few people can do that? And how do you think that one can address this as an issue?

Vandana: 5:30

So more what you're saying is actually a real issue. We do live in an ecosystem where in you know, everything that we do, and sub in cruelty to animals, and even as an animal lover, rescuer, I'll tell you, I was, you know, you don't consciously think about how you are adding to the reality. till last year till I did my Mrs. India, I was using products which are being tested on animals, because, you know, even when you start as a rescuer, you're risking lives and you think you're doing a lot, you don't consciously think beyond that, because you know, we are not conditioned like that, we do not grow up thinking that, you know, okay, if I, you know, okay, animals are being tested for us to use a product, or, you know, there is leather, I was using leather, I never actually gave it a thought. But when I participated in Mrs. India, because my sole purpose of participating was obviously to bring awareness to this issue, and just not women in child and, you know, old age and general topic that people talk about, because I know this causes very least spoken about. That's when I realised that even I am not, you know, in this, in a sense, a true animal lover, because I'm still kind of contributing to the reality have I eliminated everything in my life that is leading to reality? Maybe not, because as you said, our ecosystem is such that you know, even the products that we use at home, even the cleaning products, even small things that we do at home, you know, they are milk for that matter, veganism as a concept for that matter. I'm not a vegan yet. So, there are a lot of factors but if this consciousness has come to me, after four or five years of doing this, imagine for a normal person who goes on about his life or her life, not a huge animal lover. Just imagine how they would even go to that extent and think, but at some point, I think because we are becoming environmentally conscious, these have

Mohua: 7:36

been then we have no choice we have to become conscious enough suffering in such a huge way key Am I pursue each choice in a we don't have a choice. Yeah, right.

Vandana: 7:45

So avoid me have Kobata okay, it's no no longer a case of animal reality. It's becoming environmentally unsustainable. Also, the use

Mohua: 7:56

of an albatross? Yeah. So whether, you know, when we talk about animals I'm very interested in also because, you know, in India mosquitoes, we have seven lakh plus deaths with dengue and malaria, and they also fall under that category. Yeah, and we have dogs that cause about 35,000 Plus deaths on roads, you know, and these are human beings also, who die because of cow, there's just been left out on the street, and you know, somebody at night is driving, there is Dengie, there is malaria, there are these mosquitoes that are killing me know, human beings. And I'm just, you know, I'm just very curious. Because to understand, because, is it big, you know, dogs, they're so beautiful, because we're, you know, we have so much social media around us, where you have these really cute videos of kittens and dogs, and they're, you know, a rabbit and some people also actually have snakes as pets. And, you know, we tend to feel because we are a society whose all the time is scrolling down our phones, and we find these really pretty videos and people are more, maybe becoming softer towards dogs, you know, but the rest of the animals really are not taken into consideration, even by the greatest probably animal, you know, organisations that work towards animal welfare. So, do you kind of how do you, you know, how do you address this?

Vandana: 9:21

So what you're saying is very true. Dogs are the easiest to rescue, easiest to communicate with. And, you know, they are because they are more their relationship with humans is very different from any other animal. Not that other animals are not affectionate. I mean, I had a huge misconception about cats still, I had to have my only when you have them, you understand their way of being affectionate is completely different from you know how a dog interacts with you. But yeah, there is a bias, obviously, but it's not that there are not people doing particular kind of rescues, but it is really the lack of awareness, infrastructure resources in India, that leads to this bias because if you go abroad, you will see rescue. So all kinds of Animal Farm animals have their own rescues, cats have their own rescues, dogs,

Mohua: 10:17

human beings here don't have rescue. So you know, India's not even a country that we can really compare, you know, with,

Vandana: 10:23

that's what I'm saying is, that's a problem. That's the problem that India is dealing with. It's its own issues of human population, humans dying, you know, with this pandemic, and everything is, so we, you know, we are always around humans that we are not even able to solve that. So, you know, I'll just give you a very small example, if a crime happens with an animal, you go to the police station, you try to log in a fire, they, they are so overwhelmed with their own human cases that they don't want to take it up. And they ask us for the logic, you know, hum, in Sanogo, neger, barrier, up cryptic case. Lakeya. Do you understand? So there is, there is a disbalance there, but at some point, you know, we have to understand that it has to go hand in hand because nobody's above someone else. Even animals are living beings. Nobody is above them. So there is bias. But we as a country have a long way to go when it comes to animal rights and welfare. Yeah, I

Mohua: 11:21

think this is a very, very, you know, it's a very, it's a long drawn out conversation. Because, you know, like I said that for, you know, for most of us, we find these very cute videos of dogs in, you know, and cats and animals that can be kept at home with the human being, and they are, maybe, you know, they're on the better part of the food chain, unlike a whole lot of other animals that have the equal amount of probably affection, which is not yet known. And, yeah, so it's like, you know, for because I was just talking to someone and they said, the number of deaths that happen on roads, there are stray dogs that are outside, they often, you know, bark, and they can, you know, they catch people who are coming back late at night, we're riding a bike, and they, you know, they end up getting bitten by the dogs. And these are all very poor people, you know, who probably doing a late night shift, you know, from a restaurant or from a hospital. And so these are serious issues that happen in India, you know, so obviously, animal love is going to be so much in question because there's so many other things that are so large, but dinner,

Vandana: 12:27

but so when you talk about sorry to interrupt you there we talk about deaths because of dog, I'll tell you there is in multiples of 100. The dogs are dying every day because of human reality dogs being run over your dogs not having shelter dogs not having food. And what you're talking about is just a very small portion of as I said, you know, we have to come a long way when it comes to animal rights. The dog population certainly needs to go down. It is unsustainable. To have millions of dogs on the street. You have to start a mono space sterilisation. I'm Lucas, he could correct to control the population. But as I said, this is not government's priority right now. And there is so much corruption you you know, in our country, even if somebody gets a ABC contract, there's so much corruption within the government who is giving you the contract that it is impossible to reach the target that you want to add the pace India is doing sterilisation, we will never solve this problem. Because by the time you complete 20,000 There are one lakh which are reproduced already. Because a dog is capable of producing Yeah, it has destroyed eight. Yes, yes. So you know, this is this is unsustainable because of that. So no, even as an animal lover, I understand that feeding the dog or, you know, just looking after the dog is not going to solve the problem, the problem will only get solved when we start sterilising. And you know, the population goes down and there is no homeless dogs on the street. Even dogs on the street is not a good thing. It's not good for the dogs. It's not good for the humans, because they are territorial by nature. And if they see somebody you know, coming into their territory, they will chase it's a natural behaviour.

Mohua: 14:14

So tell me you have sent dogs from India abroad. There have been families who've taken dogs. Yeah. There has been a rule with the government if I'm not mistaken, because you know, in India, we still have rabies unlike the countries abroad because you know, dogs outside I don't think they have rabies. Am I right?

Vandana: 14:31

No. So it depends country to country. We majorly send our dogs to Canada and US. countries like Australia and Europe for that matter has triggered rules for import or export of dogs just for the simple fact that India has rabies. Recently US has also put a ban on India, yes, to send any sort of dogs who are adoptable just for the simple reason the strain of rabies that It was not in US has been identified from the dogs that have been coming from abroad, but not necessarily from India. They were taking a lot of dogs from China, Korea, the dogs have been saved from, you know, meat, trade and all of that. So we don't exactly know, from where the strain of rabies came but still, you know, it was a blanket ban on all the 131 countries that fall into that category. So India, unfortunately, is a tier three country, which still has very active cases of rabies, us as a tier two country and then countries like Australia, they are tier one countries where there is no rabies at all. So at least

Mohua: 15:38

one dinner in you know,

Vandana: 15:41

yeah 100% Because all our adoptions were overseas only we we barely had any local adoptions just because of the simple fact that the kind of dogs that we were rescuing were very critical cases. And you know, these dogs are not adoptable in India, just because somewhere disfigured or you know, somewhere missing a leg or an eye. You know, people don't even want to adopt a normal Indian dog with everything okay, and you know, healthy so forget about a dog which has some sort of problem. But these stories were reaching, I think emotionally they were connecting to a lot of people overseas and they still came forward and I think people overseas because as I as I said, it's more of education, awareness that they're open to adopting animals like this in India we still have key you know, loca bowling in a parka, a pair missing Bella COTELLIC Agoura so we still have that, you know, reputation issue that we don't want to adopt Indian dogs.

Mohua: 16:44

Fantastic. So wonderful. Thank you so much for being on today's podcast. And you know, we before I end I have to tell my listeners that won the contest for the title of Mrs. India 2021 in January last year, she further went ahead and won the coveted subtitle Mrs. Beyond People's Choice at the Mrs. India pageant, I have to tell you about one of my most favourite novel by George Orwell Animal Farm in which is still taught to schoolchildren and remains for many the entry point into the political thought processes that shaped the planet. It took some talking pigs and horses to achieve that. So thank you so much for all the good work that you're doing. And I hope many more people come forward, listen to this podcast help you out. Reach out to you. And thank you so much for being on today's show.

Vandana: 17:30

Thank you, Manuel.

Mohua: 17:33

Do you ideas listeners you can find us on your favourite streaming services, Spotify, Amazon music, Apple podcast, and of course, all other major streaming services with loads of love. We are the Maguire show where we talk. Amanda Lee say