Large animal camp.

The animal welfare organisation I volunteer for conducted a large animal camp last week.We have adopted a village which is remote in terms of veterinary help as well as the distance from the highway.When we reached there,we were welcomed by a huge crowd of cows,bulls,sheeps,assorted Indian dogs and many hens which were scampering about,trying not to get under any hooves.It was lovely and fresh in the morning,the sheeps were highly quizzical wrinkling their pink noses at the ambulance and us.The cattle ofcourse were the epitome of nonchanlance,chewing their cud.They couldn't be too bothered by a couple of outsiders and a large white ambulance.In the cow community,ruminating is serious business considering they have 4 stomachs to fill and they can't possible let themselves be distracted.

I love villages.I've spent many summers with my grandparents in our village learning to ride a bullock cart,taking care of all the farm animals and lazing about on the huge pile of hay.It doesn't matter which state it is, all the villages are similar in many aspects.The same smell of cows and cowdung,old hay,hot milk,and ofcourse all the flowers that bloom ,the smell of authentic, organic cooking.Everyone is busy in the morning.The men leave early for the fields and the women clean the houses.In south Indian villages the rangoli forms an important and mandatory decoration in front of the house.The front yard is first swept,cleaned with water and then smeared with fresh cowdung.Then before it dries,the rangoli is drawn.The color combination is very beautiful of pristine white rangoli powder on a background of greeshish brown.

This village was a little dirty but nothing that I hadn't seen before.We started treating all the animals one by one.I spoke to a vet from the government hospital who had come to help us out and the various facts he told me was highly disheartening.This village was primarily a dairy community because of lack of irrigation and dependence on monsoon for agriculture.So their cows were the means to their income.These animals were highly malnourished and full of problems.The breed used for milk production was the HF.When a cow calved,if the calf was male ,then it was immediately sent to the slaughter house for the bulls of the HF breed served no use in agriculture.The poor little thing would be sold to butchers before it even got its first meal.If the cow didn't produce sufficient milk then it would be slaughtered.So for this animal life is a very vicious cycle.It gets very little food,so it's malnourished,therefore it has problems in conceiving or combatting contagious diseases.If it's ill or doesn't calve then it becomes a liability to the breeder,who stops feeding it.The cow gets weaker and weaker until it is sold to slaughter houses.

The life of these animals is gauranteed only if it produces the required amount of milk!!!Their lives are dependant on that one fluid!!

Most of the times the villagers are helpless because of the economic constraints.It's not that they care any less for their animals but they are unable to give it the quality of life it deserves.The problem is huge, going beyond the boundries of animal welfare and merging with realm of human difficulties and issues.

The day was long and tiring.We achieved a lot yet realized we had barely touched the tip of the iceberg.There was so much to be done.I enjoyed every minute of that day.The air was clean,the only sounds were of birds chirping and cows mooing.An occasional dog would register it's presence with a bark.The people were hospitable and friendly.Over 100 animals were treated that day.It was a lot of hard work but personally...I couldn't have toiled for a better cause.