“Every day begins with suffering,” says Prabha Venugopal matter-of-factly. “Somebody calls about an injured dog, an abandoned pet, or an old animal nobody wants anymore.” A former accounting professor in Oman for 15 years, Prabha, who runs Aalaiyam A Home For Animals, returned to Chennai for her children’s education, but stayed back for the dogs. Since 2012, animal rescue has become her full-time reality. Her days are divided between emergency rescues, veterinary visits, corporation pounds, police stations, and a shelter near Red Hills that houses old, blind, sick, and abandoned dogs.
Working across Corporation pounds, clinics, and police stations
Even during the phone call, she is on the move—heading to treat an elderly injured dog whose owners are leaving town. “They wanted to move the dog to a shelter or boarding facility, but old dogs suffer in cages,” she says. “So I told them to leave the car park open. I’ll come every night, feed him, and give medicines so he stays comfortable in his own environment.”
Her shelter began three years ago when over 100 vulnerable dogs housed at a corporation facility needed relocation. “Most were blind, had cancer, or were extremely old,” she recalls. “I told the commissioner I would find land and care for them for the rest of their lives.”
Today, the rented shelter has become a refuge for dogs that cannot survive on the streets anymore. “People now approach me with blind or terminally ill dogs who only have a few months or years left,” she says. “I don’t take healthy young dogs for boarding or money. This place is only for animals that truly have nowhere else to go.”
Prabha funds the work largely through personal resources and support from family and friends. “This is not my bread and butter,” she says. “I can only continue as long as I’m financially able to.”
Apart from the shelter, she also works closely with corporation pounds across Chennai. She has so far coordinated more than 2,000 ABC for community dogs at various private vet clinics through sponsors in the last 10 months along. She frequently coordinates with zonal veterinary officers, helps arrange treatments, medicines, and transport, and even intervenes in emergency situations involving community dogs.
“Sometimes doctors from the corporation call me directly if a dog isn’t recovering after surgery,” she explains. “I’ll shift the dog to a private clinic, oversee treatment, and return the animal once it recovers.”
Recently, she helped rehabilitate an abandoned Labrador rescued from a corporation pound. “The dog had been locked in a cage for nearly 25 days,” she says. “We moved her to a safer place, arranged medication, food, and socialisation.”
For Prabha, rescue work extends beyond dogs to navigating people, systems, and public anxieties around strays. She regularly mediates between residents, feeders, rescuers, and civic authorities. Over the years, she has built working relationships with dog catchers, corporation officials, NGOs, and animal welfare volunteers across the city.
“I always tell people—speak kindly to officials and veterinarians. They also deal with difficult situations every day,” she says.
One issue she repeatedly returns to is the urgent need for round-the-clock veterinary care. “Late at night, finding treatment for an injured dog becomes almost impossible,” she says. “Chennai desperately needs 24-hour veterinary clinics.”
Despite the emotional exhaustion, she continues because stopping, she implies, is never really an option. “Continuously something keeps happening,” she says quietly. “One call after another.”
Her relentless work with abandoned and ageing animals has also earned recognition from several animal welfare organisations over the years. Prabha is a recipient of the Sharon Ply I Am Strongest awards and has been honoured by organisations including People For Animals Tambaram during politician and animal activist Maneka Gandhi’s visit, as well as the Chennai Small Animal Veterinary Association for her contribution towards animal rescue and welfare.
—manuvipin@newindianexpress.com
@ManuVipin
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