My visit to CUPA, an animal rescue and rehabilitation center

 

A few weeks ago, my parents and I had visited CUPA, an animal rescue and rehabilitation center. In simple words, it’s a place that provides a home for animals that have been abandoned or are injured. Now, given the circumstances (COVID and all), travelling anywhere is a highly risky affair. So, you may wonder, why did we take the risk to go to a place like this?

Well, after years of begging, my parents finally agreed to get me a puppy!! It’s been my life’s dream to have a pet, and I was finally close to getting one. It all started off as a joke when we all were looking through pictures of a bunch of puppies up for adoption. I used this opportunity to deliver to my parents a long and emotional speech about why I wanted a pet. One thing led to the other and believe it or not, my parents actually agreed!

So, as I was saying, we were on our way to check out a particular puppy that was up for adoption at CUPA. When we arrived there, we were greeted with the sight of dozens of dogs crowding around a small gate, and two women feeding them (sambar and rice!) all patiently. Praying they wouldn’t bite; we made our way past them and went through the gate. Inside, an even more amazing sight met our eyes! Not only dogs, there were all kinds of animals. Cows, donkeys, horses, goats. They had them all!

One of the volunteers at CUPA, whom we had made an appointment with, offered to show us around. We walked past many cows and donkeys, but I wasn’t really paying attention to any of them. My mind was fixed on my soon to be pet puppy! 😉

He led us through another gate, where we met a lady. Sitting in her lap was the cutest puppy I’ve ever met! The puppy (it was a female puppy) had those cute flappy ears and the shiniest of eyes. She was squirming in the arms of the lady who was holding her. Clearly, she wanted more action!! In the same enclosure were many other dogs of varying ages. All of them stood up in attention as we walked in.

She had the shiniest eyes!

My mom froze behind me and I saw her looking at the many dogs. Have I mentioned, my mom is dead scared of dogs? She absolutely doesn’t feel safe around them. I’m still surprised as to why I’m getting a dog, but I figured it would be best to keep my mouth shut before they decided not to get one.

I walked up to the puppy and bravely held my hand to her. She leaped for it and nibbled on my hand. I wanted to pull back at once, but I saw my mom watching me and didn’t want to make it look like I was scared. It took me few seconds to be fully at home with her! I petted her a lot, and gave her belly rubs! I was even allowed to hold her in my lap. This was my best dream come true, and I just couldn’t believe it!

Now, this puppy had a playmate, a few weeks younger male puppy that was naughty as hell! He would snatch away her dinosaur chew toy and take off with it to a hole he was diligently digging in one corner of the enclosure! It was such a cute sight, and I fell in love with this other pup as well! 

Her playmate!

I then spent the next one and a half hours playing with the puppies. And soon enough, tired of all the excitement, she was fast asleep in my arms. And guess what her playmate did, he kept trying to wake her up and get her to play with him.  After some time, he gave up on her and found a corner to snuggle up and go to sleep!

And... they're asleep!

With no one to play with, I looked at my surroundings and saw all the other dogs there. One of the dogs literally crawled up to me. He had long, shaggy, brown hair. As he came closer, I noticed something. I realized that both of its legs had been hurt, and so he had to drag himself from place to place. His name was Golly and he melted by heart. We learnt from the people around that he had been in an accident, and his hind legs were permanently damaged. I petted him for some time and moved a bit to look at my puppies. 

Golly

As soon as my hand left his back, he nudged closer to me as if to remind me that he was still around. All he wanted was a little attention and some petting. It made me sad, to see a dog in this condition. I really, really wanted to take him home but we knew it was not a practical thing to do. After all, it was our first time having a dog and we weren’t sure if we would be able to care for it in the right way.

We also made our acquaintance with the ‘leader’ of the place. She was a fierce looking German Shepard with a sad past. She had been forced to breed, then her kids were taken away from her and sold to make money. Once she couldn’t produce any more babies, she was abandoned, and here she was now. It was all so sad, it’s cruel, what all we humans are capable of doing to defenseless animals.

Soon, it was time for us to leave. And as we walked back to the front gate, I noticed things that, in my excitement, I hadn’t noticed before. I saw cows with missing legs, limping donkeys, hurt dogs and so many more such animals. Some of them had been left on the streets to die and some had been in accidents and some of them were rescued on the way to the slaughter house. All of them had been ill treated by humans.

Though the visit to CUPA left me with happy memories of our soon to be pet puppy, it also left me with a disheartening view about how we humans ill-treat animals. Every day, thousands of animals die at the cruel hands of man. They are just used to satisfy the greed of humans and then when they have nothing more to offer, they are dumped on the streets to fend for themselves. Don’t animals have as equal a right to live with dignity, as us?

The people at CUPA are so devoted to their work. Most of them drive many hours to get here every weekend and spend time with these animals. I am sure they all have their own jobs and busy lives. Yet, they are doing this for those poor animals who have nowhere else to go.

And I learnt something that I had never given thought to before - when people adopt, they save a loving animal by making it a part of their family and giving it a home. However, when you buy a pet from a pet store, you are indirectly promoting cruelty towards animals. There are breeding factories that force dogs to breed artificially and then take their puppies away. When people decide to have a pet, they mustn’t judge it based on how it looks. A lot of times, I have seen people buying dogs that look cute or are of a particular sophisticated breed rather than adopting a dog that actually needs a home.

It is not feasible for everyone to adopt. But everyone can make a difference in their life by sponsoring their food, medical needs etc. Then hopefully, one day, animals will be able to live a life alongside people who love them and treat them well.

As I walked out through the gate, I sincerely prayed that every animal there would find a kind and loving family. The world really needs more organizations like CUPA.