7-in-1 jab, best bet for strays

‘AFA Foundation’ seeks crowd-funding to sustain campaign

The first phase of the lockdown last year threw up challenges that called for deeds of kindness, especially towards animals. When the shutdown of restaurants and roadside eateries left many strays scrounging for food, animal lovers, welfare associations and several volunteers — after acquiring special permits — took up a special drive to feed stray animals. This year, in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic and the resultant lockdown, animal lovers geared up once again to feed the strays, but this time extending their care to vaccination as well. The seven-member team of All for Animals Foundation (AFA Foundation) based in Hyderabad has taken up the 7-in-1 vaccination drive with the help of volunteers, who do it during the lockdown hours when the dogs approach them for their feed. Srilu Bhopal, founder-member of AFA Foundation, mentions that since anti-rabies injections are given free by the GHMC to strays, her focus is on the 7-in-1 vaccine, which protects dogs against 7 diseases — canine distemper, adenovirus, hepatitis, parainfluenza, parvovirus, leptospirosis and coronavirus. “These are viral diseases that are not just painful but can kill the animals,” she says, adding that a large number of volunteers are able to feed animals from their own resources but when it comes to vaccines, it gets difficult to administer vaccines to all as each 7-in-1 costs ₹300. Srilu has been sponsoring most of these vaccination programmes with some help from friends and family.