Dear Friend,

I hope 2022 is off to a good start for you. This past year presented ample opportunity to save animals – and Animal Rahat came through for them in a big way! Your support helped its staff offer relief (rahat) to more than 25,000 animals in 2021, and with your help, it will improve the lives of even more this year.

WATCH: A Landmark Year of Animal Rescues and Outreach

Meet some of the individuals whose lives you and Animal Rahat changed together in 2021!

Please donate to help animals like these throughout the year.

Laxmi Was Wounded and Terrified, but Now She’s Feeling Fabulous!

Abandoned and wounded, this calf desperately needed a place to call home, so Animal Rahat welcomed her to its family.

Laxmi was wracked with pain and afraid to let anyone near her when Animal Rahat’s team found her in the aftermath of her grisly encounter with a spike. It had torn through her flesh and muscle when she had gaily attempted to jump an iron fence. After staff calmed her, they gently cleaned and stitched up her wound, but ever wily, she seized the first opportunity to run away. The team searched for her in nearby villages and asked if anyone had spotted her. It was a relief when somebody recognised Laxmi, managed to secure her, and called Animal Rahat’s emergency line, as her stitches had broken open and the wound was teeming with maggots. Now safely at the sanctuary, healed and recovered, Laxmi is playful and fond of her new friends and her new home.

Donkey in Danger! Stuck Between a Motorway and a Steep Drop

As cars zipped past this donkey on the motorway, the group’s emergency lines lit up. Animal Rahat to the rescue!

When the rescue team first saw this sweet donkey, her hooves were firmly planted as she assessed the commotion around her: honking traffic from a busy multi-lane motorway to her left, and a steep drop to her right. Donkeys are frequently misunderstood and labeled “stubborn” when they are unwilling to move, but these stoic animals think things through and rarely panic. With a lead and a tasty piece of jaggary, the team managed to coax her along a narrow pathway on the other side of the motorway’s barrier and slowly walked with her for nearly a mile to safety. After being examined by staff veterinarian Dr Lonarkar and receiving another treat of jaggary, she was returned to her neighbourhood, safe and sound.

Hungry and Frantic, Abhay Survives a Near-Death Experience

Abhay was hungry enough to force his head through a tiny opening in this gate to reach food on the other side. Animal Rahat’s rescue team rushed to help him after he became hopelessly stuck and panicked.

Precious Abhay screamed in desperation as he thrashed around, trying to free his head from the unyielding iron gate. The rescue team was shocked that he had managed to squeeze it through such a small opening, but they understood why. Hungry village dogs like Abhay are always on the lookout for food and will push their way into even the tightest gaps to get it – often becoming trapped. Using oil, along with patience, the team freed the grateful dog from his predicament. His four-day stay at the office, during which he was vaccinated and neutered, ended with an affectionate goodbye and good luck snuggles and kisses.

Sugarcane Season Is Sour, not Sweet, for Bullocks

The sugarcane season in Maharashtra provides locals with vital, high-volume work, but Animal Rahat’s teams are kept busy striving to reduce the suffering of hundreds of bullocks.

Torturous nose ropes, sharp spikes, and overloaded carts – often topped with the family of a man wielding a whip – are commonly endured by bullocks forced to work in the sugarcane industry. In fact, you might think it’s called the “crushing season” because of the unbearable weight of the carts or the way the gruelling labour and unkind handlers crush the bullocks’ spirits. But the term refers to the process of extracting the juices from the sugarcane, and Animal Rahat spends this season working to reduce the crushing loads and the other abuse meted out to the exhausted bullocks.

This season, the group posted signs warning against the use of various torture devices and ensured the use of sand beds for farriery and rubber mats at weighing stations to help prevent the animals from sustaining injuries. Animal Rahat also held face-to-face meetings with bullock guardians and factory owners to show them how to reduce suffering and provided them with the resources they needed to mechanise their operations.

Last season, the group saved nearly 8,900 bullocks from backbreaking labour, negotiating with 11 factories that made the switch to 1,130 mini-tractors and 545 large tractors and lorries instead. Animal Rahat is working non-stop to improve the lives of many more animals who face abuse in this industry!

On behalf of all the animals the group’s work has touched, thank you for helping change so many lives, one kind act at a time. Please think of the team out there, and remember you are a part of it all.

Kind regards,

Ingrid Newkirk
Founder

PS: Please consider making a donation to support Animal Rahat’s work providing animals with a loving community and nurturing compassion. Thank you.