Rekindle Your Love For Stray Dogs With ‘Mongrels Of India’

The page is a part of a project, which hopes to change the negative perception of people about the mongrels.

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram/mongrelsofindia)

Inspired by Humans of New York, 25-year-old Arpita Rao started a Facebook page and an Instagram account with the aim of evoking compassion for the furry creatures.

The page is a part of a project called “Mongrels of India”, which hopes to change the negative perception of people about the mongrels.

Amidst horrific stories of stray dogs being killed and attacked across India, the project hopes to kindle some love in the hearts of people for the stray dogs.

How it all Began

Rao started the Facebook page which showcased pictures of strays that she had taken during her many travels.

However, it now focusses on crowd-sourced stories of Indians who adopted stray dogs. Eventually, the Hyderabad resident hopes to create a database which will help animal lovers help and rescue strays. The page will also collaborate with rescue centres to help adoption efforts and find homes for stray dogs.

Stories

The page has stories of Tamara Lopez, a Mumbai local who has adopted three dogs, all of which were either neglected or sick. She took them in and has made them a part of her family for many years now.

"People think that dogs are aggressive, but they are just defending themselves. Not all of them mean to bite you," Rao says.

The page also features stories that try to dispel bias against mongrels and the preference given to pedigreed dogs.

Delhi-based Puneeta Singh writes about how she ended up with her pet Mylo unexpectedly. Mylo was originally been adopted by her friend but was rejected by her family and the vet for being 'unsafe'.

When Singh took the dog back to a rescue centre, she discovered he had been returned after adoption ten times. It was then that she decided to keep him.

It is through stories like these that 'Mongrels of India' hopes to bring about change. "They are all old dogs now and I can vouch for the fact that Indian breed dogs have little to no health problems, do not require specialised training and are much lower maintenance than any pure-bred dog," Lopez says about her three pets on Facebook.

(Source: The Huffington Post.)