How You can Help Animals & Birds

• Lead by Example: Take a dog from the street into your own home. If that’s not possible, take care of his food, medicines and vaccination.
• Put Bowls of Water: Put as many mud bowls of water at convenient places for stray animals, especially during summers. You would be surprised by the number of creatures that would benefit from this simple gesture. It quenches the thirst of thousands of creatures, big and small – from dogs and cats to birds, ants, wasps, bees and even snails.
• Feed the Birds: Spread grains like rice, bajra, channa, etc. on your rooftops or open balconies.
• Make Someone Smile: Find loving homes for abandoned and abused animals. Pets bring so much of joy and smiles to a home.
• Adopt an Animal: Do not buy your pet from a pet store or a breeder. Instead, adopt one from an animal shelter or adoption center. If you are really kind hearted, just pick up a pup on the side of the street and take him home.
• Speak up for the Animals: When you see cruelty meted out to an animal, speak up. Talk to the perpetrators and speak your mind. Show them the way around their own problems by suggesting to them that human beings as an intelligent species could easily avoid areas of conflict with an animal. It mostly works.
• Help Control Animal Overpopulation: Over population of animals often leads to hungry, unhealthy and sometimes aggressive strays that compromise their own welfare and threaten public health. So spay and neuter your pets as well as stray animals. This will over a period of time reduce the number of homeless animal population in your colony. Call an animal welfare NGO near you to help you organize Animal Birth Control (ABC) in your colony.
• Plant Trees: Plant trees and shrubs and provide a haven for birds and tree dwelling animals in your neighborhood. Imagine getting up in the mornings to the orchestra of birds' sounds and songs.
• Go Vegetarian: Make healthy food choices by adding more vegetables and fruits to your diet and reducing consumption of meat.
• Enjoy Entertainment that's Cruelty Free: Do not visit circuses and fairs that use animals for entertainment because circuses that feature animals use cruel training techniques like giving electric shocks and beating to force wild animals to perform unnatural and even painful tricks. Animals are not meant for our entertainment. Circuses performed by human actors are also very entertaining.
• Do not Buy Animal Products: Millions of animals are killed every year in the name of fashion. Wearing these products sends a message that you support animal exploitation for your clothing and fashion needs, best met through natural products. Also, don’t buy endangered animal products such as ivory or other body parts of animals.
• Watch Your Words: Language plays a very powerful role in shaping the way we view animals. When we call a useless person a donkey, it means that one is degrading a donkey. Similarly, use of words like 'chicken' or 'pig-headed' leads to reinforcing demeaning attitudes about animals which in turn shapes insensitive behavior towards them. In this situation, adopting a vocabulary that is respectful to animals and referring to each one of them with gender as 'he' or 'she' instead of 'it' and 'who' instead of 'which' or 'what' helps.

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