CHENNAI: He who feeds a hungry animal, feeds his own soul.’ These thoughtful words penned by Charlie Chaplin welcome you at Heaven for Animals Kitchen — a one-of-a-kind cloud kitchen to feed stray dogs. The facility on New Avadi Road was inaugurated by Prateep V Philip, IPS, DGP and Director, Tamil Nadu Police Academy and Manish S Narnaware, IAS, deputy commissioner (Health), Greater Chennai Corporation, on Saturday.
The animal-friendly initiative intends to feed over 3,000 stray dogs every day. “A bunch of us have been feeding over 500 cats and dogs for the past five years. Particularly during the lockdown, it was sad to see many strays die of hunger. This prompted us to start a full-fledged kitchen to provide at least one meal to a dog. The food is rice cooked with turmeric, meat, ginger-garlic paste and neem oil. Feeders can pick up the food in buckets, return the buckets after feeding the dogs and we will refill them. Since our kitchen is in ICF, we are planning to cover areas like New Avadi Road, Ambattur, Ayanavaram. We will soon be opening one in Adyar,” shares Cardin Roby, a trustee.
The team has also placed more than 800 water bowls in many strategic hotspots across the city. “We have feeders in different parts of the city. There’s a lady who earns Rs 12,000 of which Rs 5,000 goes for dog food. We’re open to supporting feeders who don’t have the funds to buy food. Our youngest volunteer is a three-year-old. This is born out of passion to serve strays. With more donations, we can feed more strays,” notes Cardin.
Besides the kitchen, the trust plans to conduct free vaccination camps on a weekly basis on request. They also hope to open a veterinary clinic with boarding at affordable cost to treat sick and injured dogs, and also to open shelter for sick, old and blind dogs that cannot survive on the streets.
Their trustees and committee members include working professionals from all walks of life. Emphasising the need to build a safer space for strays in the future, Cardin highlights, “We want to educate and create awareness for animal welfare in the schools’ curriculum or syllabus to avoid animal cruelty. Our legal team is active in fighting animal cruelty cases and stands by any feeder who faces abuse. For now, we hope the kitchen will inspire more feeders to chip in.”
Board members
D Prakaashganth, founder and managing trustee
Cardin Roby, trustee lSrimathy Kesan, trustee
Ajit Sigamani, trustee lPrabhavathy Venugopal, additional secretary
Dasarath Singh, secretary
LN Pragasam, legal advisor
Ramanand Giri, trustee
To support, call: 8056186444 or mail to info.heavenforanimals@gmail.com