THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ten-month-old stray dog ‘Hope’ under the care at the People for Animals (PFA) shelter at Valiyarathala in Thiruvananthapuram has proved to be a valiant fighter. Neither veterinarian Dr Rahul Ram, who treated him, nor the four staff members there did not have much hope that Hope would bounce back to life.
On June 14, Hope was brutally beaten up by Murali, a contract driver of Kerala State Electricity Board, with an iron rod. His skull, tail and legs were broken and one of his eyes was badly bruised and battered. Now, PFA has decided to put Hope up for adoption only to a loving family.
With round-the-clock care, Hope put a relentless fight to stay alive. He still has slight partial blindness in one eye and is still in shock. But that has not affected his morale. The PFA staff named the dog Hope as they were keen to see him fight back to live. Whenever they came to care and nurse him, he would lick their fingers showing his gratitude.
According to Dr Ram, Hope had difficulty in consuming food and couldn’t even stand properly. But those are things of the past now, says Sreedevi S Kartha, full-time member, PFA.“Whenever we go near him, Hope looks up with love-filled eyes. He then wags his now healed broken tail as if saying it’s okay. We are going ahead with the case against the KSEB driver as per Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Unfortunately, the driver has not been asked to stay away from work even for a day which is really unfortunate,” Sreedevi told The New Indian Express.
Sreedevi said the family that adopts him should take the responsibility of taking care of him in case he falls ill and should not abandon him. “We don’t want to see him feeling upset again. I feel that the authorities should come up with stringent laws against the people who attack stray animals,” she added.