Tirupati: Stray animals survive lockdown due to people's compassion

Tirupati: It is intriguing to note that the animals such as street dogs and stray cattle are able to survive despite the tough days of lockdown due to peoples' compassion in the pilgrim city.

There are more than 6,000 street dogs and 500-600 stray cattle in the city which is more here compared to other towns due to ever flowing pilgrim population.

In the beginning of the lockdown period, these animals faced starvation that ultimately moved many people to come to their rescue by providing food to them. About a dozen compassionate young men made it their duty to feed the animals daily ensuring them get food that was ceased following the closure of hotels and stoppage of pilgrim flow due to the nationwide lockdown being implemented to check the spread of deadly Corona virus.

Janaki, a young woman, is one such animal lover providing food to the animals daily since the day one of the lockdown.

In the morning she collects the vegetable waste from the markets and provide them to the stray cattle and in the evening she feeds the stray dogs with the food she cooked at her home.

Talking to The Hans India, Janaki said in the beginning she faced financial problem for making food for dogs but the generous support from friends and others solved the problem. ``The chicken and meat shop owners are also now providing meat (waste) for the dogs,'' she said.

Another young woman, an engineering graduate Udayee also enthusiastically taking up feeding of the animals in the city. Few of them lamented that though they are not facing any difficulty in the noble task of feeding hungry animals, sometimes they face problem from the police.