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Looking for dog adoption in Kolkata and not sure, who to contact?

The city of Joy, Kolkata, often has readers reaching out to us for adoption updates or animal helpline numbers. In this blog post, we’ve compiled a list of charitable foundations, NGOs and shelters in Kolkata that you may adopt a dog from. You can also contact them in case you spot an injured animal.

Please consider adopting Indian pariah dogs as they make amazing pets.

You can so often find abandoned pets in dog shelters, relegated to their fate just because their humans ran out of affection or discarded them like last season’s accessories. When you hand these pets a new leash at love, you help save a life.

Dog adoption in Kolkata

Here are some noteworthy animal shelters and NGOs that you may contact for pet adoption in Kolkata. This list of Emergency contact numbers would also come in handy to help animals in need of medical care.

1. Chhaya Animal hospital

Chhaya, an animal hospital and shelter was set up in 2008, under the aegis of People for the Respect & Care of Animals (PRCA) charitable trust. Setup across a green plot in village Aswathaberia, Chhaya takes in and cares for injured and neglected animals, nursing and rehabilitating them.

Their services include Animal Birth Control (ABC), basic veterinary procedures to treat maggot-infested wounds, Surgical treatments, accident victims treatment and rehabilitation and even Cancer treatment.

Address: Chhaya, PO: Chandaneswar, PS: Bhangore,
South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India Contact: +91 98302 79138, 98302 11138

2. Sonata Foundation Calcutta

Perched in a peaceful and green serene, Sonata Foundation helps with treatment and rehabilitation of injured animals. They have spacious kennels for dogs, and also shelter cows (often cases of hit-and-run by the speeding vehicles.)

They have a vet on-call 24×7, and an ambulance to transport the animals in need of medical attention.

Address: Sonata Foundation, Rajarhat, Newtown, Kolkata Phone: +91 8902494241

See also: Animal helpline in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune.

3. Animal Rescue & Care (ARC) Kolkata

ARC, the Kolkata based animal welfare organization, offer a shelter and rehabilitation facility for the animals. Their volunteer network has students, teachers, and vets to assist in rescue missions.

They run camps for Animal Birth Control (ABC), Rabies and medical treatment of injured animals.

Address: Animal Rescue and Care, 11/4, Jyotirmoy Nagar Raad, Purbasan, Thakurpukur
Phone: (+91) 7890-535353/838383

4. Love N Care for Animals

Founded in 1997, Love N Care for Animals helps stray dogs, cats, abandoned cows, horses, and injured birds in Kolkata city. They also have a hospital, Chhaya Biswas Charitable Animal Care Hospital, managed by them.

Address: Love N Care for Animals, 80/2C, Sarsuna Main Road, Kolkata Phone: 033 24881222 | 94330 75715 | 9830037693

5. PFA Kolkata – ASHARI

ASHARI PFA Kolkata helps not only as a shelter, but also runs ambulance service, sterilization program, treatment camps and disaster rescue missions for animals.

Address: ASHARI (Animal Shelter-cum-Hospital & Research) Institute, 2, Netaji nagar, (Near mukundpur bus depot) Kolkata
Phone: 033 24239100/24239101 and 083350 45433

6. Debasree Roy Foundation

Debasree Roy Foundation was established in 2009 to help the stray animals of Kolkata. They provide medical care to abused and injured animals, including spaying and neutering. They also run adoption programs to find loving homes for cats and dogs.

Address: Debasree Roy Foundation. 11C, Dover Lane, Ballygunge, Kolkata
Phone: 033 6550 3285 | 033 4602 7003 Open: 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM (Monday – Friday), 11:30 AM to 4:00 PM (Saturday)

7. Pashupati Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)

PAWS works towards Rescue, treatment, and adoption of animals. They run an active animal shelter for injured and neglected animals and provide residential care until safe to release. They also have an animal hospital and operating theatre with sterilisation unit.

Address: PAWS Kolkata, c/o Adv. Ritesh Basu, Office of ‘Taxmen’, 5 K. B Basu Road (first floor), Barasat, Kolkata-700 124
Phone: +91-8420386536

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In case you are trying to help an injured animal – please note that not all of these shelters may have an ambulance. If you can take the injured animal to the nearest facility, it would be great. If you have called up the animal shelter, and they’ve dispatched an ambulance, please see if you can comfort the animal in need and provide first aid, and care till the ambulance arrives.

Please consider that most of these shelters are often understaffed and in need of resources – which may not always be financial aid but even old clothes, newspapers or most important of them all, your time as a volunteer.

This isn’t an exhaustive list – if you know of any other resources that may be of help with regard to dog adoption in Kolkata, please suggest in the comments below.

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We dogs are delighted to present this interview Alicia Souza ― dog lover, ace artist and an overall wonderful human being on how dogs inspire her illustrations.

Alicia Souza’s keen observations on everyday life and the ink renditions that they inspire have a happy tribe following her. If you are one of them, like us, you would have seen the adorable doodles featuring her pets – Charlie, the dog and Henry Oats, the guinea pig.

Her musings on – pets, couples, friendships, and Bangalore have not only fueled a business spanning artwork, merchandise – notebooks, fridge magnets, phone covers, home decor, and even books but also inspired people to adopt instead of buying pets. She also holds merchandise sales to help drive proceeds towards animal welfare organizations in Bangalore like Charlie Animal rescue centre.

Many of us were first introduced to her quirky illustrations via Chumbak merchandise, a brand that she co-founded. Post parting ways with it, she started afresh and curated her own namesake brand, Ms Cat calls her ‘the queen of cute’ and she isn’t off-target as cats so often are. The ace illustrator has also collaborated with brands like Google, Yahoo, Dove, Infosys and many more.

Dog interviews Alicia Souza

Doggo: We are absolutely enthralled to see dogs feature prominently in your works. Could you please take us through a brief history of pets in your life and spill the beans on that one artistic doggo who introduced you to the crayons?

Alicia Souza: So I’ve like drawing as much as any other kid, but I’ve ALWAYS loved animals way more than most kids I knew. I’ve always had a pet but because I was brought up in small spaces, they were small- turtles, birds (sadly), and guinea pigs. Charlie was my first dog and he came into my life a few months after I moved to India, about 10 years ago!

Doggo: Growing up, did books where animals talk, one of your favourites? Do you still revisit them?

Alicia Souza: Yes and no. I loved animal books but I don’t recall me favouring them more than other books. Mind you, now I love illustrating animal books way more than others.

Doggo: Please tell us about ‘Dogs in The bottom’, how it came to be? And are there any plans in the pipeline for it?

Alicia Souza: haha if you’re referring to the ‘dogs wearing pants’ series of watercolour illustrations I’ve started, it’s just something silly I started working on with no real plans in mind.

But I can see it working out to be a series where I possibly can make something out of it. But I’d need to paint a lot more, something I sadly don’t have as much time for as I’d like.

Doggo: Charlie, the adorable pooch who graces your Instagram, what’s his story?

Charlie was picked off the road, as a wandering pup at about 6 months old. He was given to me and honestly, I never had plans of adopting a dog because I just had a lot on my plate. But my life changed swiftly around him after that. He was the sweetest, no-fuss pup and still is a no-fuss dog.

He’s pretty much a part of me!

Doggo: If you were a dog drawing Alicia, what do you think it would be like?

Alicia Souza: A smiling Indie dog.

Doggo: From Henry-oats to Charlie, how pets inspire you in your craft – is it ever like that you seem at their antics, and voila!

Alicia Souza: I get inspiration from things happening around me or people I meet. Because I work primarily from home, my boys are always my companions, which means I tend to draw about them a lot more. They are also ridiculously cute, so that helps 🙂

Doggo: We strive to find homes for abandoned and stray dogs, unfortunately, the inquiries that #desidogs attract are significantly less as compared to the pedigree. Is there a message (story, creative) from you that we may feature to inspire people watching from the fence.

Alicia Souza: I’ve done SO many stories, drawings etc about adopting. Even if it means adopting abandoned pedigree dogs because now sadly, people are disposing of dogs like they are plastic bags. It’s dreadful.

Indies are such a great breed that it’s amazing how people don’t realise it. And they are so hardy, super smart and just great dogs! I have a big soft corner for people who adopt indies. I think they are the smartest and kindest of the lot.

See also: What makes indies the best dog for an Indian family

And mustn’t you forget to cuddle the dog (ok, cat too!)

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Disney’s latest hit ‘Togo’ celebrates a forgotten hero.

In 1925, a devastating case of diphtheria broke out in the isolated Alaskan village of Nome. The lifesaving serum was a thousand miles away, but the port was closed due to ice, and planes couldn’t fly in the deadly winter storm.

Nome’s only hope was its dog sled team.

Dog sleds were chosen to transport the serum from Nenana to Nome, 674 miles. It would have taken a few weeks to cover this distance but by then most of the children would have died so an elite team of sled-dog racers tagged along in a race against time and elements of nature to relay the medicine across the perilous frozen land in blizzard conditions.

20 sled teams participated in the 1925 relay.

19 teams ran an average of 31 miles each. 1 team led by Togo ran 264 miles.

The dog who clocked most of the arduous track got lost in history. Togo, the movie, is his story.

Togo movie review

Togo (2019) is Disney’s emotional tribute to the eponymous real-life hero dog. Shuffling between past and present, the screenplay shows the special bond between musher Leonhard Seppala (played by Willem Dafoe) and Togo.

Togo is shown to be so ‘untrainable’ that Seppala tries to give him away twice but the dog was meant to lead, and so he does. How the fluffy rebellious puppy, breaks out of barns and all disciplinary boundaries alights the screen.

The screenplay, narrated via frequent flashbacks, endearingly builds upon the relationship between man and the dogs in the backdrop of gorgeous and the gory Alaskan slopes and their endless whites.

Togo had been Seppala’s lead dog since he was 8 months old; now, at age 12, and perhaps on his last days, Togo is called upon to lead the epic journey for a cause that’s bigger than any race he has ever run in.

The hero dog who saved 9 people from drowning

But what about Balto?

The dog that often gets credit for eventually saving the kids is Balto, but he just happened to run the last, 55-mile leg in the race.

Togo was certainly the unsung hero but it doesn’t really paint Balto in black. The Internet really needs to calm down – it wasn’t as if Balto took claim to all the laurels and dismissed Togo to the shadows. You know who does that?

Humans. Never dogs.

As Dafoe’s character quips towards the movie’s end: “If you were lucky enough to know a great one (dog), they never really leave. They stay with you as long as you live. Harnessed to your heart, giving their all.”

Togo, Balto and every single dog who ran the great distance to save innocent children need to be celebrated. With or without a statue, they are the heroes who represent hope, valour, love and unflinching loyalty like only dogs can.

They’re all good boys!

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