A group of animal lovers in Dehradun has come together to save strays from road accidents at night by pooling in money and making reflective collars at home to be put on stray animals. The group has also been supplying these collars to different parts of the country after taking orders through social media platforms.
The initiative, a brainchild of Mugdha Kothari, a 21-year-old girl thought about making the reflective collars at home during lockdown after seeing stray animals getting injured in road accidents at night. An animal lover since childhood, she lost her job amid the pandemic and at present has been dedicating her time to rescue injured stray animals and taking care of them across the city.
“As an animal lover, I have been rescuing stray animals or taking care of them by giving them food and medicines. This is when I observed that many stray animals get injured in road accidents at night as commuters are unable to see them while driving. It was then I thought about putting reflective collars on their neck so that the drivers could spot them from a distance and don’t hit them which might also lead to human loss of life or injury sometimes,” said Mugdha.
She discussed the idea with her friend and fellow animal lover, Iram Naaz, who now helps her by stitching the collars at her home.
“We both thought of buying the collars from the market but we found them costlier in comparison to the quality of the product. My friends suggested that we should make these at home. Once we researched more on how to make these collars at home, we bought the material initially from our own pocket. As we both are not earning at present, we decided to seek financial aid from others on social media. Mayank Maithani, Inderjit and Vidhi, the others in our group, came forward and helped us financially,” she said.
Mugdha used the funds to buy reflective tapes, buckles and collars and started making the reflective collars at home.
“It has been about a month since we started this initiative. We have made reflective collars for dogs, mules and cows on roads,” she said.
Her group member and fellow animal lover Mayank said that they are also selling the homemade collars to animal lovers in all parts of the country.
“Ours is not a business model but an initiative to help the strays. Hence we are selling the collars at Rs 50 against the cost of Rs 40. The profit earned is being used by us in buying medicines, food and other things for taking care of the stray animals,” said Mayank.
“We have started selling the collars after taking the orders on social media. In the last two days we have got orders from Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Indore, and other cities. We will continue this noble initiative and take care of the stray animals,” he adds.
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