A paw-some adoption drive

The puppies at the drive held at Inorbit Mall, Malad on Saturday

A shopping mall in Malad became the first in the city to hold a puppy adoption drive and managed to get seven puppers their forever homes. NGO Stray Happy Animal Foundation, which organised the event in collaboration with Inorbit Mall, said the location was chosen as the footfall there was high, thus increasing the chances for the puppies to get adopted. The event started with 39 puppies around 2 pm on Saturday and by night, seven of the dogs were adopted.

The camp saw around 1,000 visitors, of whom around 380 registered to adopt a dog. Kids who visited the mall were also allowed to play with the puppies. One of the organisers said the event was a success as not many adopt strays after seeing online posts.

The camp saw 7 puppies getting adopted

Madhavi Chaturvedi, founder and trustee of Stray Happy Animal Foundation, said, "The objective of this camp was to raise awareness among Mumbaikars to to create a better harmonious environment between humans and strays apart from finding loving homes and volunteers to feed, groom, vaccinate and medically assist the strays. This is the first time that we organised a grooming and adoption drive in a mall and got an excellent response. Inorbit Mall management, too, was very happy with the response and has offered to collaborate with us in our future drives."

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"We have arranged many camps earlier, but did not get as good a response. Even social media posts do not gather as many people. We are planning to arrange more such camps in other malls," she said.

Speaking on the adoption process, Chaturvedi said, "Those who adopted puppies here at the drive seemed genuine and we verified if they would be able to take care of the dogs. We also do surprise checks to ensure the dogs are in a happy home."

39
No. of dogs that were up for adoption