It is always our ultimate aim to be able to release an animal after it has been treated through our Rescue and care project. Sometimes though despite our very best efforts, we know that the animal would just not be able to thrive or survive alone as a street animal anymore.
In this instance, our only option is to keep them as one of our much loved and cherished shelter animals and provide sanctuary for them in our green oasis for the rest of their lives. TOLFA currently has the capacity for approximately 150 permanent shelter animals in addition to the 450 – 500 temporary patients that it has under medical treatment at any moment in time.
Dogs, as with the percentage of animals that we rescue, make up the biggest number of our shelter animals. The most common reasons for permanent shelter are disabilities affecting mobility after being involved in serious road traffic accidents, which also includes amputees. Many of our dogs have chorea, which is a nervous twitch that makes them bounce up and down and is seen in dogs that have successfully recovered from distemper virus. Some of our residents are blind and some have chronic medical conditions that require daily medication.
Over the years, the number of cats that we have been called to rescue has increased a lot and so has the number of cats that have become permanent shelter residents. Cats are very independant animals and also amazing healers but the cats that have had to stay with us in our sanctuary are either amputees after road accidents or being electrocuted. Several are blind or partially blind. Many of our shelter cats enjoy full independance and live in total harmony with our shelter dogs without any problem.
All of our cows were either once owned but now non productive, rendering them useless to their owners or they were born into a life on the streets. With nothing for them to eat other than a few green grass offerings from kind people, they resort to eating rubbish, filling their stomachs with kgs of plastic. Our male calves were once a totally unwanted side effect of the dairy industry and so from a very young age left to fend for themselves becoming malnourished and getting into road accidents. In many cases for those cows that are not able to be returned, we will find them a place at a reputable gaushala, but those with serious disabilities or are male, we keep at TOLFA.
All of these animals once had an owner, but sadly once they sustained an injury that made them financially unsustainable thet were dumped on the streets to fend for themselves. In the most part the equines that become our permanent residents have been found with multiple fractures that have either happened when they have been carrying incredibly heavy loads up steep hills or through busy traffic. Many are admitted with scars from poorly fitted saddles or rubbing from ropes tied too tightly around them. We will never release them back to a life of slavery and misery.
Two of our shelter camels came to us as babies. One had terrible mange and camel pox and was left on the road outside our hospital. The other was brought by their owner as they could not manage anymore after they had lost part of their leg in a road accident. Our third shelter camel is very aged and was found wandering alone on the streets with a huge maggot wound. Our 3 goats that live in our sanctuary were all rescued from a temple where they had been left and had sustained various different injuries.
Although pigs get a rough deal, seen as unclean and dirty, to us at TOLFA, they also a sentient being who are deserving of our help when they need it. All of our sanctuary pigs started their life at TOLFA as a small piglet. Many pigs live on the roadsides and when the piglets are small, they can get into trouble either in an accident when crossing the road or as casualties of dog bites. Once treatment is complete it is not possible to release the baby back to the street as often the mother has moved on and the piglets are vulnerable to further attacks.
