Our hospital and shelter covers 4 bigha’s of land and what started as a dry, barren piece of land is today a green, healing oasis, nestled amongst the ancient Aravali mountains in the Rajasthan Thar Desert. Since 2005, with the help and generosity of our donors, we have been able to expand our facilities from a 40 kennel block, operation theatre and prep room to being able to house and medically treat hundreds of small and large animals every day.
In 2020, thanks to a very generous donation, we were able to purchase a property in the Paharganj area of Ajmer City. This property is now in use as a dispensary for both owned street and breed animals and as a first aid facility for animals that TOLFA’s ambulances have rescued. It has enabled people to access quality medical care for their animals without having to travel out to our hospital which is located approximately 10kms out of the city.
When a dog first arrives with us they are admitted into one of our 15 Assessment Kennels to be assessed by one of our Doctor’s. From there they will be transferred to the appropriate ward for the duration of their treatment and healing. We have 60 medical rescue kennels where dogs with wounds, fractures, tumours and other ailments stay as well as separate kennels for dogs who have mange to enable us to keep mange mites out of the main kennels. Any dog with symptoms of infectious diseases go straight into one of our 10 quarantine kennels enabling them to be treated but not spread disease to the other dogs. Our 40 surgical rescue kennels are for dogs who need surgery or are recovering from surgery. Among all these areas we have almost 150 kennels just for rescued dogs in need of care.
Our puppy areas are busy all year round but at certain times of the year we are inundated with puppies in need of medical care and love. In total we have almost 100 kennels just for puppies. In our main puppy area, we have 12 indoor special care kennels for small puppies in need of extra feeding and attention and 17 large outside kennels with individual compounds so groups of pups can live together whilst healing from injuries and fractures.
Our newly built puppy quarantine is made up of 3 separate, self contained blocks, each of which manage a different infectious disease – canine hepatitis, distemper and general infectious diseases. This is to ensure that none of these diseases can spread into our general puppy areas as they are all very serious and potentially fatal. In total there are 74 individual quarantine kennels across the three areas.
We rescue 1200-1500 large animals every year. Mainly these are cows and calves but also include donkeys and goats. We have an extensive large animal enclosure where the majority of the cows are kept whilst they undergo medical or surgical treatment for injuries, fractures and illness. We have a large animal intensive care area where those animals who need help feeding, taking water and moving. Alongside this we also have a separate area for calves and mothers with calves and our donkeys have their own retirement yard too. Over the years we have also come to rescue a few pigs who needed our help when they were tiny piglets and so they have their own area to live out their lives in. Our large animal rescue vehicle is now fully equipped with a special hydraulic lift that makes it easy to move big cows in and out the vehicle. Of course all these animals eat a lot and we have a huge store just to keep their dry food in which we are blessed to have regularly replenished by kind donations.
Over the years we have seen the number of cats needing rescue rise dramatically. This is great news as it means more and more people are caring for the cats in their areas and reporting to us if they are sick or injured. Due to this rise we built an amazing cat house that is completely secure but also comes with its own tree! We also have a ‘cat garden’ where those cats who are staying with us long term or permanently can go to exercise, stretch and lay in the sun.
Some dogs we rescue need long term care to help them walk again, to help them put on weight, to help them recover from big surgeries and any other number of reasons. We have 30 Kennels specifically for those dogs where we have full time nurturing staff who react to their every need making them stronger and their lives happier. Some dogs are simply too old to return to the streets so once they have recovered from their injury or illness, they get to live out the rest of their days in our peaceful ‘golden oldies garden’ where they have food delivered, warm sand to lay on and our team ready to ensure they are medically comfortable for the rest of their days. We also have a ‘healing garden’ which is a quiet, relaxed area where dogs who will become our sanctuary dogs get time to adapt slowly to life outside again without having to meet all the other sanctuary dogs all at once!
Every dog that comes to TOLFA is sterilised and vaccinated for rabies before they return back to the street. TOLFA has 2 kennel blocks – one with 22 kennels and one with 21 kennels that are for dogs that are specifically caught for Animal Birth Control (ABC) and anti rabies only. Each dog is usually caught the night before the operation and then they stay a minimum of 3 day’s post operatively so that we can make sure that they are fully fit before they are released. We usually keep 2 dogs from the same area in each kennel so that they have some company for the duration of their stay. Our prep room and operation theatre are 2 of our oldest buildings but our operation theatre has been extended and refurbished in recent years. Our operation facilities are regularly de contaminated due to the high throughput of operations on average 15 operations per day.
Once word of our good work and high standard or medical care spread in the local area (and beyond), it became necessary for us to build a separate dispensary where people could bring their owned animals and pets for veterinary treatment. It was obvious quite quickly that we would also need to build kennels for some of the owned dogs who needed longer term or intensive care and so we built 13 owner dog kennels for these animals. Our dispensary is also home to our Rural Animal Health project where local people can bring their working animals to receive free or subsidised medical care from our doctors and LSA’s. The dispensary has its own operation theatre so that any owned animals can be booked into have an operation or if an emergency operation is needed urgently, then the animal does not have to wait for our other operation theatre to become free. We now also have a new dispensary in the Paharganj area of Ajmer city.
Of course, no hospital can run with only kennels and animal enclosures and there is an immense amount of work that has to take place every day behind the scenes. During the winter months we need to wash over 250kg of blankets every day to ensure that all the animals are warm and comfortable at all times. Food has to be prepared to feed 600+ animals twice a day – without mentioning extra feeding for those that need it.
Over the years we have become a sanctuary to many animals that cannot be released back to their areas due to an ongoing disability, age or needing intermittent medical care. Walking through our compound on any day, you will see all species of animals with a leg missing, who are blind, who bounce (after effects of distemper) or who walk with a funny walk. All of them so happy still, they are a constant reminder of why we do the work that we do, despite how difficult it can be.
With such a busy hospital and shelter, a multitude of records need to be kept, accounts attended to, medicines dispensed, buildings maintained and a hundred other activities every day. And this is not just a day job…. we have five staff families who live on site in TOLFA provided accommodation to ensure that any animals that need attending to through the night or any new emergencies coming in, receive the care they need promptly. We also have a night security guard to ensure the safety of the hospital 24/7. Our staff worked together to build a multi-faith temple where every morning the sound of prayer can be heard from across the whole of the hospital and where at any time people of any background can sit quietly to grieve, to pray or to give thanks.
