In order to start a unit of People For Animals in your area, the first step is to become a PFA member (Life Member / Working Member).
Start making the Board: You need a minimum of six board members who will help to run your PFA unit. Enroll them as members and send us their names, age, address, phone number, professions. One of you will be the member in charge. These 6 members will have to send us their forms and fees.
Once you are recognized (when you get the board approval from Smt. Maneka Gandhi), you will be authorized to open a bank account and make letterheads. After approval you can also keep the rest of the membership money in your own PFA bank account.
Each PFA member must have an ID card, therefore every month, you need to send new members list to our head office, and we will issue ID cards to your new members. We also update New Members details into the Head Office computer.
Identify a bank in which you will start the PFA bank account. For approval, send us complete bank details and the names of the two board members who will jointly operate this account.
Note: Some Bank(s) required PFA Trust deed. That will be sent to you if needed
Send the completely filled form to our Head Office along with covering letter that you wish to make a PFA unit.
People For Animals
14, Ashoka Road,New Delhi - 110001
Emergency Procedure
- If needed we will send a list of PFA members in your area. Begin by calling a meeting of all members as well as all those in the area interested in animal welfare-- put up notices in clubs, markets, schools, colleges etc. Choose your core team. Identify the major areas of cruelty in your area and divide the group into working teams handling different projects such as animal rescue work, adoption, government liaison, publicity, fundraising, school contact programmes, and recruitment and so on.
- Choose one major campaign. No matter what campaign is chosen, the immediate rescue of animals is the first priority. Involve a vet in your group who will come in regularly to treat animals, hold First Aid camps, and teach others how to treat animals. Do not organise any painting, drawing, posters and sloganeering contests etc as these do not help a single animal. PFA must concentrate on real work that directly benefits animals. Each group has to decide what to do and we will help accordingly. The basic necessity is a shelter/vet to help animals in trouble now. Ask your group to take in strays off the streets, find a place where they can be housed and fed, vaccinate them and get them adopted.
- Identify land that can be donated or allotted for a PFA shelter/ hospital. Apply to the DM or look out for private donors. Get the land registered in PFA's name.
- Make sure each member has a copy of the laws when he goes to complain about animal cruelty to the police. You should hold workshops about the rules. Each member should always carry the ID card with him so that he can take action when required. Areas the PFA should look into are zoos, butchers shops, circuses and overloading of animals in trucks
- Once you have established your work, we will give you permission to apply for independent registration as People for Animals .
- Each unit has to make a monthly report of work they have done during that month. The unit which has done the most work during the year gets a cash prize for being the best PFA unit in the country as does the individual who has made the largest contribution towards animal welfare.
- Every PFA member is expected to be effective at the local level and to act as their own organizer getting in touch with other members to carry out programmes as needed. PFA expects your contribution in terms of what you do for animals yourself. Your membership fee/donation only helps to spread the message to motivate more people.
Here are some suggestions about the many ways you can help animals
- Actual help. Rescuing animals that need help in the city and taking them to a vet. Start a campaign called Adopt an Indian Dog. Set an example by taking a dog from the street into your own home. I have 14 such dogs. If one in 50 people adopted an Indian dog, there would be no street dogs left to suffer so miserably.
- You can start your own shelter either in someone's house/garage or vacant land and get a vet to treat the animals. You must feed and look after them and try and find them homes.
- Make copies of the animal laws pamphlet that we send, translate it into the local language and then give it to the police and to as many people as you know so that people can start taking action against cruelty.
- If there are any schools with mini zoos in them these have to be closed down as it is illegal to keep animals in schools. If there is any zoo being run check the state of the animals and then contact the director and adopt the zoo, make better enclosures, see that the animals are fed and kept properly and that there is a doctor.
- Give grain and water to the birds daily. Put out cooked rice, bajra or chana in your lawn/balcony or rooftop along with a bowl of clean water.
- Stop eating meat as each meat eater is responsible for the murder of 300 animals a year in the most cruel fashion.
- Do not go to circuses, zoos or other forms of "entertainment" that exploit animals for profit. The only times you can go is as civil society inspectors to see the treatment of animals.
- Teach people simple first aid. Hold classes with a vet and show children what to do when they come across an animal in trouble. You can get my books First Aid For Animals (Rs 60) Sterling House, L-10 Green Park Extension, New Delhi-110016.
- Plant large numbers of fruit bearing and shady trees so that birds have something to eat and nest in.
- Stop people from throwing their food leftovers in plastic bags as many animals, including cows, eat the plastic and die.
- If you have not made a group, give donations to animal welfare groups that are working with animals.
- Catch & Report people who sell wild animals or birds to the police and see that the animal/bird is released back into the wild. Under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 the offender has to be jailed for not less than 5 years and fined. Make small groups that regularly go to markets and see if wild animals or their parts are being sold. If you see birds or small animals such as mongoose/snake/lizard sold, confiscate these immediately and have the seller arrested. Birds are often smuggled through the trains. Inform the stationmaster that if you catch any consignment of birds you will put a case on him. Put a poster in the railway station saying that any information regarding any bird loading on the trains will be monetarily rewarded. Make friends with the loaders. Also keep an eye on the bus stops.
- There are many horses/camels and donkeys that need medical help. Organize weekly/twice weekly camps at a fixed place so that owners can bring their animals for treatment or you can take a vet, medicine and food to tanga stands/stables area-wise every week.
- Since Dissection has been banned for each school as per the order issued by the CBSE, it is important one group visits schools informing the principal and the students. Failure to do so can lead to contempt of court. Enclosed is the order & list of the alternatives. Some states have not banned dissection in their schools. However under the court orders, these dissections have to be made optional.
- Milkmen give their cattle Oxytocin injections. These are extremely painful for animals and the milk is very harmful for humans. It is illegal under the Food and Drug Adulteration Prevention Act to give these injections. Find out from the milkmen and then inform the police and the people buying the milk and have the dairy closed down.
- Make sure that no cattle are loaded onto trucks. Under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act & Rules, no trucks can carry any animal unless they have a permit from the Animal Welfare Board in Chennai or its representative. Any truck without this permission can be confiscated. Even with permission the truck cannot carry more than 4 cows and 2 calves. It must have a first aid kit, enough food and water for the journey and a medical certificate for the animals. No cattle can be taken across state lines for the purpose of slaughter.
- Animals such as cattle and horses are kept very badly in the villages. You can hold village camps for giving medicine and educating the villagers on how to load the animal and how to keep it well. Dogs in villages often have mange or fleas. These can also be easily treated. Tie up with the local animal husbandry department and have one camp a month.
- Madaris/kalandars with monkeys, bears, snakes, mongooses are breaking the Wildlife Protection Act and the Beggary Act. Have them arrested under both Acts and take the animals away. Monkeys and bears will have to go to a shelter/zoo, and snakes and mongooses can be released at once in a wooded area.
- Animal Sacrifice is not only illegal, it is immoral. If you know of any animal sacrifices in the area, start working with the local villagers, panchayat and administration to change the sacrifice to an offering of coconuts and pumpkin. If you want the details on how to change the systems, we have a manual which can be sent to you.
- Start a Kindness Club in a school. The brochure for the Kindness Club is available with us. The school should give an annual prize for the most humane child.
PFA is the largest animal welfare organization in India . Our members work against local cruelties. They try and stop illegalities like wild animal and bird markets, cow slaughter, madaris with performing animals, mini zoos, dissection in schools and other such forms of animal abuse. They run shelters and adoption programmes for sick and stray animals.
Each one of our groups is doing different things, apart from their day to day activity, which should be to look after needy animals; PFA Chandigarh runs a shelter, an ambulance and a clinic; PFA Calcutta runs a mobile clinic for sick animals, a cattery, an ambulance and holds weekly horse and cattle treatment camps; Dehradun PFA does the ABC programme ; Bombay PFA has won a case banning camels on the beaches; PFA Goa has won a case banning bull-fighting, runs the state shelters and has stopped dog killing all over the state; PFA Chennai has taken over the Municipal Dog Pound and has its own shelter; PFA Bangalore runs an ambulance, does wildlife rescue and has a wildlife rescue centre; PFA Guwahati has a shelter and stops dogs from being taken to Nagaland to be eaten. PFA Sirohi organises first aid camps for camels in villages and provides fodder for drought-affected animals; PFA Bhubaneshwar rescues cyclone-affected animals besides regular first aid camps; PFA Ghaziabad checks illegal transportation of cattle by rail. PFA Mysore has stopped animal sacrifices in the area..PFA Pune catches wildlife smugglers. Delhi does daily wildlife raids and responds to cruelty complaints. Many of our units work with municipalities to run the sterilization programmes.