Siliguri resident sets aside Rs30K each month for stray dogs

Prashant Acharya, EOI, SILIGURI, 6 May 2017 :Meet Tashi Doma Bhutia of Siliguri who spends around Rs30,000 per month just to take care of stray dogs and those canines abandoned by their owners. This love and affection for the speechless animals by the 29-year-old businesswoman started since childhood when she was about 12.

Tashi has rented a house in ISKCON Mandir Road near for Rs10,000 per month to house 45 street dogs and has three helpers to assist her in looking after the animals.

Tashi, who owns Sambola Food Private Limited that makes momos under the brand name Momo on Wheels, says she has about 45 dogs at the rented house, which doubles as her office, while there are a few of the animals in her manufacturing unit and four at her house.

She says she and her business partner and husband Debayan Biswas sleep with the dogs in a giant bed and take care of them as they would their own children.

Tashi waits till midnight to feed the dogs after people from the neighbourhood started complaining the animals were disturbing them and dirtying the area.

"I feed the dogs under my custody but for the ones who live in the streets I have to wait till the neighbours sleep. I do this because I love dogs. Loving dogs, providing shelter, care and treating them is my passion," said Tashi.

Whenever Tashi steps outside, stray dogs start following her. Tashi says, "Some even try to follow me inside ATM counters, beauty parlours, banks or wherever I go. They guard me and love me too."Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 provides that if any person beats, kicks, overrides, over-drives, over-loads, tortures or otherwise treats any animal so as to subject it to unnecessary pain or suffering, he shall be punishable with fine and/or imprisonment.

Debayan says his wife did not take food for more than a week when a dog died of illness. "My friends and relatives find it strange when they see us sleeping with six dogs in a single bed and taking food together," he said.

Tashi is planning to buy a house with spacious rooms where the couple can live with hundreds of stray and abandoned dogs.