GBA has launched a Veterinary Ambulance Service to provide immediate medical assistance to injured, sick and abandoned animals across the city. Emergency support to stray dogs, cats, cattle, birds and other animals is needed in the case of road accidents, electrocution, abuse, or illness.
The service will be a pilot project in the East Bengaluru city limits and will be used as the model of emergency veterinary care for the entire city in the future.
Bengaluru, one of India’s fastest-growing metropolitan cities, has a large population of community animals and urban wildlife. Thousands of stray animals and birds get injured in car accidents every year, are stuck in dangerous environments or get sick from not receiving veterinary treatment soon enough.
The need for an emergency response system for animals well organized on the ground to respond quickly to it has long been under discussion by animal welfare organisations and volunteers and the new veterinary ambulance service is meant to remedy that.
Like traditional veterinary clinics, where animals need to be transported to hospitals, the new mobile veterinary clinic will move to the site of the emergency immediately. The ambulance is equipped with all the necessary medical equipment, medicines, first-aid supplies, and emergency treatment facilities which will allow veterinarians to provide urgent care on-site. This is a very effective method of treatment and improves survival chances for injured or critically ill animals.
The veterinary ambulance will be able to serve stray dogs, cats, cattle, birds and other community animals that need urgent medical care. The service will be beneficial to birds injured after coming into contact with overhead electrical wires and animals injured in road accidents which are common in densely populated urban areas.
To efficiently run the mobile veterinary unit, every mobile veterinary unit will be manned by qualified veterinary doctors, veterinary assistants and trained animal handlers. They will help the ambulance to respond to a range of emergency situations from fractures and trauma in the emergency situation, to dehydration and wounds for the emergency vehicle, to infections, rescue and transport of animals that need the latest treatment at veterinary hospitals.
The initiative was initiated because people and animal lovers are increasingly unable to get veterinary treatment for stray animals and community animals. In many cases, injured animals were left untreated because one or more veterinary facilities were not available or transportation arrangements were not made in time to take care of them. The new mobile clinic will remove these hurdles by providing professional veterinary care right in the vicinity of the animal where the disease occurs.
The Greater Bengaluru Authority has also established multiple channels through which residents can request emergency assistance. Anyone who finds injured, sick or distressed animals or birds anywhere in the pilot project area can immediately contact the veterinary emergency helpline.
Complaints can be registered by calling the dedicated helpline number 1533 or through the municipal control room at 9480685706. Residents can also report emergencies on the official mobile app to help the response teams find the animals in distress and dispatch an ambulance in minutes.
Animal welfare activists and volunteers have welcomed the initiative as a very important step towards modernizing urban animal healthcare. They believe that the service will decrease unnecessary suffering for the community animals and build collaboration amongst civic authorities, veterinary professionals, rescue organisations and citizens of the same city. Many experts have also suggested that similar ambulance services could be introduced in other cities throughout India to respond to a growing need for organised animal emergency care.
In addition to providing immediate medical treatment, the project should also contribute to public health and urban safety. Good early treatment of injured and diseased animals is important as it prevents the spread of infections, decreases the risk of suffering animals on public roads and allows for humane management of urban animal populations. The programme also signifies Bengaluru as a city that is still in the process of providing better civic services but also is concerned with the animals that are living in the city.
The performance of the pilot project will be closely monitored in the coming months, officials said. Based on public response, emergency call volume, operational efficiency, and treatment results, the Greater Bengaluru Authority can expand the veterinary ambulance network to additional areas throughout Bengaluru. This would make one of the country’s largest municipal emergency veterinary response systems.
The veterinary ambulance service is one of the first steps toward ensuring that injured and vulnerable animals receive timely professional care without delay. As it is the first time that the Greater Bengaluru Authority has integrated rapid response with veterinary professionals, friendly assistance from the government and emergency services and mobile treatment facilities, it will have an impact on the wellbeing of the city’s animals and birds and the community’s involvement in animal rescue and care.
