The Mother of Stray Animals

Meet Roshni D’Silva: The Animal Lover Who Starts Working At 4 In The Morning For The Safety Of Stray Animals.

Born and brought up in Dubai, Roshni D’Silva is an animal lover since childhood and has been helping stray animals for 15 years now. This young lady has led over 10,000 animals to a healthier, safer and better life all by herself. After pursuing animal management course in the UK, she now volunteers at Karuna Society.

How does she do it?

Her regular day starts at 4 am every morning with a big backpack that contains food and medicines, as she goes to various corners of the village to look after street dogs and cats. And when, even after a long morning some animals are left unattended, she visits them in the later hours of the day to make sure each one of them receives equal attention.

The process starts with winning trust of the animal by giving him some biscuits. And when she starts getting friendly vibes from him, she goes closer and holds him. Later on, if the animal is slightly injured, she treats him on the road, while severely injured animals are taken back to Karuna Society for further treatment.

“Well, it is difficult to understand them. Sometimes the animals might wag their tail but it isn’t necessary that they are open for a personal encounter with you. So you have to be really careful while dealing with them. I have been bitten quite a lot of times too,” she says.

The impact of her work reflects on the attitude of the people. “Earlier they would hardly care about stray animals and would shoo them away. But now, when they see me working so closely with these animals, they have started showing compassion too,” she says.

People have become more cooperative and her phone keeps ringing all day with people seeking her help.

The challenges

She says that every dog is different and should be dealt with differently. “You have to give them time to adjust,” she says.
She considers herself lucky to have met nice people who always supported her in her work. Apart from a couple of incidents of dog bites and unexpected reactions from the animals, her journey has been smooth and fun.

In the future, she wants to continue this work as she believes there are very few people who are work-ing in the field to help these animals. She aims to involve many more people with her initiatives.

It is people like D’Silva who restore our faith in humanity and make us believe that there is someone to look after even those who are always ignored.