Leo: Our report (3)

Third report

In September 2007, Kolkata was under water for about a week. Sarat Bose Road is one of the worst hit areas. We went to check on Leo after the rain stopped. We saw that Leo was kept in the garage which was wet and he was extremely wet as well. He had developed skin diseases and was suffering from severe cold as his eyes were swollen and completely mucous-filled. On questioning the Malanis (only Mayank Malani was available at that time), he said that the dog was kept inside the premises of the house during the flooding but from what we observed the dog was very wet and bore all the marks of being subjected to severe rains. On asking him to consult a vet as soon as possible, he said that his vet's house was also submerged in water and therefore he couldn't come. He told us that of we wanted, we could bring in another vet and treat the dog with our resources. In the past, we had given him the contact number of another vet and our contact numbers as well but he never called us up to tell us that he needed some other vet to treat Leo immediately.

We went to check on Leo after two days and we saw that he was better, as the skin diseases seemed to have healed and his eyes were no longer mucous-filled. The gardener cum caretaker told us that their vet, Dr. Goutam Mukherjee had treated the dog earlier that day. We went to the police station then and told them about the developments and said that if we do not check on Leo frequently, the Malanis stop taking proper care of the dog. SI Thakur suggested that we contact an NGO and get the dog picked up and re-homed. He put us in touch with an NGO called 'Animal Release and Care'. We met the representatives of this NGO but they informed us that only the CSPCA is empowered to forcefully take away dogs. The representative checked on the dog and said that the dog seemed fit then and thus could not be taken away.

The Malanis stop taking proper care of the dog if we do not check on the dog for 3-4 weeks. They have not kept their promise of shifting him to a damp-free garage and have not installed the fans that they promised that they would.