Dharamsala Animal Rescue (DAR) is fortunate to be one of several non-profits selected for India Giving Day 2024!

What is India Giving Day?

“India Giving Day is an initiative of the India Philanthropy Alliance to grow the culture of giving to India in America by making it more visible, impactful, youth-friendly, and joyful.”

This initiative supports vetted non-profits across India working hard to combat social issues and improve the lives of its citizens and animals as well as the environment. India Giving Day aims to highlight the vital work of non-profits, and to provide a space for “collective generosity”. A coming together to encourage the giving of time, money, and resources, it is a day of hope for an India where every living being can thrive.

India Giving Day 2023 was a roaring success and the first. Here’s to 2024 being even better!

Dharamsala Animal Rescue – who are we?

Our mission is to end the human/street dog conflict by creating a humane and sustainable environment for animals with direct benefits to the people of Dharamsala, India.

What do we do?

We provide several key programs to achieve our goals: spay/neuter, rabies vaccination, rescue and adoption, and school/community education for rabies safety and compassion. And we can do none of it without the generosity of people like you. Watch our 2023 recap here.

With or without you

A dog’s life in India is hard. The dog/human conflict is real and dogs undoubtedly struggle WITH humans. And as a result, humans struggle with dogs. But dogs also cannot live WITHOUT humans. Many humans choose to show compassion to them – our staff, our volunteers, our community feeders, our donors, and YOU.

Let us show you what DAR can do WITH YOU by our side. Here are some of our recent success stories.

Kasper (top photos) was rescued in December 2023. He was frighteningly skinny, suffering from mange and tick fever.  Look at him today. WITH YOU, he has gained weight, beaten tick fever, and his fur has grown back. 

Little Sophie (middle photos): Back in November, she was a little skinny puppy with a bare and scabby face due to mange. WITH YOU, she is a healthy, happy pup with a full face of fur. 

Here’s Dhobu (bottom photos). He was rescued in September 2023 during the last of the monsoon season. Dhobu came to DAR with a huge wound filled with maggots on his head. WITH YOU, he is now back to the incredibly handsome dog he always was. 

Without you, DAR’s life-saving work can’t happen for dogs like Kasper, Sophie, Dhobu, and all of the dogs like them. You make all the difference; you save so many lives. And you are often the only thing standing between them and a future.

“We love Dharamsala Animal Rescue!” – meet Chandra

In 2023 we ran 12 education programs in schools where 402 children, along with their teachers, learned how to be safe yet kind to the free-roaming dogs in their community. 

Chandra was one of those children. Speaking to us after the session we ran at her school, she told us she now feels confident to approach dogs in the street, has learned more in depth how not to touch them, and that her family always calls DAR when they see sick or injured animals. Chandra, along with her peers told us they were genuinely excited to the pet the dogs DAR brought along to the school.

Before we wrapped up the interview with her, Chandra added spontaneously “We love Dharamsala Animal Rescue – you’re doing wonderful work for the community”. 

Meet Jojo and Pratibha

62 million dogs are homeless in India, most lacking food, shelter, and medical care. Puppies like Jojo have a slim chance of survival when they are born – mostly like they will be dumped, poisoned, or run over by a car. In 2023 we achieved 1007 sterilizations. We can always improve on this and try to prevent more suffering for our beloved street dogs.

Pratibha Rana, DAR’s passionate and hardworking Director explains why sterilizations and community feeding are so vital to our work:

“Working at DAR has changed my perspective – I realized how important sterilizations are and how the public perspective about stray dogs needs to be changed so that they can get homes. It would be great if people could get more attached to the stray Indian dogs and feed them; feeding makes our sterilization program much easier because we can catch them.

The young generation is much more compassionate and try to feed them, care for them and provide treatments or call NGOs. This was not there earlier, even a few years back. I personally have noticed that dogs seem more healthy, and even friendlier as a result of the mindset changing towards them. Just by feeding dogs and showing a little love, people can change many things. When you start feeding dogs, they become friendlier so are easier to vaccinate and easier to sterilize. So that is the main thing – when you have friendlier dogs, this is directly beneficial to the community and society because it can help prevent diseases such as rabies through vaccination.”

Save the date – 1st March 2024

You can prevent the future suffering of unwanted litters by donating. Just $30 covers the cost of one sterilization – and on India Giving Day your donation will be matched $ for $. Give a gift and save lives. 

$10 full vaccinates one puppy. $50 feeds a shelter dog for 10 days. $100 covers surgeries for hit and run victims.

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