Dog sterilisations and rescue operations may be suspended

Auroville’s Dog Shelter is facing a breakdown of its services, a crisis directly triggered by a recent decision by the AVF auditors to ban crowdfunding in Auroville. This ban eliminates nearly half of the shelter’s vital income, leaving the shelter with a massive budget shortfall. A petition signed by over 1,000 residents and animal lovers demanding that the monthly budget be increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 3.5 lakhs has been ignored since last year. Unless a solution is found quickly, the shelter will have to suspend its highly successful sterilisation project, which aims to sterilise 1,000 dogs per year and has already helped hundreds.