Sandip Karan- Doctor of Street Dogs
By Kashik Sengupta-This story centres around a man, Sandip Karan, whose love for street dogs knows no bounds.
His home-cum-kennel houses 40 street dogs that are mostly sick. Some have lost their legs, some suffer from liver ailments and some have cancer, but they are treated with a rare care and compassion by this self-taught veterinarian who learned his lessons while assisting veterinary surgeons for years.
Now confident enough to successfully perform surgeries, Sandip Karan is lucky to have found assistants in his mother Saraswati and wife Moumita. He says he is not doing any charity but only his duty. He does not believe in chaining the animals or caging them. They are left free to roam around and take rest in any
part of his house. Quite popular in his locality in Kolkata as the ‘street dog doctor’, Sandip loves to cook food for his four-legged patients. When called to treat a street dog in a faraway place, he sometimes brings home his ‘patient’ if the situation demands ‘hospitalisation’. He ensures its safe journey to the place it came from after recuperating.
Massive numbers of street dog in his area is dying due to the liver problem. Dogs are many people's best friends, so an ailment is as crushing to you as it is harmful to your best buddy.
Liver failure is one of those ailments that causes extreme harm to your dog, and if not taken care of properly, liver failure may even cause death.
According to Dog Health Guide, there are nine signs of liver failure in dogs. These signs include jaundice, which is the yellowing of the dog's eyes, vomiting, lethargy, appetite and weight loss, diarrhoea and an increase in drinking and urination. However, the aforementioned symptoms may not appear until the advanced stage of liver failure.
He has, till date, treated around 2500 street dogs in his own locality and around. Half of his patients had cancer–those having vincristine cancer have been cured. Not all his neighbors take kindly to his work though, he had to face their wrath on many occasions. However, that does not prevent him from dreaming
of a house (he does not want to call it a shelter) for his loved ones. He is trying to raise funds for his NGO, Concern for Animal and Environment.
Dogs are left free to roam around and take rest in any part of Sandip Karan’s
house.
house.
Sandip Karan carries a patient home for treatment.
A young patient is given a bath by Sandip.
A patient injured by a fast-moving car recovers at Sandip Karan’s house after an operation.
Saraswati, Sandip’s mother, prepares food for all the patients.
Sandip Karan and his wife Moumita administer anti-rabies vaccine to a street dog.
Sandip Karan administers distemper vaccine to a dog during one of his housecalls. Canine distemper is a viral disease that affects animals living with families.
Courtesy: Kaushik Sengupta, Social Documentarary Photographer
