Sep 26, 2026
Sep 26, 2026
Why Humanity Must Create an Animal Welfare Fund
When an animal starves in a world capable of exploring distant planets and developing artificial intelligence, is it a failure of nature, or an indictment of human civilization?
We have invented machines that recognize human faces, but have we developed the compassion to recognize hunger in the eyes of an animal?
We can send spacecraft millions of miles into space, yet cannot ensure that a hungry dog outside our home receives a single meal. We have created an economic system in which a pedigree dog commands thousands of dollars, while another dog, born without a pedigree and abandoned on the street, struggles to find a handful of food. The contrast is not merely economic. It is moral.
A hungry animal does not understand wealth, poverty, ownership, or commercial value. It knows hunger. It knows pain. It knows fear.
And when a compassionate human being offers it food, it knows kindness. Perhaps the true measure of civilization is not how much wealth we accumulate or how many technological breakthroughs we achieve, but how we treat those who cannot contribute to our prosperity or demand their rights.
An animal should not have to possess commercial value, a pedigree, or a wealthy owner to deserve food, shelter, and medical care. The time has come for governments to recognize animal welfare as an essential public responsibility and establish a dedicated Animal Welfare Fund to protect abandoned, injured, and neglected animals.
The Hunger We Have Learned ‘Not to See’
Every morning, millions of people begin their day with breakfast. Outside their homes, another world exists. A stray dog searches through garbage. An abandoned cow wanders through a marketplace. An injured animal lies beside a road, unable to compete for food. For these animals, food is not a matter of preference. It is a struggle for survival.
An animal cannot tell us that it has not eaten for two days. It cannot explain that its puppies are waiting for milk or that its injuries prevent it from searching for food. Its suffering is expressed through its weakened body and sometimes through a silence that humanity has become remarkably skilled at ignoring.
India's 2019 Livestock Census recorded approximately 15.3 million stray dogs and 5.02 million stray cattle. Although these are historical figures rather than current population estimates, they reveal the enormous scale of the challenge. These animals need more than occasional charity. They need a reliable system of nourishment, veterinary care, and protection.
Not every free-roaming animal depends entirely on human feeding. However, abandoned domestic animals often inhabit environments shaped by human decisions.
We domesticate them, breed them, sell them, exploit their productive capabilities, and sometimes abandon them when they become inconvenient. Having exercised such enormous power over their lives, can we reasonably claim that their suffering is entirely nature's responsibility? When hunger results from human abandonment or neglect, preventing it becomes a human obligation.
Can Science Invent a ‘Capsule’ That Eliminates Animal Hunger?
Imagine a capsule that could provide an animal with sufficient nutrition and energy for an entire month. A community volunteer could administer it once every 30 days, eliminating the animal's desperate daily search for food. Such an invention would transform animal welfare.
Unfortunately, a tiny monthly capsule capable of replacing normal food is not feasible with existing nutritional science. A moderately active 15-kilogram dog may require approximately 700–900 kilocalories daily. At 800 kilocalories per day, its monthly energy requirement would be approximately 24,000 kilocalories. Even if this energy came entirely from fat, it would require more than 2.6 kilograms of fat, excluding proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water.
A pill that merely suppresses hunger would be dangerous because the animal could remain malnourished without experiencing normal hunger signals. Nevertheless, the underlying humanitarian aspiration deserves serious scientific attention.
Scientists should investigate affordable, nutritionally complete animal food, long-lasting nutritional supplements, safe food-industry byproducts, and automated community feeding stations. Governments could establish research partnerships among veterinary universities, biotechnology companies, animal nutrition manufacturers, and animal welfare organizations.
The objective should not be to make animals forget hunger, but to ensure that hunger never becomes a threat to their survival. If humanity can devote extraordinary scientific resources to making food more convenient for wealthy consumers, why can it not invest comparable ingenuity in making adequate nutrition accessible to animals without purchasing power?
When Animals Become Commodities
There is something profoundly disturbing about an economic system that recognizes an animal's value while it generates revenue but frequently neglects its welfare when that revenue disappears.
A cow produces milk. The dairy industry earns money. But what happens when she grows old and stops producing milk? A breeding dog gives birth to puppies that are sold for substantial sums. But what happens when she can no longer reproduce?
Commercial enterprises may derive enormous economic value from animals, yet the responsibility for abandoned or neglected animals often falls upon underfunded charities and compassionate individuals.
Responsible animal husbandry, ethical breeding, veterinary services, and pet food production can contribute positively to animal welfare. The problem arises when profit is pursued at the expense of humane treatment.
India already regulates commercial dog breeding through the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Dog Breeding and Marketing) Rules, 2017. Yet effective enforcement and financial accountability remain essential.
A business should not retain the profits generated by an animal while transferring the costs of its suffering or abandonment to society. An animal's entitlement to care must not expire with its commercial usefulness.
The ‘Animal Welfare Fund’: Making Compassion a ‘Public Responsibility’
India should establish a dedicated National Animal Welfare Fund, supported by corresponding state and municipal funds. Its purpose should be unequivocal: to provide food, clean water, veterinary treatment, emergency rescue, vaccination, sterilization, and humane shelter for abandoned and vulnerable animals.
The fund could draw upon six principal sources:
Small farmers and low-income animal owners should not bear disproportionate financial burdens. Similarly, legitimate businesses maintaining high welfare standards should not be equated with operators found responsible for cruelty. The objective is not ‘indiscriminate taxation.’ It is ‘proportionate responsibility.’
India's Constitution already identifies compassion for living creatures as a fundamental duty under Article 51A(g). The proposed fund would translate this ethical principle into a practical institutional commitment. Its corpus should be legally protected, transparently administered, and used exclusively for authorized animal welfare purposes. Every rupee should be traceable to a measurable welfare outcome.
Food, Hospitals, Ambulances & Shelters: What the Fund Must ‘Deliver’
The fund's first responsibility should be organized feeding and clean-water facilities for animals that lack adequate nourishment. Municipalities could establish designated feeding locations managed by accredited organizations and trained volunteers. Feeding must be coordinated with sanitation, vaccination, sterilization, and public safety.
The second priority should be accessible veterinary treatment. An injured stray dog should not have to depend on a stranger's financial capacity to receive emergency medical care. Every district should have access to a designated animal emergency facility, supported by mobile veterinary units and accredited hospitals. Dedicated animal ambulances should provide rescue, first aid, and transportation for injured animals. Shelters should prioritize abandoned, disabled, severely malnourished, and medically vulnerable animals.
Healthy community animals should receive appropriate care through humane population-management programs, rather than indiscriminate confinement. India already has animal welfare institutions and financial assistance schemes. The proposed fund should strengthen these existing mechanisms instead of creating unnecessary administrative duplication.
A shelter is not an achievement if its animals remain hungry. An ambulance is not a rescue service if it has no driver, fuel, or functioning veterinary hospital. Success must be measured by animals fed, injuries treated, diseases prevented, and lives protected.
The Economics of Compassion
Consider a hypothetical feeding program serving 10,000 community dogs. At an illustrative daily food cost of Rs.30 per dog, annual expenditure would amount to approximately Rs.10.95 crore.
This excludes veterinary treatment, transportation, shelter, and administrative costs. Actual expenditure would depend on nutritional requirements, local prices, and existing food sources.
Nevertheless, the calculation demonstrates that animal welfare can be translated into measurable public commitments. A city need not promise to eliminate all suffering overnight. It can identify vulnerable animals, establish reliable feeding programs, strengthen veterinary services, and progressively expand coverage.
Animal welfare also has important public health implications. The World Health Organization estimates that rabies causes approximately 59,000 human deaths annually worldwide, with dogs responsible for up to 99% of human rabies transmission.
Vaccination, humane population management, responsible ownership, and public education can protect both animals and human beings. Compassion and public safety are not competing objectives. A responsible government must pursue both.
From ‘Ahimsa to Action’: India's ‘Civilizational Responsibility’
India possesses a profound philosophical tradition of compassion toward living beings.
The principle of ahimsa reminds us that moral responsibility extends beyond avoiding deliberate violence.
The Mahabharata offers a moving illustration. During his final journey, Yudhisthira refuses to enter heaven without the dog that has faithfully accompanied him. He will not purchase his own happiness through the abandonment of a dependent companion. The dog is subsequently revealed to be Dharma.
The lesson is profound. Moral greatness is demonstrated not merely through the treatment of powerful individuals, but through the protection of vulnerable beings who possess nothing with which to reward us. What does this ancient narrative tell modern India?
A society that reveres the cow but permits abandoned cattle to starve must confront the distance between reverence and responsibility. A society that celebrates the loyalty of dogs but abandons them when they become inconvenient must examine the limits of its own loyalty.
Our civilizational inheritance must find expression in everyday conduct and contemporary institutions. Compassion cannot remain confined to scriptures, ceremonies, and speeches while animals continue to suffer outside our homes.
Final Thoughts: When the ‘Last Hungry Animal’ Looks at Us
Imagine a dog lying outside a restaurant late at night. Inside, people enjoy an elaborate dinner. Tables are filled with food. Conversations continue. Outside, the dog waits. It does not understand economics, scientific progress, or the extraordinary technological capabilities of human civilization. It knows only that it is hungry. Eventually, the restaurant closes. The lights go out. The customers leave. The dog remains.
Perhaps someone offers it food. Perhaps nobody does. And somewhere else, another dog waits outside another restaurant. An abandoned cow searches for fodder. An injured animal lies beside a road.
The world continues its extraordinary technological progress. But what does progress mean to a living being whose most immediate need remains unmet? The proposed Animal Welfare Fund is more than a financial instrument. It is an acknowledgment that compassion must become an institutional responsibility rather than remain an occasional charitable gesture. We need not wait for a miraculous nutritional capsule.
We already possess the food, veterinary knowledge, financial resources, and organizational capabilities required to prevent enormous amounts of avoidable animal suffering. What we lack is the collective determination to make their welfare a priority.
A truly compassionate civilization does not wait for the voiceless to demand justice. It recognizes their suffering and acts before they are forced to endure more of it.
Perhaps the day humanity ensures that no abandoned domestic animal is left to starve will represent a ‘greater moral achievement’ than many of the ‘technological breakthroughs’ we celebrate.
For what greater purpose can human intelligence serve than to reduce the suffering of those who cannot save themselves? And when the last hungry animal looks at us, will we finally have an answer worthy of calling ourselves civilized?
26-Sep-2026
More by : P. Mohan Chandran
