After spending time in Palolem South Goa, India and returning for the second time the hardest thing to deal with was not leaving the idyllic, beautiful palm tree lined paradise but leaving all the beach dogs behind knowing that they may not make it through the monsoon season. Many of these dogs are cared for by the thoughtful and kind people who run the restaurants and tourists who flock there during the busy season are always feeding and giving water to them. But as the season comes to an end many of those dogs wander around in desperate need of food, water and shelter. And as a human being it is really hard to deal with.

My first time in Palolem (March 2007). I befriended a beautiful, but a little on the skinny side dog, who we named ‘Preeti’ because of her beautiful green eyes. She wasn’t as confident and tough as the other dogs on the beach and was quite shy in begging for scraps. Every morning I would feed her scrambled eggs for breakfast and chicken biriani for lunch and always made sure her hollowed out coconut shell was full of fresh water. I toyed with bringing her back to the UK with me but thought it unfair as I live in a flat. When I returned to Palolem in Dec 2007 the first thing I did was go to the restaurant where I knew she would be…I was told by a friend that nobody had seen her for a few days. I met an English family who had been coming to Goa for 5 years and had looked after ‘Preeti’ when they had been there and the little boy told me she had died 2 days before I arrived, they had called a vet but he didn’t arrive. I was gutted and so sad as I really thought I could have saved her at the cost of probably only a few pounds. My only consolation was that I didn’t see her when she was so sick and I remember her as her beautiful pretty self. It was heartbreaking.

I decided that I would set up a non profitable charity in honour of ‘Preeti’ for all the animals that will be in despair in the monsoon season or need the help even within the season. I contacted the IAR (International Animal Rescue) and was told a once a week clinic in an old chicken shed was set up in Palolem, they had sterilized mostly all the dogs and then closed it down. There is an incredible animal rescue centre in North Goa but I believe it is crucial that there is a place in South Goa for these beautiful creatures too.

India’s medical supplies are very inexpensive and a few pounds can go a very long way in rupees. My intention is to raise as much as I can and return to South Goa in November 09 and set up a small clinic where I can employ a vet to come and check over any animals in need of medical attention and treat them (approx £20,000 per annum) somewhere they can come for food, clean water and shelter and recruit volunteers who want to help. If I can raise enough initially, I plan to purchase a building or some land to build a permanent clinic and set up an adoption centre. (Approx £50,000)

John Hicks the founder from the IAR has very kindly offered me some great advice . As I cannot register this charity in the UK I have set up a business reserve account until I can reach my goal. Even if I did want to register in the UK I would need to show that the donations can reach £5,000 (per annum) or more and until then, my application would be automatically declined.

Looking to the future, I would like to expand this charity and help as many animals in need as possible. When I went on the IAR website and read the following ‘We started work in Goa in 1998 in a small bungalow, operating on the kitchen table. We had volunteer vets from the UK, Holland, Spain and Germany. Animal Tracks is now a fully functional veterinary clinic with a properly built kennel block housing 90 dogs and a purpose built cattery for 50 cats. The clinic has expanded to deal with wildlife and the numerous pigs, goats, cows and water buffalo that suffer from all sorts of ailments as well as coming into contact with cars on the busy roads’ This encouraged and inspired me even more to start this charity.

The following are letters from the founder of the India Animal Rescue in North Goa;

Dear Sam

Alan sent on your list of questions in the hope I might be able to assist you.

Here are just a few quick answers to your questions. However if I can help further please do not hesitate to contact me.

To buy a property in your own name you have to spend 180 days in India in the previous year to qualify or you have to go through an almost impossible application through the Reserve Bank of India which would take about 5 years!

Property to purchase is now getting quite expensive and to set up a small centre I would think 50,000 GBP would be in the region of what you would need to spend to buy something quite small and build something basic.

Depending on how much you do I think again as a ball part figure you would need to raise about 20,000GBP a year employing a fulltime vet. A vet would cost you about Rs3, 000 a year. You would then need a vehicle and at least 2 full time staff to clean kennels, catch and release dogs and to assist the vet.

To raise funds over here you would have to register under the Societies Act and to bring money in from abroad you would have to get registration under the Foreign Currency Regulations Act, which frankly is a nightmare!

There is the possibility of you coming in with us if you were interested which would resolve a lot of problems for you but we would also need to have a workable agreement with you. If you are interested think about it and let me know. We have closed down our temporary centre that we ran for 3 years down in South Goa as it was costing us too much for the benefits it was providing. However we had by that time sterilized most of the strays and we still go down there to do sterilization camps for one or two days at a time.

I hope this has been of some help.

Kindest regards, John Hicks

Dear Sam

Bad news about FCRA having a charitable bank account in the UK does nothing towards resolving the problems! However we can help you with all that I am sure. The problem is that you can not get FCRA registration until you have a society registered here. Even if you wish to go it alone it may be helpful to you to use IAR for the first year to get your funds over and then transfer everything to the new society once it is registered and you have FCRA registration.

If I said Rs3,000 a year my brain was not working, which is normal! I meant to say 3,000 GB Pounds a year.

It would seem that unlike most people who contact us with ideas of setting something up you are really serious. As this is the case I feel it really would be worth your time going to see Alan Knight in Uckfield, East Sussex or at the very least having a long chat with him on the phone.

As regards where we would want you to work if you came in with us, we would want it to be in Palolem as we would love to set up a permanent centre there but just have not got the funds to do it at present.

Anyway do not hesitate to contact me if there is anything we can do. You will get just as much help from us if you decide to come in with us or not. One way or the other we would be delighted to see a centre set up in South Goa.

All the very best, John