Left alone in the middle of rubble and boulders, the pet dogs and cats at Mundakkai and Chooralmala are reluctant to eat or leave the place, prompting the team of veterinarians to mull using dog catchers to rescue them to safety.

Over the past three days, a team of veterinarians from the Animal Husbandry Department, animal rescue organisations and members of the Indian Veterinary Association have taken turns to trudge kilometres to reach farms and houses in search of animals that may need help. While they were able to shift cows from houses to temporary shelters, the dogs and cats which had lost their owners seldom come near them.

“We go prepared with dog food and cat food. Even when we offer chicken biriyani, the dogs do not come to us. They keep sniffing around the debris, they won't leave the place. May be they sense the spot where the house would have stood and they move around the debris, probably looking for their owners. It's evident that they belonged to single owners and they are in shock. Without food and water, they are in a bad shape. We hope to deploy dog catchers so that they can be taken to shelters where we can feed and treat them,” said Dr Sharmadha, Veterinary Surgeon, Veterinary Dispensary, Moopainad who is part of the team. Sharmadha who had earlier worked at Meppady panchayat said that many of the households here had dogs, cats and cows and people loved animals here.

Some of the owners had locked calves and dogs in bathrooms hoping that they could come back some day. In some areas the houses had vanished. The vets were able to rescue some animals which were locked up inside bathrooms. These animals are being shifted to temporary shelters. “We also came across a puppy which was found alone in the front yard of a house partially damaged by the landslide. It had grown weak. We treated the animal, gave food and took it to a camp,” said Dr Jayaraj K, General Secretary, Indian Veterinary Association.

Two days ago, a group of vets, livestock inspectors accompanied by rescue volunteers and fire and safety officials took a risky trip to a farm at Punchirimatt. Harnessed by safety ropes, the vets crossed a swollen stream using a wooden pole laid across the water, walked nearly five kilometres to take medicines, food and water to a farm with 23 high-yielding cows. Two cows had fallen into a cow dung. Although scuba divers with fire safety wing managed to rescue the cows, one of them was dead. Another cow had high fever and without being milked, other cows had developed mastitis; inflammation of the udder.

“We wanted to reach that farm somehow and we took that risk. We could provide medicines to the cows and our volunteers milked the cows and drained it much to the relief of cows. They were in pain. It was raining heavily and fire force officials supported us,” said Dr Sreehshitha, a vet with the mobile farm aid unit, Meenangadi. Every day, the team traverses long distance to reach the farm with medicines as translocating 23 cows on a tricky terrain across a river is a tough task.

The villagers who have survived are coming forward to adopt animals which are being rescued by the team. “We went in search of a farmer and family and his cows and we found that they all were dead. However, we could rescue two cows from a house and we could transport them to a temporary facility. We have informed the owner,” said Dr Sharmadha