SANJANA MADAPPA, CUPA SECOND CHANCE ADOPTION CENTER

This young woman, along with her team, has rescued 600 dogs in the last four years and re-homed around 450 of them successfully. Meet Sanjana Madappa, who set up the CUPA Second Chance Adoption Center in 2013 because she realized that the city badly needed a place where abandoned and abused dogs could go to heal and then find homes that would treat them well.

The toughest part about what Sanjana does is witnessing the amount of hate and cruelty meted out to the dogs. And while she gets really angry and emotional, in her years of dealing with such cases, she has come to the conclusion that the only effective way forward is to educate people and spread awareness. Changing people’s mind-set and the way they treat animals is one of her top priorities during the process of every rescue. And she wisely adds “This cannot be done by losing ones temper or lashing out at people. It requires patience, a lot of it.”

There are times when things do call for being a little cautious. For instance, she was informed of a lady who was illegally breeding dogs whilst keeping them under terrible conditions. So she and her friend went over with an inspector from the Animal Welfare Board only to be surrounded and threatened by 30 men. They got out safely, thanks to the inspectors, but it was an eye-opener – unless the law changes, there is nothing they can do.

So what keeps Sanjana motivated to do what she does? She says without a moments thought, “The dogs. Their capacity to forgive and forget and live completely in the moment and just love without any conditions. I’m in awe of that.”