About us

WVS India International Centres

WVS Centre in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu and the WVS Hicks Centre in Bardez, Goa are run by WVS India, a charitable Indian trust that was registered in 2010 on the firm foundation that IPAN (India Project for Animals and Nature) had already achieved in the animal welfare field. WVS India is recognised by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).

The WVS ITCs focus in providing practical training courses for veterinarians, animal handlers, veterinary assistants and project managers in various aspects of animal health and welfare. A major emphasis of our work is in high quality spay/neuter (animal birth control) & rabies control–programs and in empowering veterinarians from all around India as well as from other countries to work in these projects to effectively and humanely control dog populations for the welfare of dogs and humans. We believe in improving animal welfare by veterinary skills development, inspiration and advice.

Since the inauguration of the first WVS ITC in 2010, we have built an excellent reputation as a centre of excellence providing small animal surgery experience programmes in India. We are also known for our team of skilled and motivated animal handlers and veterinary assistants, who have been working in some of the biggest rabies control campaigns across India with Mission Rabies.

We believe in encouraging veterinarians to commit in lifelong learning and continuous professional development to stay updated of the current trends, debates and techniques that are relevant and important for the improvement of animal health and welfare in their countries. We work together with veterinary colleges across the world to provide practical skills for vet students and programmes conducted by our experienced vet trainers as resource personnel for veterinary colleges, especially in the developing countries (e.g. in Nepal). We aim to work together with government bodies, ensuring sustainability of our activities for the benefit of human and animal health and welfare, the One Health-concept.

Mission Rabies Goa

As is the case across most of India, Goa suffered the consequences of rabies circulating in the roaming dog population, with human deaths occurring where people did not get vaccinated following a bite from a rabid dog.

There have been no human deaths from rabies for over two years due to a campaign by the Government of Goa to control the disease, in collaboration with Mission Rabies Goa. Over 4,00,000 doses of rabies vaccine have been delivered to dogs in Goa since 2013 in the largest continuous rabies control effort to have ever taken place in India. The campaign aims to get most dogs in the state vaccinated against rabies every year, to educate all children about the risk of rabies through lessons in schools and to increase testing for the disease through widespread public reporting of any possible rabies case across the state.

The state of Goa was declared a RABIES CONTROLLED AREA through the notification issued by the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services (AH&VS). The Government of Goa is the first state in India to make such a declaration for rabies control.

Mission Rabies is a project of WVS India, focusing on three areas of work:

Mass dog vaccination

We use a combination of vaccination methods to try to reach as many dogs as possible for vaccination.

Catch-vaccinate-release: These door-to-door teams are then followed up by larger catch-vaccinate-release vaccination teams using nets to catch and vaccinate dogs that cannot otherwise be handled for vaccination. Once caught in the net, each dog is vaccinated, marked with a non-toxic paint and released unharmed. In this way we can immunise a high enough proportion of dogs to eliminate rabies.
Door-to-door vaccination: First, our teams of two vaccinators travel through a region going door-to-door, focusing on the dogs which can be held for vaccination by hand, either by their owner, a member of the community or by themselves. All owners are provided with a vaccination certificate and a free dog-collar to show that the dog is vaccinated.
Treatments: Our vaccination teams also serve to uphold the welfare of roaming dogs by coordinating with local NGOs to treat any dogs with wounds or injuries. Our teams help around 150 dogs per year that would otherwise suffer from chronic injuries.

Community education about rabies

A community education programme moves ahead of the vaccination teams to educate communities about the risk of rabies and how to stay safe around dogs.

This includes a school education campaign which conducts classes for children in schools on a rotating basis. These lessons run for 15 – 30 minutes per class and include a presentation, quiz and theatre to engage with children and make them aware of life-saving knowledge about the risk of rabies. Around 1,400 schools are visited each year, reaching around 170,000 children.

The education programme also delivers sessions to community groups and workers unions to ensure that rabies is top of people’s concerns following any dog bite and to encourage the community to help get as many dogs vaccinated as possible when the vaccination teams come to their area.

Enhanced rabies surveillance

The community have an essential role in reporting any dog seen with possible signs of rabies to the Goa Rabies Hotline (7744029586).

Please ensure you report any dog showing signs of:

Sudden death (including dead dogs you see in the road)
Abnormal aggression – biting other dogs and people
Neurological signs (walking as if drunk)
Saliva drooling from the mouth

Working equine welfare clinics

Working donkeys are the lifeblood of rural economies in many developing countries, serving important roles in transportation and labour. Due to lack of access to veterinary care and extremely challenging work environments the donkeys are often subject to major welfare issues.

In India, donkeys are usually used for carrying sand from river bed, transporting wood and other goods along hilly terrains and also for helping dhobis to carry washed and unwashed clothes. Poor condition of the roads they travel, the heavy burdens they bear, the makeshift harnesses, combined with inadequate feed and medical attention contribute to a life of misery for many working donkeys.

Many unconventional techniques are carried out by the owners themselves in an attempt to help the donkeys, but often these practices cause more pain and discomfort than good. Applying hot iron branding to lame and injured legs to facilitate walking, slitting of nostrils to improve breathing while going uphill, tipping of ear to remove infected blood when the donkey is suffering some illness or if he/she had a snake bite, ear cropping for identification and beautification are some of the cruelties inflicted upon donkeys by their owners out of sheer ignorance.

These harmful practices could be prevented with improved access to veterinary care and animal health knowledge, raising awareness of the donkeys’ welfare and building a good rapport with the owners. This is what the WVS India working equine welfare project is working on. We often also include veterinary students to attend our clinics to provide them exposure in the welfare of working animals.

Tourist riding horses in popular tourist destinations such as in Ooty or Kodaikanal or Mysore are another group of working equines that often don’t have access to timely veterinary care. WVS India working equine monthly clinics also provide routine veterinary care, such as deworming, tetanus vaccinations, hoof trimming and teeth rasping for these horses. Stallions are surgically castrated by WVS India equine team to make them easier to handle. As part of this work with the tourist riding horses, we have also arranged specialist farriery skills workshops for the horse owners, teaching them some important basics of good routine hoof care.

In Ooty the WVS India equine team also attends to emergencies, such as colic due to eating plastic rubbish from the roadside rubbish bins or traumatic injuries due to road traffic accidents. These are very common since many of these horses don’t have proper stables or any kind of sheds where to stay when not in use but they are left to roam on the roadsides, falling often victim of traffic accidents and gradually losing condition because of inadequate feeding. Along with the Nilgiris SPCA WVS India has been pushing for more sustainable change in the fate of these tourist riding horses by requesting the authorities to ban the use of ex-racehorses in tourist riding use.

How you can help

Support from individuals like you is very important to help us to carry on with our work.

All donations to WVS India are income-tax deductible under the 80G Indian income tax Act. There are also many ways you can help by donating useful supplies, for example; food for the dogs, blankets, towels, feeding bowls, monthly diesel allowance for our dog catching vehicle, medicine and surgical materials, instruments, furniture to the staff quarters, stationary/office supplies, new shoes for our staff...

WVS India accounts are audited by John Mathews & Co, chartered accountants.

2022-2023 audited accounts
2021-2022 audited accounts
2020-2021 audited accounts
2019-2020 audited accounts
2018-2019 audited accounts
2017-2018 audited accounts
2016-2017 audited accounts

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