Adopt a Dog or Cat in Chennai

Where to adopt in Chennai

• Blue Cross of IndiashelterAdoptionRescueSterilisation

  Working from Eldams Road in Alwarpet since 1964. Their site reports 336,663 rescues and 108,068 adoptions since 1959, and describes shelters at Guindy in Chennai and at Todukkadu and Kunnam near the city housing over 500 residents, alongside a hospital that admits 30 to 40 animals a day.

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• Besant Memorial Animal DispensaryshelterAdoptionRescueSterilisation

  Run by the Theosophical Society at Besant Gardens in Adyar. Their site says BMAD has been caring for animals since 1968, keeps more than 150 animals in permanent care and treats over 2,000 outpatients a month, with an in patient unit for homeless dogs and cats needing long term monitoring plus surgical, large animal and wildlife units.

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• SANS Animal Welfare TrustrescueAdoptionRescueSterilisation

  Based at Kil Ayanambakkam with a second address in Kodambakkam. Their site says the trust grew out of the rescue of an abused Labrador in 2017, reports more than 1,585 rehoming cases, and states that adopters get food, supplies, vaccination, sterilisation and veterinary care free for the first year.

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• Madras Animal Rescue SocietyshelterRescueSterilisation

  Their site says MARS started in March 2019 and runs Daaman, a shelter at Krishnan Karanai village near Tiruporur for diseased, paralysed and older dogs, with around 140 dogs in care. It also lists street dog sterilisation and vaccination drives and support for corporation pounds. The shelter sits well outside the city, so factor in the drive, and adoption is not described on the site, so ask.

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• Prithvi Animal Welfare SocietyshelterSterilisation

  Covering Chennai and Chengalpattu. Their site describes Nalam, a shelter housing over 400 animals, a feeding programme, treatment for sick and injured street animals, and a high volume sterilisation facility. It states plainly that it does not take emergency rescue calls, so ring one of the rescue groups for an emergency. Adoption is not described on the site, so ask.

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What the list shows for Chennai

3 of 5 state that they rehome animals. 4 also do rescue work, which means they are the number to ring about an animal on the street rather than only about adopting one. 5 run sterilisation alongside it. They are a mix of shelter, rescue, and those are genuinely different operations rather than different words for the same thing.

Your first fortnight in Chennai

Three things are worth booking in the first fortnight, and none of them is the one people usually rush to buy. Chennai makes all three straightforward.

• •A vet in the first week, before anything is wrong. We list 6 after hours options in Chennai, of which 3 state round the clock cover. The point of going early is that you meet the staff and they meet the animal, which is what you want established before a bad night.
• •Sterilisation, if it has not already been done. We list 4 low cost or subsidised providers in Chennai, and several run free programmes for street animals that will also take an owned pet.
• •An enzymatic cleaner rather than phenyl. Phenyl smells clean to you and smells like a marked spot to the dog, which is why the same corner keeps happening. It matters more with a rescue than with a puppy, because a dog that has lived outdoors has no reason to think your floor is different from any other ground.

People expect a rescue to be untrained and usually find the opposite. What a street dog lacks is not the instinct but a surface indoors that resembles anything they have used before.

What adopting actually involves, the questions worth asking, and every city we cover.

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