Maneka Gandhi urges people to feed stray animals during coronavirus lockdown

Amid the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak, several parts of India have gone into lockdown. Menaka Gandhi has appealed to people to continue to feed stray animals so that they do not end up an unforeseen casualty of the lockdown. According to reports, thousands of stray cats and dogs in India depend on daily markets, restaurants and people for food but these are all closes and absent during the lockdown.

'Feed the Strays'

As per reports, keeping exactly this in mind Bhartiya Janata Party leader and former Women and Child Minister Maneka Gandhi recently released a statement wherein she asked Indians to feed as many stray animals as possible so as to help them survive. In her statement, she said that street dogs, cats and cows can not give coronavirus to humans and during a lockdown, if they are not fed, they will die which will create more problems.

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Taking to Twitter, she asked her followers to show compassion and feed even the pigeons during the lockdown. She asked the people to do as much good as they can.

The Animal Welfare Board of India has also issued an advisory to all chief secretaries of states and Union Territories in India. The advisory asked the state to allocate a time when designated workers and volunteers would provide food and water to strays and deemed it an ‘essential service’.

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The board also advised states and Union Territories to hold awareness campaigns. The board also advised law enforcement to ensure that animals do not suffer due to hunger during COVID-19 lockdown. Worldwide, more than 380,000 people have been infected and more than 16,000 have died. Over 102,000 have recovered, most of them in China.