KARACHI: Adopt stray animals as pets and not the fancy breeds. Students should be encouraged to volunteer at animal shelters. There should be a vet in every union council of the city. One tries to rescue injured birds but then don`t know what to do afterwards.

These were some of the thoughts that were articulated on Saturday evening at a presentation by ACF, a not-for-profit organisation that has created an emergency service and shelter for stray and injured animals.

Beginning her presentation with shortand long-term goals of the organisation, the ACF founder, Ayesha Chundrigar, told the audience at a restaurant that one of the goals was to encourage people to adopt rehabilitated animals of the shelter rather than going for pedigreed ones.

`We are going to increase the number of donkey camps in partnership with a private pharmaceutical company. We are looking into getting a UAN number for (animal) ambulance service,` she said.

She informed the well-attended gathering that her organIsation was planning to shift their animal shelter currently situated near Toll Plaza on the Super Highway to Gadap town which was being designed by architect and interior designer Zain Mustafa.

Besides, she said, they were planning to build a mini operation theatre, acquire ambulances to transport sick and injured animals to the shelter and a halfway house in a central location in the city where the injured animals could spend the night before they were taken to the animal shelter.

Ms Chundrigar urged the participants to donate their time and money to the cause. `Every day we get calls and receive messages about some animal being run over or dying on the street but at the moment we can only handle two to three cases a day due to limited resources.

Following the presentation the participants came up with suggestions and put forth queries about several aspects of the proposed animal shelter in Gadap town.

A participant suggested creating a `Friends of the ACF` as the organisation`s fundraising branch that could aid its donor-generating activities. Another suggested the organisation should associate itself with the Karachi Municipal Corporation and be involved at local government level to rescue animals from the streets.

A gentleman asked the organisers about the possession of the land where the new animal shelter was being constructed. `If you are going to invest so much in this then the civic bodies may create a problem for your organisation if you do not have the security of the plot,` he asked.

This query was answered by Mr Mustafa who said that they had a written agreement with the owners of the land and assured the people that this was a long-term sanctuary.

`However, the structure is organic that can be folded away and transported to another location,` he added.

Another concerned gentleman wanted to know how the ACF would cope with increasing number of injured animals at the shelter house. To which Ms Chundrigar replied: `The injured stray animals have a weak immune system and they can survive for a maximum of three to four years.

Musician Gumby who was also attending the presentation wanted to know about the sustainability of the animal shelter house as he felt that many such well-intentioned ventures were initiated by people but failed to become sustainable.