Meet the 31-year-old animal activist who tags stray dogs with reflective collars to save them from road accidents

While most statistics only report on the deaths of people, there are also a large number of animals that die due to road accidents. It's not an easy task to keep both domestic or stray animals off the roads, as sometimes they run away, are abandoned, or go in search of food.

To make sure that animals don’t lose their lives, 31-year-old Mangaluru-based animal rescuer Tauseef Ahmed is tagging animals with reflective collars. So far, the the MBA graduate has tagged 400 dogs in the city.

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Tauseef has been working as an activist with the city-based Animal Care Trust (ACT) for a decade now. Speaking to The News Minute, Tauseef said,

Based on my own observations, I gathered that most of these accidents occur during the night time due to the lack of visibility. Especially close to the highway, there is an unaccounted number of deaths of these animals on the road.

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Tauseef spent his own money to buy 500 belts from Indore at a cost of Rs 40 each. These collars illuminate at night when it meets light. A person driving a vehicle can identify dogs with reflective collars from a distance of 50 metres, reports The Logical Indian.

He added,

We have already distributed them to few residents and animal lovers to identify stray dogs and protect them. Inspired by the initiative, few locals have also taken into sponsoring 'stray' animals with belts.

In a conversation with ANI, Tauseef mentioned that the reflective collar project has been in operation for the past one-and-half months.

Besides helping animals with reflective collars, Tauseef also treats injured dogs and has been spending more than 40-50 percent of his salary for the cause. For his initiative, he was awarded the Best Street Care and Rescue’ award at India For Animals (IFA).

Born and raised in Kudremukh, Chikmagalur district, Karnataka, Tauseef was raised to love animals. When he shifted to Mangaluru a decade ago, he witnessed the unfortunate plight of animals, especially dogs.

According to the 19th Livestock Census (Karnataka) in 2012, Dakshina Kannada has the highest number of dogs at 1,46,510.

In addition to dogs, Tauseef wants to now tag cattle, as he is concerned that they might be misused for meat trading.

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